The holiday pet-care checklist (book earlier than you think)

Every professional sitter's calendar has the same shape: quiet shoulders, then a wall of demand from late November through New Year's. If your travel involves those weeks, the single best thing you can do for your pets is book early. Here's the full checklist.

Six weeks out

• Request your dates. Solo sitters can physically hold only a few overnight stays at once — holiday weeks genuinely sell out.
• New client? Schedule the meet & greet now, while calendars are still soft.
• Confirm vaccinations are current — clinics get busy in December too.

Two weeks out

• Stock food, litter, and medications past your return date — nobody wants a specialty-food hunt on December 26th.
• Update your written routine, vet info, and emergency contacts.
• Walk your sitter through anything seasonal: tree-water rules, candle bans, the inflatable snowman that terrifies the dog.

Holiday hazards worth naming

The festive season has its own vet-visit greatest hits: chocolate and baked goods, xylitol in candy, grapes and raisins, cooked bones, tinsel and ribbon (cats), lilies and poinsettias, and open doors during parties. Point your sitter at where the hazards live in your house, and they'll manage the rest.

The day you leave

Keys handed off the way you agreed, thermostat set, a quick "we're off!" message — and then enjoy your people. A good sitter's holiday photo updates are their own kind of gift: everyone fed, walked, and asleep under the tree by nine.