One of my employees arrived at a dog sit this morning for my next door neighbor to find a bulldog sitting on their front porch. It did not belong to the client whose dogs she was visiting and it didn’t have any tags on so she texted me. I thought for a few minutes who this dog could belong to. I know most of the dogs in our neighborhood and no one owned a bulldog. Then it dawned on me that I remembered seeing a bulldog in the yard of someone up the street. I asked one of their neighbors that I had contact information for if that person had a bulldog. I was advised no, they didn’t – but they were pet sitting for one. Yes, you read that correctly. These people were PET SITTING for this dog!
Being that the road I live on is very busy we couldn’t, in good conscience, let this dog roam freely so my employee took it upon herself to return this dog to the house we thought it belonged (have I mentioned recently how awesome my staff is?). The sitter drove the dog to the house and knocked on the door. She wasn’t greeted by a happy, grateful person. Instead she was grumbled at, the dog snatched out of her hands and promptly tied up in the back yard.
Not even a thank you. NOTHING.
So, this ‘pet sitter’ had tied the dog in their yard overnight – a night when it was cold enough to frost and then they didn’t even notice when it was gone. Apparently it wasn’t the first time because the person I asked about this dog said their trash had been overturned a night or two before and they saw this dog wandering.
Now, do you think when the owners come to pick their dog up they will be told that it was tied outside all night in the freezing cold and/or that the dog escaped and was wandering the neighborhood (and VERY busy street) more than once? I highly doubt it.
I don’t know if this person was pet sitting for a friend or if perhaps they are a host family for a site such as Rover. In either event, the situation could have been disastrous and fatal.
This is another case of ‘you get what you pay for’. Is it worth not hiring a professional?
My neighbor had a dog agressive German Shepherd. They had a friend stay in the home while they were out of town to care for the dog.
Space cadet sitter left the front door wide open so that when I walked by with my leashed dog, the Shepherd bolted out the door, jumped the fence, and attacked me and my dog.
In spite of all the noise and commotion, the sitter only looked out the front door after I broke up the fight. The neighbor came home to a bill from the Veterinary ER and Kaiser ER.
I don’t think they saved any money that weekend.