Thank you for this support, and this illustrates my point beautifully. As an owner, be honest about what you know about your pets so that a potential sitter doesn’t end up suffering.
I wanted to add one more point in response to your assertion that having one of the outdoor cats bring kills inside the home for me to dispose of is something that should have been “expected.” I have just re-read their listing, which details that because a cat in their neighborhood was recently killed on the road, the sitter should let the cats out “only under supervision”, when in doubt the sitter should “not let them out” and that there was a litter box that “they all used”. So clearly, when I applied, I was expecting that I would have the option to keep them inside, which would have been my preference, since I would never want anything to happen to an animal on my watch. It was only on arrival that I discovered the offending cat could use the cat door to come and go as he pleased and to potentially bring in a dead bird into the home. Again, none of this is the cat’s fault, but I am taking issue with an inaccurate description (which is still listed this way) and lack of disclosure on the part of the homeowners.
Could the cat door be closed? You might not remember now, but some cat flaps can be locked so animals can’t get in or out.
I know that you disagree, based on your reply to @Hallt64, but it really isn’t unusual for outdoor cats to hunt. Just because some HOs specially mention this behavior doesn’t mean that others don’t experience it. Similarly, just because you’ve sat for 2 cats that didn’t bring prey home, doesn’t negate the fact that it is normal. You were lucky so far. Even based just on your experience, 33% of outside cats hunt, making it fairly common. See this post for more discussion about the topic: Questions on next cats sitting - #16 by Twitcher
We all learn a lot as we do more and more pet sits, and this was a very unfortunate experience. You now have some additional questions to ask a HO before accepting a sit. If you read this forum enough (and the other platforms that discuss pet sits), you will see that seasoned sitters and HOs recommend not assuming or guessing anything, even the obvious. Don’t assume that the house will be clean, that the sitter will not drink your expensive wine, etc, etc. The horror stories are few, but mind-blowing
You and I could go back and forth about this all day. The bottom line is, I’m 57 years old and my very limited experience on this website is not indicative of my experience with cat care over the course of my lifetime.
Moreover basing a statistic on a sample size of four cats is ridiculous. Even if I were indulging you, your calculations were incorrect as they had 2 cats who went outside, not one, which would make your sample size four, not three. The cat door did not lock, and if it had, the owners were with me for 8+ hours after I arrived and they had ample time to mention i, which I assure you they did not.
You seem to be completely glossing over the point of the gross negligence they displayed in failing to offer me assistance of any kind in getting medical care until I showed them signs of sepsis the next day. Diplomatically telling me I’m lucky because there are many bad situations out there is frankly commentary I could do without.
Hi. I just wanted to chime in as a retired triage nurse. Standard medical algorithms for a cat bite (that breaks the skin) would be to prescribe antibiotics prophylactically as 50% will become infected. This is regardless of whether the cat goes outside.
Consideration would also be given to updating tetanus if ithe person’s immunization was out of date. In Canada, these are routinely given every 10 years.
As for rabies, that treatment may also need to be discussed if the cat’s rabies vaccination status could not be verified.
Bottom line: seek medical attention quickly. As @Kimmie can confirm, the infection can come on fast and progress rapidly.
I can vouch for the fact that cat bites can cause infection even if they don’t go outside - the cat that caused me several courses of antibiotics was an indoor cat.
Same with me and one of my dogs. I had arranged a swap with a couple from Brighton, England. One of my dogs (we later determined he had a frontal lobe tumor that was changing his personality), became increasingly aggressive towards other dogs, people, and even iffy at times with me. As the month approached for the sit, I decided it wasn’t fair to the potential sitters. They had previously met my dog and thought they could handle it but I was uneasy.
I made the decision to have my regular paid petsitter watch him (she knew him well). Since one of my friends was going to Brighton with me, we had the visiting couple stay at her house without any pets to watch. It worked for everyone (except my pocketbook). We all have to look out for each other.