If you want the cats you are vacation-sitting to love you – and since you are a dog person you indeed DO want everybody to love and approve of you because that’s how you’re wired – DO clean the litter box every day. Cats have to prance around in the box to do what they do. How would you feel if your box were full of last night’s dinner? Cats love dog people (and dogs) who take care of them.

Helen Fazio and her dog Raja are world travelers. Click here to visit their blog, click here to follow them on Twitter.

Go to the pet store and buy the most highly recommended cat toy you can find. Don’t even try to pick it out yourself. Dog people will pick up a useless rope tug toy or a big heavy kong. Let the salesperson guide you. (And do not be cheap. Heaven forbid Kitty chokes on your cheap chicken feather covered scrap.) Then, enter softly, rustle the bag, and whisper, “Who’s your daddy?” as you bring out that catnip toy on a fly fishing rod. Bet you’ll have that cat eating out of your hand in no time.

Helen Fazio and her dog Raja are world travelers. Click here to visit their blog, click here to follow them on Twitter.

Buy a can of salmon. Open the can before visiting the cats and rub, yes just do it, some of the fluid in the can on the backs of your hands and on your ankles. Pack the salmon in a lidded container. Go visit the cats. Sit quietly while they swish around you sniffing your delightful perfume. Finally, feed the salmon to the cats. Go home and wash up before trying your powers of attraction on human subjects. Next visit, the cats will be well disposed towards you.

Helen Fazio and her dog Raja are world travelers. Click here to visit their blog, click here to follow them on Twitter.

Cats do not like to be greeted loudly and frontally and they hate it when you run at them. Establishing relations with cats you are vacation-sitting is an oblique activity. Slide into the room and find a comfortable activity. Perhaps, get yourself a snack and go sit quietly in a chair and watch TV or read a book. No need to say much at first. Allow the cat to watch you and if you are successful in looking trustworthy, stable and disinterested, kitty might come see you. Resist the temptation to grab him and give him a big wet kiss. Good things take time.

Helen Fazio and Raja are world travelers. Click here to visit their blog.

Cats do not like to be stared at. When you enter the house, do not cast your eyes about for cats and do not stare at the cats you do find.

DO get their food and fresh water expediently before you clean the litter. Cats who have been left while their owners are on holiday can be resentful; they don’t want you to come in and stare them down and pay more attention to the litter box than to their tummies.

(Yes, if it were dogs you were vacation-sitting, you would come in boisterously, look right at them, fluff their fur, take them out immediately for a nice walk and then get to the food. For cats, you have to think differently.)