Sit Essentials. Let's Do It Properly

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
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I’m concerned that there just aren’t enough boxes for HOs to tick in their listings and we sitters are still applying blind, when so many essentials could be specified right at application stage. These are just a few that have occurred to me, based on recent experiences. Of course, it’s a far from exhaustive list. We need more - many, many more.

OK for sitters to re-decorate the house; with glitter? How about sell the house and retire to Midway Atoll on the proceeds?

What is the maximum ransom you’re prepared to pay for your pets a) collectively b) separately?

OK for sitters to teach the dog to give a very loud howl and fall down dead every time he hears the word “orange”?

OK for sitters to train your dragon?

OK for sitters to dance naked in front of the Ring lens, singing PollyWollyDoodle?

What time should sitters have loud arguments? Need these be with real people?

What colour socks should sitters wear on Sundays?

May sitters ask existential questions?

May sitters try to hypnotise your cats?

If allowing use of your car, OK for sitters to enter it in the Peking-to-Paris rally?

a) Don’t be silly

b) Yes, but I’ll need to get my sandwiches out of the glove compartment first

c) You GO, girl! Rah rah rah!

OK for sitters to entertain the 35th Dragoon Guards/ Female chorus line at the Folies (as applicable)

a) Yes

b) No

c) Yes, but not both at once.

High explosives: Yes or No?

OK for sitters to do crosswords? Simple or Cryptic?

OK for sitters to mock your cutlery? Loudly or quietly?

OK for sitters to draw up complex legal documents at your kitchen table? How about anatomical diagrams?

OK for sitters to replace all your outside plants with plastic ones?

a) Yes

b) No

c) Not the vegetables, please.

May sitters dematerialise in one room and re-materialise in another? Has your house been beam-proofed? If so: Accept the consequences – Yes or No?

What is your policy on Cossack dancers?

Do you know your sitters are raging arctophiles?

Is everything OK? Are you sure?

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:rofl::rofl::rofl: had to google “arctophiles” wow I can’t wait for the rest of the list, you put my thoughts to shame​:wink:

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Now they’re going to have to add this to the listing checklist, because I am ABSOLUTELY going to do this with every dog I sit from now on.

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Love this. Can I add my “things I would like to do if my wife let me” list?

  1. Decorate a wall like a crime scene investigation wall before leaving

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  2. Leave some sexy underwear on the line

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  3. Post an ai image of the house with a for sale sign on a local Facebook page

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That is all now compulsory.

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Maybe change this to “acting” dead? :rofl:

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Arctophile, my new word for today.

I love it, I am not one but could easily become one. I am a POLARBEAROPHILE, and a FOXOPHILE

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Oh jeez, yes…thought that was implied! :joy:

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So did I, but ………. Sheesh!

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Polarbearophile…. Hmmmm… I think you mean an Arctorphicophile… :thinking:

Anyway, sadly my experience is that that’s a red flag to most HOs.

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ursusophile or vulpesphile

on my current sit I am protecting the chickens not from foxes, but from PINE MARTEN, beautiful, but ferocious predators.

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12

Love this post. The nightmare infantilising of users is exasperating. Already for established members, the endless (and needless) check box updates are a horror (made even more so because home owners aren’t necessarily informed of the changes - I have never been). I pity new members trying to navigate the THS labyrinth. What kind of mindset does management have to have to make “clunky” the new modus operandi? How about encouraging clear and direct communication? It ain’t rocket science

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I fear clear and direct - and polite - communication is a dying art. :frowning:

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arctophiles :astonished_face: there is a word for that!!! I had a sit that the hosts were the raging arctophiles! such a scary house,i felt watched all the time​:joy:

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It was time for a good laugh… but so true.
Thanks.