Greetings @Felinelover!
I like your idea about allowing a sitter a certain amount to spend but I can see a lot of issues with this, and I know it is unintentional!!! I would take away where they are able to use $XX dollars for each pet.
As you can see from my example, with my own dog, I had to make a choice to spend $3,600 and I had to make the choice in about 10 minutes as she needed emergency surgery…otherwise bad things would have begun to happen sooner rather than later. My dog was not in the position to go home and “think about it” or get a second opinion elsewhere.
But just se my example unless you have something better to compare this with. If you gave your sitter a limit to spend on each pet of $250…and the veterinarian is telling your sitter they need $1,800 before they touch the dog (or cat in your case I assume based on your name!)…what do you expect your sitter to do? You are putting them in bad situation, and I know this is unintentional of you to do so.
IF you reachable, have good service and the such, this is not a problem at all. A simple FaceTime or phone call with the sitter, yourself and the veterinarian is all you need. But as the gentlemen told me in the waiting room…while I had one puppy snoring on my feet and another in surgery…he simply told me for $50, I can have my dog euthanized and cremated in a mass burial. This man, he was not wrong. Unfortunately, people are in the position where this is something they are forced to do. Please realize, I am in America and parts of the world are different. But the veterinarian office…they don’t budge and for good reason. They are in business of caring for animals, making money and they are NOT in the business to hire lawyers to collect claims…nor are they loan officers and banks.
I know some will say, “Just charge it on my credit card and I will just pay interest for 10 years.” For some, that is well worth the cost of having an animals illness reversed and health restored again…if I didn’t money and I had a credit limit high enough…that would be my option!!!
But let that sink in…are you going to put your sitter in a situation where they must make a choice in a time sensitive emergency to;
- Using their OWN money (if they have enough!)…which is the entire purpose this thread is to prevent this from happening and worry if you can or will pay them back?
- Trying to track you down…which may be simple or in one of my cases, impossible.
- Making the decision to euthanize your animal because they only have $250 to spend and the quote is $3,600? And you find out from a phone call your animal is dead because of money…in the USA…based on everything above, the sitter wouldn’t be wrong.
Think a little bit more about putting limits on something. Sometimes, minor health issues (with animals AND humans!) can be put off to dealt with later. A majority of the time, that is the case.
I think your solution to the sitter is to let them know they have $XX to spend and if something urgent or more is needed, to track you down.
I am sorry for the long winded response…don’t worry, I type fast so this didn’t take much time an didn’t realize how long this was until I went back to proof read once.
I hope this helps! Either way, thank you for the opportunity to ponder on this.
Abolutely!