I know this post is old but it’s spot on. At any given time at our home in Greece there are a dozen or more semi feral or almost tame outdoor cats as well as the occasional litter of kittens. There are 2 that have earned indoor privileges but they’re put out at nite because we’re not doing a litter box and they’ve left overnite surprises. Those 2 have been spayed (as have been several others). The sitter’s only responsibility to the cats is to put out food once a day.
Sitters really should ask. We’ve always had indoor/outdoor cats and our current one is 100% outdoors. I never think to tell sitters what to do if the cat disappears. We live in the mountains in France and yes, the cats kill birds but the cats are also vulnerable to wildlife. Our last cat, who was outdoors most of the time, lived to be 20 because he never wandered off our property. Years ago when we did house exchanges, two different cats disappeared after two days with the exchange family there. They only mentioned it after we came home. I would like to have been informed earlier that the cat was missing though I wouldn’t have sent them to look for it. This was in the olden days before reviews so I suspect they would’ve been more proactive if they’d known the missing cat would get a public mention.