Dealing with four quirky cats in Mexico!

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

Good morning, everyone,

I’m doing my first TH cat sitting gig in Tulum, Mexico. Previously, I had done several house/pet sits in the Lake Chapala area (near Guadalajara) as well as this past summer in Portland, Oregon.

Almost from the start, managing four (yes, four!) cats has been increasingly stressful and I’m honestly at my wits end. The client/owner is in Spain (she speaks limited English and I speak limited Spanish) and I had messaged her around the cats coming inside her apartment at dinnertime. They are supposed to ALL be in the apartment at dinnertime and locked inside the home for the night. Anyway, there has been tension between us as I try to manage this sit and am faced with what seems like an impossible circumstance. I regret taking on this gig and I have through Tuesday night (12/23) for this gig.

Additionally, if I need to head out (I have a separate apartment in Tulum) for assorted things, the cats must be, like in the evening, in the apartment and locked. This has proven to be enormously difficult as there is always one or two cats that will not come inside.

I often recruit the apartment complex neighbor to help me coax the other cat(s) to come inside. Frankly, she is not successful, nor am I. Complicating things, in part because the owner is Spanish and speaks to the cats in Spanish, is the fact that the cats likely cannot understand me at all!

The owner herself gets extremely agitated at my messages re: assorted difficulties and has practically no sympathy for me. Calling or messaging with anything that reflects problems and challenges only gets her more angry.

What I have had to do, twice: close the guest room, place some cat food near the open window (there’s a spiral staircase adjacent to the window) and therefore try to “trap” the cat.

One idea I had: get and keep all four cats in the apartment for through this Tuesday evening and leave them there (of course I’d be free to run some essential errands; otherwise, I’d be around for company).

There is more to share but I can write a book at this time. I am sure I will get extremely poor ratings for this gig (otherwise I have had five stars from the other gigs) but I literally am trapped in the apartment unless EVERY CAT is inside the apartment.

Talk about regret! Any ideas or feedback would be appreciated.

2

Thoughts that come to mind for me:

  • Were these details in the listing?
  • Were they in the Welcome Guide (which is an essential, in my opinion)?
  • Did you have a video call or prior visit and review all details? (again, essential in this scenario)
  • Are you being considerate of the time zone difference when contacting the owner?

Red flag you may have missed or chosen to overlook:

  • With a complex sit, a language barrier can easily complicate things.

Given you say you have an apartment in the same location, if you’d turned up to significantly different details that were not disclosed, you could have (conveniently for you) opted to refuse the sit. If an owner intentionally omits details, they don’t deserve loyalty/obligation from a sitter.

You say the story is much longer and it does seem as though essential details may be missing.

I have no comment as to what you should do from hereon in. My observations will hopefully help you be more discerning before agreeing to a sit.

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3

It’s perfectly reasonable to keep the cats indoors if they do not come back as the host requires - provided that they have indoor litter trays ?

Are you staying over at your own apartment

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4

As a cat person, I would NEVER consider a sit where any cat herding is involved. It’s easier to walk on water. But you’re in it now soooo…

Why are you contacting the owner to get their help on how to herd cats? What can she do from Spain? I know I would quickly get annoyed with a sitter constantly messaging me about stuff I can do nothing about.

Also why would you tell the owner about problems getting the cats to come inside? Owners with indoor/outdoor cats might want their cats indoors at night but that is entirely up to the cats. Expecting cats to obediently come inside when a stranger calls them suggests a fundamental misunderstanding by you and the owner on cat behavior.

Finally, I very much doubt there’s a language barrier between you and the cats.

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5

Thank you…I did an onsite visit and was not given a welcome guide but a 15-page PDF guide with all of the details. I “met” the cats…all of them and knew that they were all going to take time to warm up to me. The visit more or less reflected what was in the guide. The reality is that one of the cats is very, very skittish and resistant to going in the house. In the bigger scheme of things, I should have NOT taken this job. The language gap alone is a problem and the cats, of course, don’t understand me (remember, this the first time I am working with a Spanish-speaking client). I will have to do the best I can and will somehow manage. Thank you for your input. I learned a hard lesson in that I NEED to thoroughly understand what’s involved and if it doesn’t feel right, then decline.

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Hello and thank you for the response, Silversitters. Right, depending on my outings as well as the “hard in-the-house” time (6:30pm), I have tried to start that process before 6:30pm but it’s not always easy. Yes, the litter boxes go outside and then return inside at the 6:30pm hour. This is a stayover gig though I visit my apartment about one time per day.

7

Good afternoon, OTRA,

I appreciate your feedback regarding messaging the owner in Europe; you’re right, there’s not much she can do. I agree that indoor/outdoor cats don’t care about routines or schedules. I have been house/pet sitting for many years and also have never looked after more than one or two pets. The owner, who I assume rarely leaves her home, has a very different connection with her pets and was “expecting” them to stick to my getting them to all come in when necessary, especially at the 6:30pm dinner/permanent “all-inside” timeline.

To your point, there definitely was/is a discrepancy around assumptions of “cat behavior.”

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8

This does seem like hard work, but luckily you’ve only got another day to go! The next time the cats are all in, I would shut the doors and keep them in until you leave :smiley:

As a home-owner, it’s hard to predict how your pets will behave with someone else, even when that someone else is doing their best to follow your routines. I think both parties need to expect the unexpected.

So, some lessons learned:

  • learn some basic phrases in the other language for the pets (eg, whatever “Here, kitty kitty” might be in Spanish)
  • contingency plans (what to do if the animal doesnt behave as expected).

Deep breaths, only one more day to go…

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9

At this point, given what you described about your interactions with your host, I’d limit reaching out to her. It doesn’t sound productive. Just do the best you can to get the cats fed, watered, littered and in for the evenings.

When I consider sitting indoor / outdoor cats, I always ask what happens if they don’t return, because that’s always a possibility, especially if their primary humans go away and a stranger(s) suddenly turns up at their home. If the hosts in such cases aren’t realistic about that, I would avoid the sit. I would never take a sit where I’d be expected to hunt for a pet(s) that is routinely let out.

In one case, I have repeat sat for a household with indoor / outdoor cats. The cats have previously not returned regularly for other sitters, which the hosts and I discussed from the outset. If they hadn’t been realistic and had expected me to promise that I’d get the cats in each night, I wouldn’t have even taken the first sit. But they were realistic and that’s why we matched well. And as it turns out, the cats love me and have returned every night. So the hosts have offered me airfare to repeat sit, because it gives them extra peace of mind. But I don’t promise that the cats will keep returning every night – that’s not something in my control.

Not speaking the language further complicates sits and I personally avoid those, because I’d rather keep my sitting low risk, low stress. And I know I can provide better care for pets when I can communicate with locals and vets, in case of emergencies.

It sounds like you now better understand your own tolerances and preferences, so just do the best you can till this sit wraps up. Fortunately, it sounds like it’s a relatively short sit. In your review, I’d be upfront that you bit off more than you can chew, if you’re expecting a bad review anyway. Better to do that and not sound defensive or argumentative, because other hosts will be reading. Plus, if you make clear that the host expected the cats inside overnight no matter what, you can potentially help warn off other sitters.

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10

Maggie8K…yes to all of this! I have other friends who do house/pet sits, some privately others via TH. I’ve decided to keep all four cats inside as I go out multiple times per day and that would mean the added stress of coaxing all of them to return inside the apartment. As of yesterday late afternoon, they’re all in the apartment and they will stay there until the cat mom returns late from Europe. I’ll personally hang out with them till late as well as they can’t be left alone beyond three hours. Of course, feedings are all timed perfectly and they’re pretty much happy! Also, there are two litter boxes, etc. All working out fine. But, yeah, there was the expectation that I’d have a) find the cats and b) ensure they’re all inside. Love your suggestions re: my biting off more than I could chew. Customer and I are on far better terms with me severely limiting any communication other than, at her request, sending a few photos of her cats. Fingers crossed! Thank you again!

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11

Ketch, many thanks. Yep, that’s exactly what I did yesterday afternoon. ALL are now inside and are doing just fine. As long as I’m not gone for long hours…all is well!

12

Our first ever THS housesit involved six (!!!) cats who all had to be inside by sunset. A completely unreasonable request - according to the cats - since that’s when the nightlife starts. After several evenings of negotiating, pleading, and questioning our life choices, we found the solution: the treat box. One rattle and — poof — six cats instantly materialised indoors.

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13

Cats don’t really respond to verbal commands so I don’t think they care if your Spanish is limited. They are out of their routine because you are not the normal human who occupies their territory, so they are skittish about returning indoors with you there.

Unfortunately this is just difficult and if you get all cats indoors, I would just keep them there for the duration of the sit.

Sorry it sounds like the HO put you in a very unfair situation.

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14

That’s great if the cats are motivated by treats. Unfortunately, I’ve not found that to be motivating enough with some cats.

15

Not to derail OP’s thread too much but we had a couple of stray cats wandering our neighborhood. I got a trap from a rescue that would take them if we caught them. The rescue gave us advice on food to try, in order of effectiveness at luring the cats into the trap:

  1. Wet food eg Friskies

4. Vienna sausages

3. Can of tuna fish

  1. Can of sardines

If none of those worked they advised to try… (wait for it…) Kentucky Fried Chicken, original recipe.

Lil buggers made us go through all of them but the fried chicken is what ultimately did the trick!

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16

Hello everyone, I appreciated all the feedback. In a few hours, I’ll be finished with this fairly demanding house/cat sit. As of two days ago, I have had all four cats inside the apartment and they are just fine! Well-fed and cared for. Litter boxes are all fresh and the apartment is almost cleaned up. A few touches left then I will leave for my apartment in central Tulum. Lots of lessons learned here and honoring my gut in terms of accepting or turning down future house/pet sitting gigs with TH (and outside of it, too). Enjoy the holiday season, Very Warmly, Mark N.

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17

Glad you’re nearly done. Hope you can use what you’ve learned for better sits onward and can otherwise put this stressful sit behind you. Happy holidays!