How Cat Surfing works
My name is Oscar and I started Cat Surfing. It is a free community for cat owners: neighbours who keep an eye out for each other’s cats, step in when someone is away, and raise the alarm when a cat goes missing.
It is not a cat-sitting service with extras bolted on. The lost-cat alert is what most people come here for. If your cat goes missing you post an alert, and the closest neighbours get it right away - not the whole country, but the people who can actually go and look in their own garage. An alert that reaches 500 miles away helps nobody. One that reaches 300 metres away can settle it.
Alongside the alert there is cat sitting between neighbours, a list of neighbours with chip readers for when you have found a cat late at night, and a feed where people share photos of their cats. They hang together: it is the same neighbours in all four, and they recognise each other when it matters.
Getting started takes a couple of minutes. Create an account, add your area and your cat if you have one. You do not need a cat - plenty of people are here just to help. Then you can turn on alerts for your area, ask for help when you need it, or answer a neighbour’s request.
If you need cat sitting there are two kinds: day help, when someone looks in on the cat while you are at work or out for the day, and holiday help, when you are away for longer. Where it happens is up to the two of you, at your place or at theirs. All contact is direct between you, with no middlemen.
Unlike paid services such as Cat in a Flat, Cat Surfing charges no booking fees and takes no commission. Nobody pays anybody here. The only thing in the whole app that costs anything is if you choose to pay for a Facebook ad for a lost-cat alert, and that money goes to the ad.
Once someone has helped you, the two of you can leave reviews, and trust builds over time. Always meet before the first time. How the cat reacts often says more than any profile.
The more neighbours who are on it in your particular area, the better all of this works. Create a free account at cat-surfing.com.