Joule and Scout
Sitter guide.
If something goes wrong, call us
Both cats are indoor only. If a cat gets outside, call immediately, at any hour, day or night.
What to do if the cats end up on the same floor
Joule
Smaller, brown, green eyes. Green carrier.
{{ whereJoule }}On her wheel, meowing: she wants an audience. Sounding stuffy: steam shower, fan off.
Scout
Larger, white shoulders, blue eyes. Blue carrier.
{{ whereScout }}Meowing in front of you: offer the back of your hand. Still meowing: she wants to work for treats.
Telling them apart
Scout is larger, with white shoulders and blue eyes. Her carrier is blue.
Joule is smaller, brown, with green eyes. Her carrier is green.
Two rules that never bend
1. The cats are never on the same floor at the same time. One lives upstairs, one lives downstairs, and they trade places once a day.
2. Never let a cat jump the gate. Always carry them over it.
Who is where
They swap every day at the noon visit, so whoever is upstairs today will be downstairs tomorrow. This page works it out from the date.
{{ startUpstairs }} starts upstairs today.
At noon, carry {{ startUpstairs }} down and bring {{ startDownstairs }} up. {{ joulePillLine }}
Tomorrow it flips: {{ tomorrowUpstairs }} starts upstairs.
The day at a glance
Give both cats their pills first, before any swapping or feeding. See Medication.
Put the downstairs cat in the bathroom next to the laundry machines and close the door.
Close the basement cat door and leave it closed until the swap is finished.
Carry the upstairs cat over the gate and downstairs. Do not let her jump it.
Move her bowls, feeding mat, and carrier down with her. Carriers swap floors too: the upstairs carrier sits by the fireplace, the downstairs one by the cat tree. Whichever cat is upstairs, hers is the one at the upstairs spot.
Feed her at the bottom of the stairs, on the landing.
How to feed, either cat
Before the bowl goes down, ask for the Touch cue. Hold out a finger, say Touch, and wait for her to boop it. Both cats know it.
Full details in Feeding.
Open the bathroom, carry that cat over the gate, and feed her upstairs at her own spot. Same amounts and the same Touch cue. Scout and Joule have different upstairs spots.
Reopen the basement cat door.
Without it the downstairs cat cannot reach the sunroom. This is the easiest step to forget.
Leave the bathroom door open so the sunroom stays reachable.
Refill and refreeze the lick mats and FreezBones so they are ready tonight. See Bedtime.
Play with both of them to burn off energy. Toys are in the blue cubby in the kitchen under the coffee machine, or the closet to the left of the barn door.
Downstairs there is more: the right cabinet of the TV stand holds extra treats, and the puzzles sit on the shelf above that cabinet. Fill a puzzle and both cats will work at it. Swap which puzzle you use across the days so they do not get bored.
Keep a Churu in your pocket during every swap. If anything goes sideways, it is the fastest way to get Scout's attention.
Watch your feet at the sunroom entry. There are plastic spikes across the threshold that are unpleasant to step on.
Feed both cats in their spots. Joule gets 2 IntelliDent bites in with her dry food at this meal. Scout gets none.
Playtime.
Spend the evening downstairs with the downstairs cat. She will be by herself all night, so the company matters.
Bedtime
On your way up, give the downstairs cat a frozen lick mat or FreezBone. It settles her for the night.
You can give the upstairs cat one too, but it is optional.
Both are in the kitchen freezer, top shelf. Refill and refreeze them at the noon visit so they are ready the next night.
Two different FreezBone styles. Both get filled the same way.
If you leave your bedroom door open, expect the upstairs cat to come sleep with you. Close it if you would rather she did not.
Pills come first at the noon visit, before swapping and before food.
Both pills live in the same cabinet.
Scout: one pill every day
Her pills are already prepared in the jar with her name on it, on the right-hand side of the cabinet above her wet food.
Hold the plate for her while she eats. Keeping it right under her mouth helps.
Joule: one pill every other day
She gets a pill on the mornings when she is the one being moved downstairs. Her pill bottle is on the left-hand side of the cabinet above her wet food. Hers goes inside a pill pocket, not straight onto the plate. Pill pockets come in chicken and salmon, either is fine.
Set the plate on the floor. She will not eat it held. If she does not finish it the first time, add more Churu. If she still turns it down, switch the Churu flavor. She likes scallop and cheese a lot.
Food is in the cabinet to the left of the kitchen sink, and each cat's food is labeled. Weigh the dry food on the scale. Both cats get the same amounts at both meals.
Scout
Joule
IntelliDent bites, Joule only
They go in with her dry food. One at the noon meal, two at the 7:00 meal. Scout does not get any.
The Touch cue
Both cats finger target on the word "Touch" before they get their food. Hold out a finger, say Touch, and wait for them to boop it.
Where to feed
Litter boxes
Three boxes, on both floors. Check both floors, not just the one you are on.
They are automatic. If the lights are flashing, the bag is usually full. Spare bags are in the drawer under the litter box. Nothing else needs cleaning.
Water
Fountains are in the kitchen and the downstairs living room. Top them off only when needed. You will hear the sound of the water change when one is running low.
Neither of them is being difficult. Almost everything odd they do is a request. Here are the ones you are most likely to see.
Joule is on her wheel, meowing
She wants an audience. Go watch her, or pet her while she walks. That is the whole ask.
Scout is standing in front of you, meowing
Offer her the back of your hand. She will sniff it. If she wants pets she will lower her head or push it into your hand.
Both cats like pets on the head, and long swipes down the whole body to the tail.
Scout is meowing but does not want to be pet
She wants to work. Get the freeze-dried chicken treats and run her through her tricks. See Tricks they know.
Joule sounds stuffy, or her meow sounds like it has mucus in it
She has chronic rhinitis. That is what her every-other-day steroid is for. It is not an emergency, but there is a reliable way to make her comfortable:
Her pill is in Medication. The bathroom is the one next to the laundry machines.
Joule is coughing, or it looks like a small asthma attack
Same cause as the stuffiness, and the same fix: the steam shower above. This is a known thing she does.
Scout could use a treat of a different kind
There is catnip spray on the coffee table downstairs. A few sprays on one of the mats or pillows on the couch and she will lick it up, then usually get cozy.
Anything else strange
Just reach out and tell us. No need to figure it out alone. Numbers are in Contacts.
Good for a bored cat, and Scout genuinely asks for it. Scout will almost always work. Joule is hit or miss.
Before you start
Treats: freeze-dried chicken. Two places to find it, the closet to the left of the barn door, or downstairs in the right cabinet of the TV stand by the puzzles.
The marker: the moment she does the thing, make a clicking sound with your tongue, then give her the treat. Click first, treat second, every time.
Touch
Hold out a finger, say touch, and she will boop her nose to it. Click, then treat.
Raise your hand a little higher each time and she will stand up on her hind legs to reach it. Joule knows this one too, though she is on and off about the hind legs.
There is a video of the Touch cue in Feeding.
Sit Scout only
Say sit. She may argue about it. Ask once more and wait, and she will do it. Click, then treat.
Home
Stand near the carriers and say home. She will walk in, turn around, and wait inside. Click, then treat.
We also use this for FreezBones, since they often settle in there to finish. Both cats will argue vocally on the way in. Stand firm and wait. You should not need to say home more than once or twice.
If the cats end up on the same floor
Scout will most likely chase Joule. Do not reach between them and do not try to pick either one up in the middle of it.
Tell us it happened when you get a moment. It is not a disaster, but we like to know.
If a cat gets outside
Both cats are indoor only. Call us immediately, at any hour, day or night.
Mail. Please bring it in when you can.
Plants. Water the ones by the kitchen sink.
Toys. Blue cubby under the coffee machine, or the closet left of the barn door.
The barn door latch
It is a fail safe, not something you need during the day. We latch it when we leave the house and at bedtime.
Opening it sometimes pulls the latch clean off the wall. That is normal and nothing is broken. Just stick it back on.
Puzzles and extra treats, downstairs. Right cabinet of the TV stand for treats, puzzles on the shelf above it. Fill one and both cats will use it. Swap puzzles over the days.
Wifi. In the text we sent you.
Arriving.
No codes on this page. Both codes are in the text message.
Always enter the code first, then press the button you need.
If you open any door while armed-inside is on, the alarm will go off.
If the alarm is sounding: enter the code, then press X.
Do not touch the blinds on the sunroom door
The sliding door in the kitchen leads to the sunroom. Its blinds are tilted a specific way. Leave them exactly as they are. Tilted the other way, the cats can see each other through the glass and they will stalk each other through it.
How to tell it is right: look through the blinds. If you can see out, the tilt is correct. If you cannot, it has been flipped the wrong way.
Thank you for watching them
Before anything else, the two rules that never bend:
1. The cats are never on the same floor at the same time. One lives upstairs, one downstairs, and they trade places once a day at the noon visit.
2. Never let a cat jump the gate. Always carry them over it.
Everything else in here is detail. Those two are the whole job.
Please read the whole thing once
The front page is a short checklist for whatever is due at this hour. It is a reminder, not the instructions.
The real detail lives in the folded sections underneath: the photos of every spot, how to build each pill, what to do if something goes wrong.
Read through those once now, before your first visit. After that the checklist is enough.
How to get around
You can reopen this any time with the "first time here?" button at the top.
v1.4.1
Sep 5, current- Same-floor emergency is now a five step procedure: loud noise first, separate them, get Scout with food, put them back, then stay and comfort Joule.
- A first-time walkthrough now opens on the first visit and sends new sitters through the detailed sections before the checklist.
- Wrote up the barn door latch: latch it when you leave and at bedtime, and it is fine if it pops off the wall.
v1.4
Sep 5- The page opens on whatever is due at this hour, as a checklist you tick off.
- Ticks are remembered, and reset on their own each day.
- A routine keeps the top spot until its cutoff even if unfinished, then steps aside as a one-line note you can still go back and finish.
- Everything else is folded shut, so the whole guide fits on one screen.
- New Today, Joule, Scout, and House tabs at the top.
v1.3
Sep 5- New section: why are they doing that. Wheel meowing, hand offers, congestion, catnip.
- New section: the tricks they know, with the treat and click order.
- IntelliDent bites for Joule, one at noon and two in the evening. Scout none.
- Do not touch the sunroom door blinds, with the see-through test.
- Fixed the gate photos, which were labeled backwards.
- Added the video of Joule's cough.
v1.2
Sep 5- Joule's pill build now has step-by-step photos and captions, like Scout's.
- New mailbox photo.
v1.1
Sep 5- Who is upstairs is now worked out from the date and flips itself daily.
- How to feed moved inline into the noon routine, with the Touch cue and both upstairs spots.
- Added the downstairs puzzles and the extra treats in the TV stand.
- Churu flavor fallback for Joule: scallop and cheese.
- Bowls, scale, and freezer photos redone horizontal.
v1.0
Sep 5- First build: routines, medication, feeding, litter and water, trouble, doors and alarm, contacts.