Hello,
I’m looking for a little support please.
I recently completed an extended sit, the most challenging in almost a decade of housesitting through THS. I found the homeowner particularly demanding, and lacking in consideration and appreciation.
Her dog was mischievous and poorly trained. He would pull terribly on walks, dragging me down the street and causing me whiplash because he’d chase after other dogs or birds while on the lead. The first night after his owner’s departure he barked through the night so I didn’t get any sleep. Knowing I would be there for a few months, I phoned the homeowner and stated that if this was a sign of things to come, I wouldn’t be able to continue. I was exhausted, having driven a long distance to get there, and I made the grave error of being emotional. That resulted in my first ever four-star review, where she also docked stars for reliability and self-sufficiency because I indicated I was upset for having been kept awake all night, leading her to believe she would need to pay for dog care for the subsequent four months, even though I ultimately stayed the duration.
But the reason I am seeking support is the response to my review of her. I left a considered, unemotional and factual two-star review, detailing the issues I had experienced. She has responded turning literally EVERYTHING back on me.
A couple of examples. I had to change plans with my previous homeowner in order to ensure there was overlap with the current homeowner, as she didn’t want to leave the dog alone for two hours between my arrival and her departure. Please note, I had visited her and the dog one evening the previous month in order to put her mind at ease, so this would not have been our first meeting. I went to some effort to do this and the lovely homeowner had to enlist the help of a family member to take over. In her response to my review, she said that it is customary for there to be an overlap and the issue of leaving the dog for two hours before my arrival should never have existed in the first place.
Communication was the biggest demand placed on me, both before and during the sit, where I felt she used me to bridge the gap between her attachment to her dog and her desire to travel for an extended period. She contacted me months before the sit began asking for advice about how to calm her dog during firework season. I was happy to help, but the regular communication continued for several months while I was on other sits. It got to the point I had to tell her that I was dealing with challenges associated with another sit I was on, the implication being that I couldn’t also absorb the guilt she was continually expressing and seeking my reassurance for.
In her response to my review, she stated that the reason for the prolonged contact was to provide me with ‘emotional support’ because I had expressed how difficult the sit I was on was! The audacity! I am honestly in awe that she could turn me setting a boundary around to suggest I was seeking her support.
She has done this for pretty much every point I raised in my review, making herself the victim and me the ‘bad guy’. Admittedly, she has shown her attitude towards sitters, including stating she ‘let’ me stay in her home and I sincerely hope any sitter will sense the tone in her response and decide against sitting for her.
I have never left anything other than four or five star reviews, and I feel she has gone to some effort to refute every point I have made. I guess I’m just looking for a morsel of compassion as I feel a little vulnerable. Thank you.
This was the homeowner’s second sit, though the first was only a week long, and she used it as an example of what I should be doing, i.e. ‘My last sitters had no problem arriving three hours early…’ The red flags were there long before the sit started but I wanted to stick it out to ensure I didn’t cause any difficulties for the HO on her travels. That turned out to be to my own detriment.
