When you go on vacation, you have to leave the pets with someone, right? Whether it’s at a boarding kennel, using a dog sitter in Mesa, or asking a friend, family member or neighbor’s son/daughter, someone has to, uh, let the dogs out, so to speak. However, we’d like to share some interesting stories of non-professional pet sitting failures. These are true stories from actual professional pet sitters I network with!

• “Our company got a call from a pet owner on vacation that had asked a friend to watch over her 3 dogs, fish tanks and an African bullfrog; then they couldn’t get ahold of the friend they’d asked and never heard from her. Hearing her cry on the phone, we set up everything from keys to paperwork and took on the job….I’ve never seen such a mess going into a home! The dogs obviously hadn’t been let out in days, piles of poop and pee everywhere and animals starving.” (Do you really want to be panicking from your vacation trying to get in touch with your friend, frantic about your beloved pets?)

• “One of my clients hired a cat sitter who “spaced” the WEEK LONG pet sit. Cats were ok, but all the food and water was gone and the place was a mess after a week of no care.”

• “I got a call from a ‘friend’ of a person that promised to take care of their 3 dogs when they were out of the country for a week. She called ME because she decided it was too much work and wanted to hire someone else to do it so she could leave. She had no intention of telling her friends! She wanted us to do the job on the sly.”

• “I was hired to do twice a day visits for an indoor dog. Client’s son decided to come over and invite friends to watch a ball game on dad’s big 54” TV. I spoke to the group watching the game when I was there to feed the dog that night. Next morning, when I came in I noticed the TV was missing. The son’s “friends” had exited the home through a seldom used back door leaving it unlocked. They returned in the middle of the night and helped themselves to the TV.” (CCPS does *not* allow other people in your home while we work for just this reason. Your home and property is our priority, too!)

The following stories are actual things we personally have encountered while pet sitting in Mesa and Gilbert.

• A client needed a last minute sitter and arranged to contract with us using their daughter for part of the trip. While the daughter was caring for their pets, something happened to the client’s window and it was unable to close – she couldn’t fix it. Luckily we were able to come over and take care of it; otherwise, anyone would’ve had access to the client’s home through the non-closing window. Afterwards, the client told us, they wish they’d hired us for the whole trip for that and a few other reasons. (We do not do job shares for just this reason – too many variables).
• I was watching a client’s dog and 6 parrots. The client had arranged to have us come over every other day and a friend to watch his pets the other days. I arrived on one of the visits to discover that the client’s friend had *not* been there at all the previous day so the dog was left alone for 48 hours. The dog was completely out of water, nearly out of food, and the birds’ water was essentially undrinkable. Another experience why we will no longer do job shares.

I know, many of you are thinking, *my* son would never do that, or *my* friend would never think of doing that to me, but I imagine these other people thought the same thing.  No one ever ‘intends’ or expects these things to happen, but they do!

Last story and perhaps the most tragic:

• One of our clients had a friend caring for their diabetic cat several years ago.  The friend gave the cat the wrong dose of insulin in the cat’s insulin injections every day. The cat wound up becoming very sick and dying. 🙁

I’m sure the friend had the best of intentions when caring for our client’s cat, but because this person was not a professional, they didn’t recognize signs of illness in the cat, or know what to do if they did.

As a professional Mesa pet sitter, we put your pet’s health and well being at the top of our list! You’re provided updates and notes regarding our care so you have peace of mind that all is well.

WHY take a chance with your home and pets? If you are considering dog boarding as an option, please see this article. Call us today to experience the best pet sitting in Mesa!