Cat-Sitters (Vent)

We've had bad luck with cat-sitters in the past year or so. Our first Chicago cat-sitter whom we loved, decided to dissolve her business, so we had to hunt for someone else. The woman who found Emma was supposed to cat-sit for us over Thanksgiving--a week before Thanksgiving we found out she had moved to Mexico on a whim, basically, didnt give her job any notice, and hadn't called us to let us know. So, a week before Thanksgiving, we were scrambling to find someone, fortunately a good friend of mine was staying in town and watched them while we were in NY. Once I got back, I started the hunt for a cat-sitter to watch them over XMas. I was supposed to meet with one at the house today at noon. Well, 12:20 rolled around and no sign of her, so I called her cellphone and she basically just flat-out said "Oops, I forgot", which doesn't exactly leave me with good feelings for how well she'll take care of my cats. I don't want her to "oops, forget" to come feed them or "oops, forget" to lock the door behind her when she leaves. Not good! She was apologetic but I'm still not feeling too great about it. She's coming over at 2 now to meet, but I don't think I'm going to give her the keys--I made an appt. with another catsitter (the most expensive one, of course) for Tuesday and I'm just going to tell this girl, flat-out, that I'm not 100% comfortable with her and before I give her my $$ and the keys to my house I'm going to need references and want to interview someone else. If she doesn't like it, tough noogies.

I mean, why is it this hard to find someone reliable and remotely affordable to take care of my kits? If I didn't think Emma would have a coronary and it wouldn't cost $100 for each of them each way on the plane, I'd just bring them to FL with me. I'm just so annoyed right now!!!

Yeah, I wish I could bring them with me, but it would be more trauma than it is worth, IMO. My parents have 2 cats as well, and it just would be too scary for poor little Emma. This is the cat that has just now adjusted to the new house after being here since September, so uprooting her for a week would just be too tough on all of us. I wish we had family near here or friends that were going to be in town but, alas, we do not, so I'm forced to hire strangers to watch my babies

The woman I'm interviewing on Tuesday is reccommended by my vet, so Im hoping she won't do something to make me feel nervous about her!
I called the other girl back and asked her to email references so that I can assess the situation a little better before I hand her over the keys. I'm going to call her on Tuesday or Wednesday after I meet with the vet-reccommended lady.
Anywho, hopefully something will work out well and I'll have a petsitter I can actually depend on.

One of my dad's patients is supposedly an excellent pet sitter. I've never had to call her, so I don't know her number off hand, but I could get it for you!

Join the club here... I live in the South Loop, and when I first moved here i went hunting for a pet-sitter... there was only one serving my area at the time, so I went with her and her company...

I don't need their services TOO much (too broke to travel), but have called on them about five or six times... now... I've had two screw ups by her people. I let the first one slide... but the last time, which was only last month (and only one night away) the lady she sent to care for JJ and Jack royally f-ed up. I chewed the owner chick out over the phone after a couple days (recover time from drinking everclear... bad juju). I would mention her company name here, but I did read the thing about not mentioning company names for fear of law suits... if you want to know her company name, I'll PM it to you... just so you can know who to steer clear of.

There are others that serve my area now... I warned her during that conversation that if there's one more f-up I'm demanding my keys back. I'm alsoconsidering mentioning it to my vet (the only one within walking distance) about how unprofessional her and her employees are... I didn't tell HER I'd do that... but I would still do it.

I'm a softie... she apologized... I should've just asked for them back right then... but it's not like I use them very often. I used to petsit in high school...

If one of them is too unorganized to have their first meeting with you... then how doyou know they're going to remember to FEED the cats? think about that...

Okay... I'm off to have some fun... I'm doing a self-made double feature: Harry Potter at 4:30 by myself, then some friends are joining me for Narnia... I LOVE Aslan... I think that'll be the next kitty name... if I get a boy. Anyone wanna come along? I'll be at River East for the 4:30 showing of HP, then 8:45 for Narnia(we're meeting at 8:15... but i'll be there in the line anyway)... look for the blond chick with the 'Legolas Is My House Elf' shirt.. i LOVE that shirt...

Amanda

Too bad you live so far away! I'd do it for you! I hope you find someone reliable. If your vet recommends someone, they should be pretty good. I pet sit for many of my clinic's clients. They like being able to talk to me when they come in for regular visits too. Does she work at the vet clinic? It's nice to have a vet tech doing it too, in case something were to happen, we know more of how to handle emergencies. Good luck!