When You’re Away — A TOCA Guide

Leave a clearer plan for the person caring for your dog or cat.

Save more: pair it with the Pet Sitter Kit in The Away Bundle ($25 instead of $31). It's also in The Busy Home Bundle (2 guides, $18 instead of $24) and The New Adopter Bundle (3 guides, $24 instead of $36) — or buy any 2 guides and save 20%, applied automatically at checkout.

Someone else can follow a feeding instruction. A good handover also helps them notice the familiar pause at the garden wall, the quiet resting place, and the way your cat chooses company. When You’re Away brings those details together with the practical work of arranging care: what your animal needs, who covers which hours, what happens if a train is late, and how the caregiver should act if something changes.

What you get

• The guide (EPUB) — reflowable, with linked contents and numbered sources.
• A print-friendly PDF of the guide — 37 pages, 6 × 9 in.
• The Away-Care Pages — 8 fillable US Letter pages: a one-page Caregiver Card with emergency guidance and US animal poison helplines, a four-field Quick Start, and Pages A–F (the absence, people and coverage, daily care, help and communication, what happened, next time).
• Optional browser versions of the worksheets (ZIP), with local backup and print buttons, for filling in on a computer.

Inside the guide

• Understand the absence — start with the animal, not the clock, and observe without creating a test.
• Build the care around them — choosing an arrangement, writing the day as someone else will live it, preparing the home, dogs' outings, cats' quiet contact, and what happens when something changes.
• Make the handover work — two detailed worked plans (Pepper the dog and Willow the cat) and updates that help you both.
• Keep the plan usable — a seven-step preparation sequence you can repeat.

Built on real sources

Background guidance is referenced to the ASPCA, AAHA, AVMA, FDA and the Cornell Feline Health Center, with links. These organizations have not reviewed or endorsed TOCA.

What it isn't

Care-planning material, not a diagnosis of separation anxiety, a treatment program or an emergency service. There is no universal number of hours a dog or cat can comfortably spend alone, and the guide does not give an absence schedule. If your animal shows distress, talk to your veterinarian and, when appropriate, a qualified behavior professional. The text and cover were created with AI tools and edited by TOCA; no independent veterinary or behavior-specialist review is claimed.

Practical details

• Four files (EPUB about 2.7 MB, guide PDF about 4 MB, worksheets PDF about 0.1 MB, browser worksheets ZIP), delivered by email right after checkout
• The worksheets need a form-supporting reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader or macOS Preview to type and save; you can also print them and share completed pages with your own caregivers
• The EPUB opens in Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo and most reading apps, or send it to a Kindle with Amazon's Send to Kindle
• English (US). Digital files only; no physical product or care service is included.
• For personal household use. Please don't share, resell or redistribute the files.

Want the full hands-on toolkit for your sitter? See While You're Away — The TOCA Pet Sitter Kit: 12 planning pages, a visit diary, a quick sheet and companion cards. Caring for an older animal too? See The Senior Pet Comfort Companion.

Better rest for happier pets.