Pet Care Instructions for a Trusted Friend: A Perth Carer’s Plan for Mum’s Cat When She Can’t Manage Anymore

You’re the adult child organising things for your mother in Perth. She’s still in her home, still mostly independent, but the last hospital stay was a fortnight and her cat — fourteen years old, on thyroid medication, fussy about food — spent that fortnight with a neighbour who was kind enough to help but didn’t know about the medication schedule. Next time it might be longer. You want a single, named friend of your mother’s to receive a clear set of instructions: what the cat needs, who the vet is, and that they’ve already agreed to take her on if it comes to that.

The problem

When an older person is suddenly hospitalised or dies, their pets are the part of the plan that almost no one writes down. The animal isn’t an “estate asset” the way a house or a super fund is — ASIC MoneySmart’s estate planning guidance is all about money, property, and beneficiaries, and even a well-drafted will rarely says anything actionable about a living pet beyond a one-line bequest. Meanwhile the cat is at home, alone, due her tablet at 7am.

The shelter outcome is what happens when nobody knows three things at once: what the daily routine actually is, which vet holds the medical history, and who has already agreed to take the animal. A friend who would gladly help can’t help if they don’t know any of that — and they often only find out a pet exists when someone calls them from a hospital corridor.

What the Digital Legacy Vault does

The Digital Legacy Vault is an asset-instruction register: you (or your mother, with your help) record what exists, where to find it, and who should know. The simplified version records, per pet: the animal’s name, age, and species; daily feeding and medication schedule; the vet clinic name and phone number; any behavioural notes a new carer needs; and the named person who has agreed in advance to take the animal on, along with the date they recorded their consent. It does not hold your mother’s house keys, her MyGov login, or any credential. The named friend sees only the pet care module you’ve prepared for them, and only when release rules trigger.

The boundary matters: the Digital Legacy Vault is not a financial product, not a custody service, and not an advice service. It’s an instructions register. That keeps it outside the AFSL regime under Corporations Act Part 7.6 and outside AUSTRAC reporting — and it’s why your mother’s pet plan can be a simple subscription rather than a legal instrument.

How it works

  1. You add the pet to the vault — name, age, vet, medication schedule, feeding routine, quirks a stranger wouldn’t guess.
  2. You name your mother’s trusted friend as the recipient for the pets module. They accept, and the vault records their consent and the date.
  3. If your mother is hospitalised or passes away, the release rules you’ve set trigger a notification to the named friend.
  4. The friend sees the pet care instructions module — vet phone number, medication schedule, your contact details — and nothing else from the vault unless other modules have also been released.
  5. The friend calls the vet, picks up the cat, and continues the routine without a fortnight of guesswork. If a formal pet bequest is in your mother’s will, the vault notes it; the will still does the legal work.

Why this matters in Perth

Perth households often have the named “trusted friend” two or three suburbs away rather than interstate — which is good, because the friend can act within hours. But Perth is also a city where adult children frequently live in Melbourne, Sydney, or overseas, and the carer organising things isn’t local. A pet instructions module bridges that gap: the interstate carer prepares it, the local friend in Fremantle or Subiaco receives it, and the WA-based vet is contacted directly using the number in the module. No one has to find a piece of paper in a kitchen drawer at 9pm.

Sources

Join the waitlist

Join the waitlist — first access when the Digital Legacy Vault opens for Perth carers

We’re opening waitlist access in tranches. Sign up to be notified when carers organising things for an older parent in Perth can register their first pet care module. The vault holds instructions about what the animal needs and who has agreed to take her on — not your mother’s keys, not her logins, and not a substitute for the vet.