Cats are Family Too!

These policies are not set in stone. As we grow and evolve, so will the policies. Policies can change at any time, and not necessarily with any prior notice. However, any pertinent policies will be communicated via email in a timely manner.

We accept new client requests via email or web form preferably, but will also do so via text. However, effective immediately, we no longer accept new client requests via phone call. If you are someone who has contacted us in the past and/or has used our services, we have no problem with phone calls then. But if you are a brand-new client, you must use one of the aforementioned methods.

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If you want to have a phone conversation with us, please contact us via one of the methods above and mention this. We will reply with an approximate time that we can call you back.

To better ensure the health and safety of your cats, we require no less than one visit every day while the cats are in our care. While we cover this in our FAQ, we are now adding it to our policy as its own section. We do NOT offer every-other day (or less frequent) visits as a service. 

Once Daily Visits:

If you are requesting once-daily visits, unless there is a medical reason to do so, we do not guarantee timed visits. We will ask if there is a preferred block of time (ie morning or evening), as we'd like to keep the cats on whatever schedule they are on. However, it is impossible to guarantee that. Since our visits are plotted out on a map every day, the actual time may vary from day to day, but we do try to keep the visits around the same time each day.

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Twice Daily Visits:

We will visit once in the morning and once in the evening. We will do our best to make sure it is at least 8 hours apart, but unlikely it will ever be 12 hours apart. However, if there is a medical reason to do timed visits, we will work around that. If for some reason we find we are unable to do timed visits, we will let you know at the time you contact us so you can make other arrangements. As a general note, if your cat requires timed visits (especially twice daily), we should be contacted as early as possible. We are limited on the number of multiple visits we can take on each day, due to the sheer fact we can't spread them out far enough otherwise.

All visits (with medical reasons excepted) are done during these hours. Occasionally, if we are particularly busy (ie around the holidays) we may also go outside of these hours.

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Monday - Friday
8:00am-7:00pm

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Saturday - Sunday - Holidays*

9:00am-6:00pm

*New Years Day
10:00am-7:00pm

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All written communications (ie email and text), unless we have previously stated that we are unavailable, will be replied to within 24 hours. This may be a bit outside of these hours if deemed necessary. Those usually happen on messages where a more immediate answer is required. Phone calls may take a bit longer to reply to as we do not always get alerted to a voicemail right away, and we require a voicemail in order to contact you.

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As a general rule, we do meet & greets between 10:00am-6:00pm, Monday through Friday, and 10:00am-2:00pm on Saturdays. We do not do meet & greets on Sundays/holidays. While we will take care of your kitties on all days, we try to keep some things on "normal business hours".

January 2nd through October 31st - if you cancel more than one day in advance of the start of the sit, there is no fee. If you cancel the day before the start of the sit, there will be a $25 cancellation fee. 

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For November 1st through January 1st (following year), in order to avoid a cancellation fee, a sit must be cancelled two weeks or more prior to the first day of the sit. If cancelled less than two weeks before the start of the sit, the cancellation fee is $50. Please note that this applies to all days in this time frame, not just holidays.

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As a rule, Cats are Family Too! does not issue refunds. If payment has been received prior to the cancellation, a credit for that amount will be issued to your account (minus any applicable cancellation fees) to be used toward future cat sits. 

We prefer to keep keys on file in a locked safe so that when a cat sitting need arises, we just have to head over and do the sit. It makes it easier both for us and the client. However, if the client prefers to have us pick up and drop off the key each time, then we will be charging the full price of a visit each way.

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Some clients ask that we leave the key in the house afterwards since the door will automatically lock. We can do that, but strongly encourage against it. If something happens that causes a delay in your getting home when expected, we have no way to get back in the house to care for your kitty. So while this is an option if you prefer not to keep the key on file with us, it must be reiterated that we discourage this practice.

With that said, if your kitty requires medication, leaving the key in the house on the last visit will not be an option. It would be a much worse situation if you were delayed coming home, and one that we prefer to avoid in such a case.

If you are a new client, payment in full will be required at the time of the meet and greet. If needed, arrangements can be made to pay by the start of the first sit (this is done at our discretion). If we are contacted about a sit less than two weeks prior to the start of the sit, then payment in full must be made at the time of the meet & greet.

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If you are an existing client, payment in full is due no later than the day before the start of a sit.

Meet & greets are at no cost. Cancellations must be made by text or email an hour or more before the scheduled time. If a cancellation is requested less than an hour before the scheduled time, then any subsequently arranged meetings will be charged the full price of a visit. We understand life happens, we just ask that you have the courtesy to let us know with at least an hour's notice.

Payment and keys/codes are expected at the time of the meet & greet. If we have to make an extra trip to pick up a key, we will charge a key pick-up fee (please refer to Key Policy).

We are definitely prone to our fair share of bad weather in the Chicago area! If we feel that bad weather may make it impossible to safely make our normal visits, we will (at the discretion of Cats are Family Too!) shorten visits so we can ensure all kitties are getting appropriate care. In extreme cases, we will cancel visits as seen fit. We will absolutely make any and all attempts to prioritize any cats that need medication or have other special needs, but the safety of the sitter must be considered first. If your cat has timed visits, we may find it necessary to visit sooner or later to complete the visit.

If we feel that we may have to cancel (hopefully we’ll have some advanced notice), we will make sure to leave out some extra food and water. If for any reason we are completely unable to make the visits on a given day, we will make anyone impacted aware, and credit accounts for the missed visits.

And finally, while this is much more likely to be needed in the winter, any time we find it difficult or impossible to safely drive on the roads (flooding, for example), we may have to invoke this policy.