In 2015 I applied for a 3 week sit in LA, at the time we were living in the beautiful city of Vancouver Canada, lucky enough to get chosen we were to look after a sweet princess called Stella, a beloved Shih Tzu belonging to Eileen and Brian Cohen who were going on a holiday of a lifetime to Israel and had never had a TrustedHousesitter before. Brian is from Manchester, England and Eileen a California “girl” I say that only because often there is a connection which attracts owners to applicants, in our case it was Brian connecting to sitters who were originally from his home country.
One Saturday John and I were out with Stella and having mid morning tea on Santa Monica beach, John had a ham sandwich and Stella like so many dogs was a food junkie … if she refused to walk and she often did, all I had to say was “Let’s go see Gerrie” a neighbour of Eileen’s who always gave Stella cheese, the very mention of Gerrie’s name had four, very little legs moving at the speed of sound ….
But I digress, back to Santa Monica beach, the ham sandwich and Stella’s impossible to ignore eyes. John took a piece of the sandwich, was about to deposit in Stella’s mouth when I screamed (well not quite) “NO you can’t give her that!!!” … ‘Why?’ “Because she’s Jewish!!”
At which point John’s face was a McEnroe “You cannot be serious!” moment
Oh yes I could be serious you see her family are Jewish and this little dog was too. We looked after Stella another seven times and sadly Stella left for the “Bridge” two years ago, Eileen and I will be life long friends because of this adorable little dog"
PS Scratching your head about the “McEnroe Moment?” Well hopefully, not only will my little story give you a smile for those of you not around the tennis courts in 1981 here’s some Pop Culture trivia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0hK1wyrrAU
Looking forward to reading and seeing your funny pet memories …
Maybe a cheese sandwich would have been a better snack for Stella!! We have also made life-long friends whilst house and pet sitting and hopefully more in the years ahead.
We hope you don’t mind if we share our own story. This made us think back to some of our favorite funny moments and we laughed again remembering Torretto and Hobbs, sibling sibling Siamese cats in Brooklyn Heights, New York City. They were incredibly curious, loved to play, and always seemed to be up to some sort of antics.
Whether is was having them chase the laser pointer or treats, we always enjoyed play time with them. But it was one impromptu play session in particular that had us laughing uncontrollably…
Being the minimalist packers that we are, we were weighing our umbrella to check its weight against an ultra light umbrella we ran across. The stainless steel scale caught the light just right and reflected a bright spot on the ceiling. The always keen Toretto and Hobbs immediately caught sight of it and were at once determined to hunt it and kill it.
In the process they climbed over each other, jumped, and stretched out like meerkats trying to reach the ceiling!
Many sitters are familiar with the HO assuring you the garden is TOTALLY secure and the dog CANNOT escape … so when I’d let the two dogs out for their first run I wasn’t unduly concerned when only one returned. Having called his name and searched every corner of the huge garden, I did become worried about Murphy - where on earth could he be? Then I noticed his sister looking UP - yes, right at the top of the tallest of the conifer trees sat Murphy, wagging his tail and presumably mouthing something like “well I got myself up here but I don’t think I can get down”. Having done a quick “risk assessment” and located a ladder, I enlisted the help of my (fortunately agile) husband and between us we got Murph back on terra firma.
When I told the owners my story, they didn’t seem surprised. I have a feeling it wasn’t the first time that little rascal Murph had pulled that trick!
