Our most eventful first day - we arrived after a tiring journey late afternoon, as arranged, the owners having left a couple of hours before to catch their flight . A lovely home with large picture windows in the lounge that looked onto a beautiful garden . We met and feed the pets, unpacked our bags, cooked a meal that the kind owners had left for us in the fridge and found a good movie to watch on the hosts steaming services . We then sat down on the sofa and settled in for the evening.
The movie had only just begun when there was a loud explosion and the floor to ceiling picture window in the room exploded !
It shattered into a million tiny tinkling sharp shards of glass ! The owners were uncontactable over the Atlantic on their flight - That was an eventful start to the stay !
First we had to keep the pets safe by shutting them away in another room. Took photos of the window( non-window) .
Called a neighbour(who is a builder) they very kindly came round even though it was late evening. We carefully swept up. Found large sheets of cardboard as a temporary cover for the large pane of glass. We had to wait 16 hours for the owners to receive our messages when they eventually reached their destination and got back on-line.
In the end the owners were happy for their builder neighbour to arrange for a replacement window. When they returned from their holiday three weeks later, it had all been fixed. They were really grateful that we had been in situ when it happened and weāve been invited back to house sit for them several times since.
Good sport for unwrapping the day 1 discovery! We head to France for 2 sitsā¦ so this caught by my attention.
Stayed now 10 sitsā¦ yeah and 8 out of 10 been wonderful. What is with āresource guardianā slangā¦ one sit they would steal food or anything you handle off the counters if you turn your backā¦ EVERYTHING!!! Just state the dogs have aggressive tendencies!
Listing did not mention this at all only when we did the walk through and they left. Then it took as 3 days to figure out we had to blockade the kitchen to keep them out so we can meal prep / EAT / clean without stressing etc ā¦ really unfortunate.
Next interview we ask if they do these thingsā¦
Thinking this has been an issue in the past as we went back and a few sitters didnāt leave reviews.
@Debbie I hope the rest of your first international sit is more relaxing and not quite so eventful !
You did a great job managing it all , being thrown in at the deep end on your first day ! I am sure that experiences from your previous U.K. house sitting helped you to deal with the situation calmly and resourcefully.
Your family is certainly getting the āliving like the locals ā travel experience that THS promises ( albeit crammed into in one eventful day ! )
Resource guarding is specific to food, toys, sometimes humans and such. It means that if the dog thinks resource X is threatened, theyāll guard it. Like our rescue used to resource guard toys. We broke him of that by inundating him with piles of cheap toys from Amazon and leaving them in heaps all over. Now heās chill about them. It was specific behavior under specific circumstances ā not random aggression.
Wow @Debbie, I hope the rest of your stay is more relaxing! I was worried the tale of taking the cat to the vet would evolve into my mumās. She took her first cat to the vet for his vaccinations or a check up, he objected strongly to the vet and promptly bit my mum, leading to her heading to the hospital for a vaccine of her ownā¦ What goes around comes around I guess!
@Silversitters that must have been so scary with the window. Fortuitous indeed that you were there and the HOs hadnāt boarded their pets. Iād hate to see the state of that room after potentially 3 weeks unsecured! Just goes to show housesitters arenāt just beneficial for pet owners.
Currently on a sit in Milan, where the cat got an eye injury half an hour before the owner had to leave. And that on a Sunday. Frantic exchange of WhatsApp messages followes through the Sunday morning, ending with her sending a vet to the appartment on sunday afternoon at 5 because that is when she landed and could be called by the vet when he arrived. i obviously do not speak Italian (Vet spoke some conversational English luckily). Luckily nothing serious was wrong, simply some irritation of the eye. All is well with the cats eye now(Thursday)
Well that is quite a start! Hopefully the rest of the pet sit is not quite so eventful!! Iām in southern France right now and have a menagerie of Elderly pets to look after With injections and administering medications involved, but nothing like a dead rat in the mouth of a cat!! Enjoy your stay hopefully it is a lot calmer for you now !!
@Hallt64 The sit has been fine after the drama of the first day!
We have not received any more unwelcome gifts from either of the hunters!
Marcel the diabetic cat with the injury is a total sweetheart, always purring and very chilled. He is normally an outdoor cat but we have set him up a bachelor pad in the master bedroom and the living room that ajoins it and he is coping well with being confined until his cut is healed. We keep him company for at least an hour each morning and evening when he has his food and injections. He is probably getting more fuss and company than if he was allowed outdoors. We are looking forward to being able to give him more freedom hopefully soon.
Hi sister Lucette is an independent kitty who loves to roam. She is very loving and a total purring machine, just like her brother and will run to greet us each morning. Both cats love to have their tummies stroked and are really gentle. No mood swings and claws from this pair!
Lilli the 11 month old terrier pup is full of energy and loves to chew. She walks beautifully on a lead and is pretty calm around other dogs. She is good fun to play with in the garden and regularly makes us laugh. We accidentally discovered she loves to chase the reflection from the sun on a mobile phone screen - a bit like a cat with a laser pointer - so we have a good option to quickly burn off some energy!
Iām on my first sit for three kitties who go outside most of the day. I collect them from the neighbours (they love her yard) every evening around 7 pm.
The house is about 4 blocks away from the Commonwealth Stadium (Edmonton, AB).
When there are concerts, you can hear them clearly. I like it, but it is loud.
about the puppy: have to tried to ātradeā with the dog: a very delicious treat against the ācatchā? We have cats that leave āgiftsā for our elderly dog around the house. The dog can swallow a reg. sized mouse whole but bigger āgiftsā I can āretrieveā by offering her a nice treat before she getās it down. Just a suggestion thoughā¦
Our āEventful first dayā sit ends tomorrow afternoon.
Todayās big news is that Marcel is free! As his wound is no longer open, today we let him outside for the first time since his vet visit.
A shaky start with his sister Lucette hissing at him (not unexpected after not seeing him for 9 days). They seem to have sorted their differences out now.
Marcel has been enjoying his freedom by:-
Climbing a tree (at least twice)
Chasing the dog (also twice - it turns out that our chilled placid boy is feisty as anything when faced with an excitable terrier puppy)
Checking in with us for regular fuss and cuddles (yay, he still loves us!)
If he hadnāt had his injury, we would never have had so much opportunity to bond with him. He has gone straight to the top of our favourite kitties list, and we will really miss him. He and his sister are both really special, gentle cats. Unless you are a terrierā¦
I had one sit where the owners were going to southern Africa for 2 weeks. About the time their plane was taking off so theyād be offline for about 20 hours, I spotted one of the cats limping up the stairs. All of their cats were former ferals so super skittish and wanted nothing to do with it. I had to crawl under the bed and drag this cat out to discover that his leg was broken. Not just broken, shattered in 9 different places.
The HOs hadnāt told me where the cat carrier was (in the attic above the garage) and I hadnāt asked (lessons learned) so I had to put kitty on a pillow in a laundry basket. wrap the basket in a towel, then put the towel wrapped basket into another basket to secure it. I then walked 20 minutes through town carrying a howling cat in a laundry basket to get to the vet.
The vet wanted to amputate due to the severity of the break. I, obviously, couldnāt make that choice so we settled Mr cat into a kennel, gave him some meds for the pain, and I went home to plan how I was going to explain this to them when I called them and ruined the first day of their holiday. That was fun.
Ultimately, they decided to try to save his leg. A specialist surgeon came in and performed surgery that was intense enough that he ended up writing it up and presenting it at conferences. I spent a couple hours a day at the vet sitting with Mr cat while he healed as we werenāt comfortable with me bringing him home since he wouldnāt come to me.
When the HOs returned I helped them prepare a room for him to live in while recovering and helped bring him home. That was almost 10 years ago, Iām still friends with the HO, have sat for her again and visited just when Iām in the area (including in June for a weekend), and Mr cat just passed away in the spring after a long but very accident prone life (heād broken another leg and a hip in the interim).
That was the craziest first day (few hours) but Iāve had other crazy things including a cat cancer diagnosis and violent murdering chickens.
