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Cats do not adapt well to new people or places. Cats usually do not like being left behind when you leave for a trip. Even a well trained cat can get angry that you left, and express its anger in many ways, such as scratching furniture or failing to use its litter box as it was trained to do. If your cat is allowed to stay outside, it may express its anger by running off and taking up with another household. Cats have minds of their own. They seldom warm up to people instantly. If you want your cat to stay at your home while you're gone, then it is important to choose a sitter that your cat knows. Start making friends with a neighbor or a cat lover who comes to your house from time to time and plays with the cat. If you call on a stranger to sit with your cat, you may be in for some unpleasant surprises, no matter how clean, devoted, and trustworthy the sitter may be. If you take your cat to a friend's house to stay while you are on your trip, the cat may slip out of your friend's house and run away. Cats do not like strange situations. Cats like people they know and people who pet them and play with them. They like people who keep their cat litter boxes clean and who feed them fresh food and give them fresh water. Automatic feeders and automatic water machines do not fool cats. Cats want it fresh. One cat slapped all the food out of its automatic feeder just for the fun of watching the food go down in the feeder. Whether you decide to have a cat sitter come to your home or whether you decide to board your cat somewhere else, it is important to get a copy of a "Cat Sitting Agreement" form which can be found on the internet. Use this for your contract. Cat sitting really is a contract, even with a friend. The form will guide you through the important matters to cover when you meet with a cat sitter. A quality form at a reasonable price is well worth the cost. Some kennels will have a form but it may not cover all of the matters important to you and would not be from the cat owner's point of view. The form you download from the internet can be used over and over again. Meet with the sitter and discuss such matters as the maintenance of the litter box, the food, water, and medications for your cat, the cat's habits, what the sitter charges and what the sitter will do for those charges. Then you and the cat sitter should fill out the form for the cat sitting contract. You can provide in the contract, such information as the cat's vet, and a number where you can be reached while you are gone. You may also include language that limits your liability in the event that the cat should attack the sitter. Give the sitter plenty time to consider the agreement, and even consult with an attorney concerning the cat sitter agreement, if the sitter wishes. Your cat is worth handling its sitting arrangements in a businesslike, legal way.
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