Four things, done properly

The core of what we do. We come to your house, feed your cat the food you already buy, scoop the box, refresh the water, and then stay a while. The staying is the part that matters. A cat who has been alone since yesterday morning does not need a stranger who is out the door in four minutes.

• Measured feeding from your food, on your schedule
• Fresh water in every bowl and fountain in the house
• Litter boxes scooped, swept around, and topped up
• Fifteen to twenty minutes of play, brushing, or lap time — whatever your cat prefers

For longer trips, the thing that keeps a cat settled is that nothing changes. Same person, same door, same voice, same hour of the day. We do not rotate a roster of contractors through your house — for the whole time you are gone it is Peter or Katie, and usually the one who did your meet-and-greet.

• Everything in a daily drop-in visit, every day you are away
• The same sitter for the whole trip — not a rotating team
• Daily photo updates, so you never have to ask how it is going
• Mail, packages, and newspapers brought in

Plenty of sitters will say they are comfortable with medication and then quietly skip a dose. We would rather tell you exactly what we do and do not take on. If your cat is diabetic, in renal failure, recovering from surgery, or simply eighteen years old and particular, this is a conversation to have at the meet-and-greet, not in a booking form.

• Oral medication — pills, pockets, liquids, transdermal ear gels
• Insulin injections on a fixed schedule
• Subcutaneous fluids for cats already established on them
• Appetite, output, and behavior noted at every visit and reported to you

An empty house on the island announces itself: three days of mail, a can at the curb on Thursday, the same lamp on a timer every night. Because we are already coming by every day, keeping the place looking lived in costs you nothing extra. It is part of the visit.

• Mail, newspapers, and porch packages brought inside
• Trash, recycling, and green waste out and back per the city schedule
• Indoor plants watered to your instructions
• Lights, lamps, and blinds varied — not the same timer pattern every night