pet sitters

Has anyone used pet sitters associated with Pet Sitters International? Any opinions are welcome.

Nope! I have a live in pet sitter. It's called my 23 year old daughter! She has to earn her keep somehow! When I went to pick up the new kitties I made her stay upstairs and sleep with Peaches in my bed! We made her a little apartment in the basement so she doesn't have to go far!

Can she come to Orlando for a week???

Originally posted by kittykratz
Can she come to Orlando for a week???

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I'm sure she'd love to but hell, she can't even pay me $150 rent yet alone a ticket to Orlando!

I actually work for a pet sitting agency that is under Pet Sitters International. I know that all the sitters that work for my company are great, we are carefully screened and we all love animals. Through the company we are also bonded and insured. When you call a company they should arrange for a sitter to come and do a little interview as well as meet your pets. Your instinct should let you know, do they seem to care about your pets? do your pets seem interested in them? do they mind if you interview other sitters? do they ask a lot of questions about your pets? At our agency we encourage people to "shop around" for a sitter, are #1 priority is that a client feel comfortable with their choice. We go free of charge to do an interview and we aren't upset if they want to interview other companies. Just make sure that the sitter has you and your pets best interest in mind.

ubabasson makes good points. I would also inquire into how much quality time they spend with your pet. Will they brush and play with your pet, clean up around the food bowls, etc? I think it's important to find a sitter that does a more than barge into the house, dump food in a bowl and run. The petsitter I used worked through my vet's office. Not only did they spend quality time with my cats, but she waters plants and flowers, checks the mail, and vaccuums the cat hair from the floor e/o day.

Now that I have nieces old enough to house sit, I don't need a petsitter. My nieces are great with the animals and they love to stay at my house as a nice break from their mom and dad.

The petsitter I used worked through my vet's office. Not only did they spend quality time with my cats, but she waters plants and flowers, checks the mail, and vaccuums the cat hair from the floor e/o day.

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LOL sorry I forgot to mention that, I guess I just thought it was a given since that what I do.

We are going out of town on the weekend of the 8th to the 10th of August, and my mom is coming over to feed both Rocky and Fluffy...she is allergic, but she said she would anyway...

Here's another tip for you, the nicer you are to the sitter the nier they will be to you and you'll get more for your money. For example I have one client who usually goes out of town a few days a month. They ask that I go everyday for 1 hour to play with the cats, they let me watch tv and have a few sodas for me in the fridge. They cats are all over 15 so they want attention more then they want to play. So after I clean up after them and give them food and water I turn on the tv and sit and pet them and give them attention, but most of the time I'm there I figure I'm going to watch tv and drink soda at home anyways and I know the cats get lonely so most of the time I stay there for much longer than an hour. If a good movie is on I'll stay for 2 hours or sometimes even longer.

We also leave daily notes where we write about how the cats were that day, and what we did with them. We write down if they were sad or if they were really playful, we let you know what games we played with them, if they are eating well and so on. We also leave report cards to let you know if they have been naughty

Thanks everyone for all your good advice. I am having an interview with the pet sitter next week, so I will definitely be prepared.