I started sitting for people when my best friend, Michelle, got a standard shnauzer named Link. I usually watch him when his parents, my friends, were not able to be home in the evening. Michelle works nights, every other week, and sometimes her husband wants to go to different sports events, or to go places with friends during the week she works. Now let's get one thing straight. I have always been a cat person, so watching their very energetic puppy was always a surefire way to exhaust me. I would go to their house (which is somewhere i feel very much at home. I spent a lot of time there when they first bought it, and helped them fix the place up), play with Link, take him to the bathroom, and then for a walk around the block. Once, I took him for a 2.5 mile walk, hoping he would get tired and stay quiet once we got back to his house. It didn't work, it just made him very sick the next day.
Then another one of my best friends' (Becka) parents asked me last summer to house sit/pet sit while they visited cousins out of state. This too is a place I feel very much at home, as many days/nights were spent here as a kid. I said sure, and didn't really think about what I was getting myself into until after the fact. I was then in charge of a very old jack russel terrier named Sadie, a baby boxer named Maz, and two fat cats named Pepsi and Tink. The cats were very easy to care for, considering I never saw them except at night to let them in the house and in the morning to let them out. Maz had issues controlling his bladder for a while, so every time he got excited he would jump on me, and would pee the whole time. So i ended up with clothes soaked with puppy pee. Once Maz calmed down, he was actually a joy to watch. Sadie however was jealous, and evil. If Maz went out to go to the bathroom, Sadie followed him, lifting her leg (I think she was confused and thought she was a boy) and as long as 1/2 a drop left her body, she walked away looking smug.
I started sitting for Car back in September, when they went to Niagara for her birthday. I got the key to their house the wednesday night before, and started watching their delightful little kitty named Sidney the following day. She is a wonderful little cat, black with white markings, and very playful. She loves attention and is very friendly. Having said all this, I could not get her to come to me at all that first weekend. I had to refresh her water just about every six hours because she's too snobby to drink "old" water. She also refuses to eat food that has sat out.
Now, every cat has their quirks (which is why they are so much closer to us humans than dogs), and so finding that Sidney is a food snob didn't really surprise me. But her apparent lack of affection for me, cat sitter extraordinaire, did. She's a "lap cat". But not with my lap. I felt bad because she wanted nothing to do with me, and I felt this would reflect negatively on my sitting skills. She warmed up to me when I brought out the toys, and played with her. But the minute they were put away, there went the fun, loving kitty.
Fast forward several months, I have since house sat for Becka, the boxer puppy has finally got control of himself and is now the size of a large shetland pony. The jack russel is still old, and still jealous.
I have also taken care of Link, the extremely smart shnauzer, while Michelle had/recovered from gall bladder surgery.
And here I am, taking care of Sidney. She has warmed up to me this time, and will actually sit and let me pet her.
Now in all of this, I hope you have noticed a common theme to my pet sitting capers. I am stuck here at home while all my friends are jetting off on mini adventures of their own. I have, in effect, turned into the wacky cat lady, except I don't own the cats/dogs I'm in charge of. I would say that for every time my friends go away, I get to run away on some little vacation of my own. I don't. I do get perks like watching tv and using the mac, but I stay home like the responsible, old person I am.
I am fully aware that physically I am not old. I am only 25 for crying out loud. But living here in New Castle has some underlying, unspoken code. If you're over the age of 18, and not in a serious relationship, and if you have at least one responsible bone in your body, you are a very old person. Now if I moved to Pittsburgh even, which is only 45 minutes away, I would be young, and lively. However I'm not in Pittsburgh. I have more than one responsible bone in my body, I'm over the age of 18, and not in any sort of relationship. Therefore, I am old.
That leaves me to say, stay tuned in. I do have some pretty good stories of past capers, and I know that I will have many more. I was just feeling sorry for myself since I'm stuck at home more than I'd like.
Next post: The Gym...dun dun dun :)
