How do you interview pet sitters? What do you do? What do you ask? I need to find a good, reliable, trustworthy pet sitter.
One of my cats had to have all her teeth removed by age 7, and her weak stomach can only tolerate certain wet foods. I pretty much need a pet sitter to come once a day to feed them. I wish someone made a good, affordable autofeeder for wet food so we could at least go away for the weekend without having to deal with getting a pet sitter.
We haven't had to interview for a while, but the first part is introducing them to your pet and watching them interact -- assuming your pet isn't the kind to hide under the bed at the slightest noise. Even then, I guess you could observe how they talk to your cat under the bed. You can tell someone is a cat person just by the way they talk to your cat.
I also ask how they keep track of keys/codes. Anyone who says they write down the street address is a hard pass. It doesn't have to be ridiculously complicated, it should be hard for someone to steal the key or codes and also to figure out which house/apt. they're for.
Then you can ask what their visit would be like. Ours have all socialized with our cats for 10-15 minutes. They also will bring in the mail and take the garbage & recycling cans to and from the curb on the designated days. I'd also ask about pills and shots, even if you don't need them yet. Former and current vet techs are great sitters, because they usually love interacting with animals plus they are more attuned to looking for health issues.
Our current sitter also texts us photos of each of our two cats getting attention from her at least once a trip. It's not something we agreed upon, but it's a really nice touch.
We have the same issue, as one of our cats developed stomatitis very young and had to have all her teeth pulled, so we need two visits a day. Ka-ching! But our cats before this needed pills and insulin and heart and thyroid medication, so this doesn't even feel like that big a deal now. Although the one without teeth also gets a shot, it's monthly now -- Adequan, for joint problems. So far I've been able to give her her shots before or after our trips.