Poor experience with pet sitter- aibu?

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Tried to get a cattery but they were all fully booked even though it's not peak season, anyway learned my lesson, next time will reserve one months in advance.

A friend of a friend was recommended, she charges £16 per visit (1-2 hours) same price as most of the catteries are charging.

My partner is also dropping in which has helped me out.
Everything has seemed ok so far, the lady has been going at the scheduled times and sending videos and pictures.

My cat goes outside a lot of the time so doesn't always use his two litter trays. At one point he used it and I was a bit 🙄 when the lady asked me whether she should just pour more litter on the part he'd weed on? But I told her to clean it out.

My partner dropped in on one of the days to save me some money, he told me both litter trays were filthy. Luckily he's given them a proper clean..

The lady was scheduled to attend this evening, usually from 6pm onwards.
I had a message from her saying she was there at 10 past 2, and sorry she had to go early as she had another booking that night.

10 past 2 is not evening, and means my cat will be without a meal until tomorrow morning.
She didn't ask in advance, just went.
Aibu to think this is a bit cheeky? I won't be using her again in any case.

I don't think the cat not being fed from mid afternoon until the next morning is a huge deal, mine just gets dry food anyway in this hot weather as the wet stuff stinks really quickly if its not all eaten immediately. If you're not happy don't use her again though.

If she was booked for a certain time then she should be there at that time.

The cat will be fine waiting until morning for food, although it may confuse him if he's in a routine.

A bit cheeky but your cat will be fine. I’ve never actually heard of specifying a time, usually morning and afternoon rather than X o’clock.
More concerning is the cat litter. What prompted her to actually contact you about it? Had you told her there were two boxes and you expected her to clean them daily? For two trays to be ‘filthy’ from one cat suggests several days of not being cleaned.
I did have one woman who told me after a week that the litter tray was ‘surprisingly’ clean. I walked in and immediately found out why - the cat had been using an open cardboard dressing up box as a litter tray. It stunk to high heaven and it all had to be chucked and carpets cleaned. I just could not understand how she didn’t notice!

Yeah, the food thing will be ok I guess as he mainly eats wet but I've requested dry is left out too now.

However it's not ideal to just turn up 4 hours early and not check in advance.

She is a full-time pet sitter looking after cats and dogs so she should be fully aware that litter trays need daily cleaning.

I've been flexible with timings but I specified evening, not 2pm.

No normal person pours fresh litter on soiled litter, she's either stupid or really not in the right job.

Mine charges £10 a visit so I think yours is expensive. I don’t expect her to spend that long there though.

Id usually expect a couple of teething issues but it sounds as if she’s lost your trust so I’d try someone else.

I'm a pet sitter and there's no way on earth I'd go in at 2pm for an evening visit. I either do 5pm for a teatime visit or 7pm for an evening visit depending upon what clients prefer.

She should surely know how to deal with litter trays. She's either daft, flaky or knows nothing about cats.

I work as a pet sitter.

When visiting cats I always follow the client’s instructions as to how frequently to empty and clean the litter tray. However all wet patches and ‘solids’ are removed on each visit. Leaving a filthy litter tray for the poor cat to use is unacceptable.
As regards the early visit, I occasionally have a social engagement and can’t do the evening visit, but I always tell the client in advance, so that they have the option to make other arrangements. Mostly people are happy for me to either go early or skip the visit. I never turn up 4 hours early without notice!
No OP you are not being unreasonable. I hope you can find someone else!

I don’t even own a cat but even I know that the litter tray needs cleaning ideally daily otherwise it can not only stress the cat but cause them to go elsewhere in the house!

I hope you leave a negative review to warn others OP.

Sounds like a shit petsitter.
It's expensive too for someone who seemingly doesn't know that you should remove the soiled litter at each visit.
2 pm is not an evening visit. That's not ok either. She should have told you when you booked that she wasn't available on that particular evening or if something came up, spoken to you about it so you could suggest what to do about the cat's meal.
If the cat is fed wet food at 2 pm and doesn't want to eat it because he was fed earlier, the food won't be fresh later on when he's hungry and he might not even eat it. If she'd asked you earlier you could have suggested leaving dried food out.

My cats are babysat by neighbours (who I pay at the same rate as local petsitters). They remove any clumps from the litter at every visit and clean out the trays completely whenever they think it's appropriate. I don't specify a time when they need to come in so they can fit it around work or social life etc, but the cats have access to dried food and water all the time so it doesn't matter. When the petsitters come in they give the cats wet food and top up the other things.

I wouldn't use that petsitter again.

I'm a cat sitter,£32 per day seems steep to me, i doubt she's there 1-2 hours.
I'm very experienced and i can do the feed/tray if there is one in a few minutes, so i spend time with the cat and give them some attention and a fuss.
2pm is unreasonable , the fact she has other visits shouldn't be your problem , if this is her main job she should be able to organise her times to accommodate within reason all her days visits.
I cat sit around my main job but i can still achieve this ,if i ever have difficulty time wise with an evening sit then i go later but certainly not 4 hours early.
If the client has cameras that is perfectly fine with me as i do the job properly and i have nothing to hide so the fact she has left dirty trays is taking the piss and she obviously doesn't care as much as she should.
Actually your post has annoyed me ! i really love the cats i take care of and i would never treat them unkindly or not do what their owner has asked of me.
She should be ashamed of herself .

Thank you, I'll definitely not use her again.

Review her honestly op.
You really should.
Save another dcat not being cared for properly..