Since someone just posted about a good set up, I thought I'd share what recently happened.
As you can see from my siggy, I have a dozen pets. Small dogs have small bladders - out often. And Frankie being just 2.5 years old, he has a LOT of energy. Willy, at age 14, needs eye medication 3 times daily. And the cats . . . Tommy has asthma and needs a pill daily.
In 2016, leading up to my first total knee replacement, I found a pet sitter business run by 2 sisters, plus they have 3 or 4 employees. Coincidentally, one of the sisters had both her knees replaced using the same surgeon I had; so they had a much better idea of what I was getting in to than I had. As I live alone and have a weak to non existent support network, I was 2 nights in hospital then off to inpatient rehab before going home. Things went very well. Once I was home, I was able to cut back to visits just twice daily; I needed to be up and moving so letting the dogs out and in a bazillion times daily was good for me. After a week or so, I cut back to 1 visit daily, until I was approved to bend for cleaning the 9 cat litter boxes.
4.5 months later I had my second total knee replacement. We had 2 issues, and I wasn't thrilled but decided as all the pets were fine in the long run, so be it. First, when the dog kibble ran out, they opened another bag of kibble -- which happened to be CAT kibble! Cat food is much too high in protein for dogs, it threatens their kidneys. The dogs were peeing in the house a LOT. The sitters never noticed they opened the wrong bag. Second, as it was June I had to leave the house closed up with the a/c set. You can't expect sitters to be opening and closing windows, especially if it starts to rain at 3 am. I understand that. With the dogs peeing so much, the sitters decided to clean all the floors . . . with Lysol. Lysol contains ammonia. We use ammonia to train dogs to pee in one area of the yard. Ammonia is the thing which brings dogs and cats back to the same place to pee, over and over again. And with the house closed up, the ammonia odor was VERY STRONG. When my friend brought me home from rehab, we were both shocked at the smell! We went around opening all the windows to air the house. (I was on a walker, so my friend did most of that). According to my vet, this is what triggered Tommy's asthma. Prior to this he didn't have it, did not need medication.
This year, June 12, I had a total hip replacement; so I again had the sitter service coming in multiple times a day. I put a collar with bell on Tommy, as they couldn't tell my 4 blackies apart. After 11 days, I returned home. There was a sheet of paper showing Tommy got his meds 6 of the first 7 days (one day they couldn't catch him). I learned that they were chasing him all over the house, that this had ALL the cats running scared and hiding. WTH??? The last 4 days, the sheet was just marked, "couldn't find him" each day.
I came home about noon on Friday. From then to Sunday morning, I never heard Tommy cough, never saw Tommy, Bobby or Tuppence. I was worried. Trying to sort it out, Sunday about 9:30 AM as I was standing by the cellar door, I opened it. All 3 were huddled on the top step. My opening the door startled them so down they went. Them jumping and racing made me jump back. Ebony was in the hallway and being curious - she's a cat, ya know? LOL - she trotted over, saw the open door and down SHE went! I quickly shut the door before anyone ELSE went down.
My home is a ranch house - one floor living. Laundry is down cellar. The pet sitters had been told previously that the cellar is NOT cat safe, cats are not allowed down there. If you go down, close the door behind you. One of the 3 sitters coming in to my home will go down to run the sofa cover through the wash; the dogs various pee or throw up on it. This happens when I am here, not very often. Happens more when the sitters are in and out. Well, she went down to do laundry, left the door open, and the 3 Musketeers went down. Tommy and Tuppence are littermates and Bobby is their cousin as the moms were sisters in that feral colony. These 3 are always together, hence my calling them the 3 Musketeers.
I was (and still am) FURIOUS. I am still on the walker, no way I could get down there and they had no intentions of coming up. Long story short, one of the sisters who owns the business brought over a Have a Heart trap and we got them up. The 3 Musketeers all were trapped and up on Sunday; they'd been down there with no food, water for some days so went right in after the canned salmon I used as bait. Each time the trap went, I had to call the sister to come over, bring the trap up, release, reset. Ebony didn't come up till Monday; she wasn't as hungry so not as quick to go in the trap. Now I KNOW there has to be cat pee and poop down there. UGH!
HOW could 3 people be coming in and not realize that cats were 'missing,' especially when one of those cats required daily meds? I just can't grasp this.
I have remained civil to the sitters. Lord knows if anything happens to me, I need them to care for my pets. At the same time, once I have progressed through this recovery I will be looking for a new pet sitting service. Finding one that will tend a dozen is NOT an easy task. And forget boarding, I'd go broke.
Sorry this is so long. Just felt I had to share. Talking about it helps, a bit.
As you can see from my siggy, I have a dozen pets. Small dogs have small bladders - out often. And Frankie being just 2.5 years old, he has a LOT of energy. Willy, at age 14, needs eye medication 3 times daily. And the cats . . . Tommy has asthma and needs a pill daily.
In 2016, leading up to my first total knee replacement, I found a pet sitter business run by 2 sisters, plus they have 3 or 4 employees. Coincidentally, one of the sisters had both her knees replaced using the same surgeon I had; so they had a much better idea of what I was getting in to than I had. As I live alone and have a weak to non existent support network, I was 2 nights in hospital then off to inpatient rehab before going home. Things went very well. Once I was home, I was able to cut back to visits just twice daily; I needed to be up and moving so letting the dogs out and in a bazillion times daily was good for me. After a week or so, I cut back to 1 visit daily, until I was approved to bend for cleaning the 9 cat litter boxes.
4.5 months later I had my second total knee replacement. We had 2 issues, and I wasn't thrilled but decided as all the pets were fine in the long run, so be it. First, when the dog kibble ran out, they opened another bag of kibble -- which happened to be CAT kibble! Cat food is much too high in protein for dogs, it threatens their kidneys. The dogs were peeing in the house a LOT. The sitters never noticed they opened the wrong bag. Second, as it was June I had to leave the house closed up with the a/c set. You can't expect sitters to be opening and closing windows, especially if it starts to rain at 3 am. I understand that. With the dogs peeing so much, the sitters decided to clean all the floors . . . with Lysol. Lysol contains ammonia. We use ammonia to train dogs to pee in one area of the yard. Ammonia is the thing which brings dogs and cats back to the same place to pee, over and over again. And with the house closed up, the ammonia odor was VERY STRONG. When my friend brought me home from rehab, we were both shocked at the smell! We went around opening all the windows to air the house. (I was on a walker, so my friend did most of that). According to my vet, this is what triggered Tommy's asthma. Prior to this he didn't have it, did not need medication.
This year, June 12, I had a total hip replacement; so I again had the sitter service coming in multiple times a day. I put a collar with bell on Tommy, as they couldn't tell my 4 blackies apart. After 11 days, I returned home. There was a sheet of paper showing Tommy got his meds 6 of the first 7 days (one day they couldn't catch him). I learned that they were chasing him all over the house, that this had ALL the cats running scared and hiding. WTH??? The last 4 days, the sheet was just marked, "couldn't find him" each day.
I came home about noon on Friday. From then to Sunday morning, I never heard Tommy cough, never saw Tommy, Bobby or Tuppence. I was worried. Trying to sort it out, Sunday about 9:30 AM as I was standing by the cellar door, I opened it. All 3 were huddled on the top step. My opening the door startled them so down they went. Them jumping and racing made me jump back. Ebony was in the hallway and being curious - she's a cat, ya know? LOL - she trotted over, saw the open door and down SHE went! I quickly shut the door before anyone ELSE went down.
My home is a ranch house - one floor living. Laundry is down cellar. The pet sitters had been told previously that the cellar is NOT cat safe, cats are not allowed down there. If you go down, close the door behind you. One of the 3 sitters coming in to my home will go down to run the sofa cover through the wash; the dogs various pee or throw up on it. This happens when I am here, not very often. Happens more when the sitters are in and out. Well, she went down to do laundry, left the door open, and the 3 Musketeers went down. Tommy and Tuppence are littermates and Bobby is their cousin as the moms were sisters in that feral colony. These 3 are always together, hence my calling them the 3 Musketeers.
I was (and still am) FURIOUS. I am still on the walker, no way I could get down there and they had no intentions of coming up. Long story short, one of the sisters who owns the business brought over a Have a Heart trap and we got them up. The 3 Musketeers all were trapped and up on Sunday; they'd been down there with no food, water for some days so went right in after the canned salmon I used as bait. Each time the trap went, I had to call the sister to come over, bring the trap up, release, reset. Ebony didn't come up till Monday; she wasn't as hungry so not as quick to go in the trap. Now I KNOW there has to be cat pee and poop down there. UGH!
HOW could 3 people be coming in and not realize that cats were 'missing,' especially when one of those cats required daily meds? I just can't grasp this.
I have remained civil to the sitters. Lord knows if anything happens to me, I need them to care for my pets. At the same time, once I have progressed through this recovery I will be looking for a new pet sitting service. Finding one that will tend a dozen is NOT an easy task. And forget boarding, I'd go broke.
Sorry this is so long. Just felt I had to share. Talking about it helps, a bit.
