Pet Care Instructions for Your Adult Children: A Brisbane Plan So Your Animals Don’t End Up at the RSPCA

You live on your own in Brisbane. Your kids are grown and scattered — one in Toowoomba, one in Melbourne, one still local in Paddington. Your dog is twelve, the cat is on thyroid medication, and you’ve never actually told your children which vet you use, what the dog eats, or which of them you assumed would step in if you ended up in the PA Hospital for a fortnight. The plan is to write that down once — carer named, vet booked in, meds listed — so a hospital stay or worse doesn’t end with a shelter intake form.

The problem

When a solo owner is hospitalised or dies suddenly, pets are one of the first dependants to fall through the cracks. Adult children arrive from interstate to a house with a confused dog, a half-empty bag of prescription food, and no idea who the vet is or whether their sibling agreed to take the animals. ASIC’s MoneySmart guidance on wills and estate planning is clear that informal “I assume my kids will sort it” arrangements regularly fail at the moment they’re tested — and pets, unlike financial assets, can’t wait weeks for probate.

Your adult children don’t need access to your accounts to look after your animals. They need to know: which vet holds the medical history, what the dog actually eats and when, what medications the cat is on and at what dose, which of them you’ve spoken to about taking the animals on, and whether that sibling has actually agreed. Without that, the default outcome — even in loving families — is a shelter surrender while everyone argues about who can take what.

What the Digital Legacy Vault does

The Digital Legacy Vault is an asset-instruction register: you record what’s in your household, who looks after it, and who in your family should be told. The simplified version (built for individuals and families) records, per animal: name, age, breed, the vet clinic and phone number, microchip number, daily feeding routine, medications and dosages, behavioural notes, and the named carer — along with that carer’s recorded consent. It does NOT hold your house keys, your vet portal password, or any credential. Your adult children see the pet care module you’ve prepared for them, only when you’ve authorised release.

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’s what keeps it outside the AFSL regime and outside AUSTRAC reporting — and it’s also why it can be a simple subscription rather than a regulated product. The vault also treats your carer’s contact details and your vet’s details as personal information under the Privacy Act, which is why consent is recorded before anyone is named.

How it works

  1. You add each pet to your vault — name, vet clinic, microchip number, feeding schedule, medications, and any behavioural notes (the cat hides under the bed for two days when stressed; the dog can’t be left with the labrador next door).
  2. You nominate which of your adult children is the intended carer, and the vault sends them a consent request. Their acceptance is recorded against the module.
  3. You list your other adult children as recipients of the pet care module so they all see the same plan — no one is surprised, no one has to guess what you wanted.
  4. If you’re hospitalised or worse, the vault releases the pet module to your children per your release rules. They see the vet’s number, the feeding routine, the meds, and which sibling agreed to take the animals.
  5. Your children contact the vet directly with your name and the pet’s microchip number. The vet already has the medical history. The vault closes the gap between “something happened to Mum” and “the dog is fed tonight.”

Why this matters in Brisbane

Brisbane’s solo-owner households often have older pets — animals acquired during a marriage or while kids were at home, now well into their senior years with chronic conditions and specific vet relationships. RSPCA Queensland and Brisbane City Council pounds receive surrendered animals every week whose owners were hospitalised or died without a written care plan. When adult children live interstate — common for Brisbane families with kids who moved south for work — the first 48 hours decide whether the animals stay in the family or go into the shelter system. A clear instruction module, with a named carer who has already agreed, is what makes the difference.

Sources

Join the waitlist

Join the waitlist — first access when the Digital Legacy Vault opens for Brisbane individuals

We’re opening waitlist access in tranches. Sign up to be notified when solo adults in Brisbane can register their first pet care module. The Digital Legacy Vault holds instructions about what exists and how your adult children can find it — vet contacts, feeding routines, medications, and the carer who has already agreed — not house keys, not portal passwords, and not the animals themselves.