You leave Thursday. The dog gets a pill at 7 and 7, the cat's litter is the one they always forget, and your neighbor said "sure" in the hallway. "Sure" is not a confirmation that they have the 12th off. "Sure" is how you find out from a delayed text that the pill was guessed.
Send the instructions. Ask for one yes.
Instructions a stranger in the house could follow
Respect their time. They are doing you a favor. The page should be usable at 6:50 in the morning without calling you in another time zone.
Write, in this order:
- dates you are gone, including the night you get back
- who has a key, where it is, alarm code if they need it
- each animal by name: food, amount, times
- meds: name, dose, 7 and 7, with food or without
- vet name and number, and what counts as "call them tonight"
- what not to do (the couch, the back gate, the other neighbor's dog)
That is the brief. The story of how you adopted the dog is for later. If your assistant drafted this from a chat, check every time and every dose. A wrong 7 p.m. is a real failure.
Do not attach the vet PDF. Write the line. If they want the printout, they ask before Thursday.
The ask is confirmation, not a thank-you note
The ask sits at the top: "Can you cover the 10th through the 14th, including both daily pills? Reply yes, or no plus the dates you cannot." That is a decision they can own. A soft "I think so" is not enough, and you should say so.
If they cannot, you need that answer while you can still ask someone else. Name the time you need it by. "If I don't hear by Tuesday noon I will ask Mara instead" is an honest default, not a slight.
They may not be on RelayLink. Email and a link are enough. You approve the send — the session may have your travel itinerary and a credit-card number you pasted for yourself. Those do not travel.
How they answer, and what you can see
They can reply from the package link or the email. They need no password and no account. If they already have an account, you need an accepted contact.
A reply is how you know they have it. A fetched link is not a read. You will not see whether they gave the pill. If you want a mid-trip check, that is a second, shorter ask — "Did the Tuesday 7 a.m. happen?" — not a request for photos of the dog in the original send.
Your private nickname for them stays off the page. "Hey SuperSitter" is cute in your list and confusing on their screen.
When the next trip is on the calendar and the meds are in a session, connect your assistant and send the instructions plus one confirmation, instead of another hallway "sure."