So we’ve all been responsible for dogs, cats and other pets while the owners were away. Sometimes, especially if the pet is young and learning(!) accidental damage occurs to things in the home. My wife was reading a book that the home owners were happy for her to borrow during our stay and the Viszlas totally destroyed it overnight! We told the Home owners and they were very forgiving !
I left my wash bag open in my room and the dog got in and rummaged through while I was in another part of the house. I could hear barking so came to check on the dog. It had started chewing my electric toothbrush and inadvertently activated it by pressure on the start button! No real harm done.
On another occasion it got at the electric shaver which fell out into the floor and fell apart. Fortunately the dog didn’t eat any of the mix of metal and plastic assorted pieces that resulted.
I am now growing quite a decent looking beard which was a direct result of pet sitting in an isolated area with no easy access to an electric razor replacement.. I expect when I meet up with my wife, who isn’t on this particular sit with me, there will be pressure for me to lose my new facial furry friend!
On one sit the home owner said she’d taken a nap and taken out her hearing aids and put them on the bedside table.. the puppy was used to sleeping on the beds.. when she woke up there was only one hearing aid! The puppy must have eaten the other one! It was a great tip as I also have hearing aids and they aren’t cheap to replace! I had to hide my hearing aids before dozing off!
On cat duty I noticed an expensive EarPod on the stairs.. not sure where its twin was but put it safely away and told Home Owner I’d found one…
Kittens and pups are especially playful and, like toddlers, require very close supervision in my experience.
Any other examples of accidental damage by pets whilst on duty?
I was told by PP that the dog had separation anxiety and to make sure no food is at the edge of the kitchen counter or the dog will get to it. First day I left for an hour to go food shopping. I drove to the sit and had some stables with me. I left a box of crackers in the middle of the kitchen Island thinking that was not in reach of the dog. The island was taller than the kitchen counters and I left a few canned things and this box of crackers there. Their cupboards were full. I come back and underestimated the height of the dog on two legs. He got to the box and used it as a play toy. I could tell by the teeth marks that he shook it. When he did box opened and crackers everywhere. I came back and started sweeping everything up and the cat decided to join the fun as she just came in through her cat door. She started batting the crackers and into the connected living room where she batted it under the couch. There I am on my hands and knees retrieving the crackers under the couch where I also found the toy mouse I brought her. They were both such sweet adorable creatures that I could not get mad. Lesson learned.
Mine was a night guard (a mouth guard I wore at night) that an older dog took one bite into and decided it wasn’t his thing.
A few sits later I left its replacement at a sit. It’s a good thing I found an inexpensive mail order source for those things! 
I was vacuuming before leaving a sit and the year-old pup chewed on the handle of a high-quality leather bean bag chair while my back was turned. She’d sat on that chair many times before while I lounged on a sofa, without her doing any damage, so that was unexpected. I told the hosts on their return and they shrugged it off.
On another sit, I’d routinely put everything out of the year-old dog’s reach. But I was hot one afternoon and took off a hoodie, which she ended up chewing. The funny thing is, she chewed inside a pocket, so you can’t easily see the damage. But I wouldn’t have minded anyway, because I don’t generally bring nice clothes on sits.
I sometimes pack one nice outfit, say if I know I want to have afternoon tea out, but I wouldn’t leave that accessible to a sit pet, since I don’t know their typical behavior yet.
If I’m sitting cats, I also stow away my entire suitcase, to avoid peeing incidents. I haven’t experienced that, but I know some cats do that. One set of hosts had had that happen before and even told me that they’d pay for anything their cats damaged. But I’ve sat for them twice and haven’t had issues yet.
I sat for some friends once. They had a overly energetic Doberman. We went out to get some dinner and brought it home. In that time she had chewed a pen on the rug under the dining room table. This was a nice very clean house with nice things and one of the owners was very high strung and very tidy. We were in a panic. I search how to get ink out of a carpet. With a lot of time and patience we were able to get rhe stain out of the fibers- although you could still see the stain when you looked at the nottom side of the rug. We texted the owners with a explanation and pictures. Our very tidy friend texted back that it was all ok he always hated that rug. Next time we sat for them the rug was gone.
Your post reminded me of an occasion when we were sitting a couple of young Viszlas who lived in the breakfast room where the Aga was but had access to the kitchen too. To be fair the Home Owners had warned us keep things out of their reach.
I had cooked a large dish of Shepherd’s Pie and as it was hot I placed it on the kitchen window shelf which I thought was well out of reach. The dogs clearly also thought it smelled delicious and I had underestimated their reach. When I was next in the kitchen it was clear their tongues had reached that extra critical distance and I cut that section out and didn’t mention it to the wife !
From then on nothing was left out!
