Many people think pet sitters have an easy fun job. They go into a home play with a pet or take it for a nice walk. This is true most of the time. But pet sitters often provide additional services including taking in the mail, newspaper and putting the trash bins out and back in. These are standard services however sometimes we go above and beyond to help protect a clients home and pets while they are away and also work hard to keep a clients pets in their routine. This is some of the extra services I have had to perform:
Walk dog(s) in all kinds of weather, driving rain, snow, etc.
Drive to a clients home in snow storm (I actually had a client greet me at the door after taking twice as long to drive to their house and my car was sliding all over the road... Client said "Yea I meant to call you and tell you not to come, I'm home". How do you respond to that?
Clean the house from insulation the dog chewed up in the basement after getting out of metal crate.
Close the front window during rain storm and mop up the puddle of water on the floor.
Clean up pee, poop and vomit in several places though out the house... including diareah.
Bringing packages in the house, all sizes and weights.
Making sure all of the clients doors and windows are secure while they are away. Some times they are not locked or closed.
Deal with stubborn or agressive pets (they were nice on the client visit but now...)
Deal with pets who are now shy and run away from you while you try to get them on a leash to go out to pee or even to the back door to go in the fenced yard... then trying to "herd" them to go back inside because they are afraid of you. i have dealt with many rescue dogs who act this way when the owner is not around.
Having to locate a cat to give it it's meds and then getting scratched by it because it does not want the med.
I have been bitten by a dog who was normally nice but has food agression issues. I thought it was done eating and it came to me I thought to go out... guess I was wrong as it came at me snarling and bit my ankle and drew a little blood.
I have been bitten during playtime by accident with an over eager dalmation... note to self don't wave the toy too long, just throw it.
Spend 45 minutes looking for a dog that got off its back yard line while I was in the house prepping food. Coincidently it was the same dog that later bit me.
We do all this because we love animals and want them happy, comfortable, and safe. Also pets are the best bosses in the world, who else greets you at the door with a big sloppy kiss with tail wagging ! Then at the end of the day we put on our "business hats" and follow up on client communication, do our accounting, scheduling, re-scheduling because of last minute communication from clients and contact the employees to let them know their schedule,
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