But surely you chose to apply and then accept this sit? Or did they suddenly increase the number of pets before you started the sit? I never apply for such sits, because I simply can’t be bothered with such a workload.
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Not true. These two statements are not equivalent.
“Hosts lie” is a generalization or a generic. It only takes one honest host to make this statement technically false in a strict logical sense.
“Some hosts lie sometimes” is 100% true even if only one host has ever lied once. By adding “sometimes,” you are also acknowledging that they don’t lie all the time. It allows for the existence of honest hosts
Furthermore
“Hosts lie” is representative of a “What if” and is rooted in anxiety; it assumes a negative outcome for all future interactions.
“Some hosts lie sometimes” is representative of “positive potential.”
The two statements point in opposite directions, and therefore, they are not equivalent
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You are so right @august. Thank you
(Edited to comply with the posting guidelines)
Airplanes fly. That’s a true statement yet not all planes fly. Some are scrapped, others permanently parked.
Dogs bark. Not every dog barks, some howl. But the statement is still true.
Cars go fast. Some cars don’t go fast but saying cars go fast is accurate.
It’s a matter of perception and how close to the line one might toe when it comes to semantics.
To be clear, the host stated that the responsibility was far less than what transpired. The huge difference between a couple pets and 9 sick and filthy ones could easily be addressed by THS having a stipend attached to large numbers of pets with special needs. Again, I am not talking about lovely farm stays.
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You knew there were 9 pets when applying. Did you ask about their behaviour, medication needs etc on a video call?
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On THS listings, the number of animals is never written as “a couple of pets”.
What did it say?
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I assume in your review you stated the amount of work, and that a paid sitter would be a better fit?
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The only relevant factor here is this :
Did they tell you BEFORE you took the sit about all of their animals and their requirements ?
If so, you knew the responsibilities and time necessities. I’m sorry to hear that it was an unacceptable amount of work for you…..and you knew what the commitments were.
If they did NOT tell you, that is a whooooole different scenario and perhaps it warrants a notice to THS.
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What a dream sit !
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It’s highly unlikely that THS will put in any sort of arbitrary guidelines for an arbitrary number of pets.
If a sitter feels a particular sit is asking beyond what they feel is a fair exchange, they are free not to apply. If a sit seems more involved at the outset based on information provided in the listing, such as a large number of animals–and the sitter is interested in possibly doing it– it is important to ask questions about whatever they think is important to know to get a clearer picture of what their day to day may look like.
Of course it is possible that there are questions they don’t think to ask, and things the hosts don’t think to mention.You probably can’t anticipate every situation or challenge you may encounter. Or it is possible a host could be misleading–though I don’t think this is commonplace. There is always risk involved.
Experience is a good teacher for housesitting in particular, and based on this experience, you may decide you will no longer take sits that have more than X pets. There may be certain questions that you add to your pre-confirmation chats, etc..
And speaking of this generally, I think that hosts can request whatever they want from the sitter and people can decide for themselves if it is something they want to do or not. What one sitter would see as being beyond the scope of their responsibilities or not a ‘fair’ exchange’ another would have no problem doing; it might even be something they enjoy doing.
I certainly don’t think THS should insert themselves in the ways some sitters seem to think they should when it comes to matters like this, such as setting rules about number of pets, things you can and cannot ask the sitter to do etc… No one ever seems to like the outcomes when they get more involved.
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The rule is in Terms & Conditions | TrustedHousesitters.com :
5.2.12. not have any pets which aren’t explicitly listed in the details of the Home Listing;
And so far, the OP has declined to tell us what the listing said.
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Our first sit was for 12 animals !!
Two dogs to be fed, walked on the property and cuddled in the evening and 10 hens - all we had to do was feed the hens and collect the eggs and eat them .. ( the eggs ) They had someone who came in to clean the hen house every week so there was no cleaning up to do !
So setting a maximum number won’t solve the problem of too many responsibilities. 6 rabbits or 10 gold fish or 5 tortoises do not require too much time and attention daily and even 12 feral cats fed outside once day isn’t too onerous and might be “easier “ than 1 cat with dementia that requires meds several times a day .
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It does seem a bit strange. Posting partial information, and then not following up responding to the obvious questions.
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It would be nice if you could filter by the number of animals. I have an idea of what I would be comfortable with (and even then you never know) and it would be nice to filter out the sits that I know I can’t apply to.
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just signed up for a similar one next January, with horses and ponies, as opposed to Alpacas.
For me it is not about the work involved with a large number of pets but more the stress of the increased possibility of one going astray, becoming ill or worse still dying in your care. An increase in animals statistically increases the possibility however well you are taking care of them.
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@LaQuerencia, kudos to you on diligent pet care.
Housesitters vary a great deal in terms of listing preferences. There is no ‘right’ sit, but there is a great-fit sit between pet parent, pet care and housesitter.
As they gain experience, and probably learn from some form of bad situations, most housesitters refine their requirements/preferences to improve their future housesit experiences.
Feeling physically exhausted during a housesit strikes us fundamentally undesirable.
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It’s up to the sitters to decide for themselves what they are interested in.
I’ve done 2 high pegt number sits (not counting a tank of fish).
1 dog and 6 cats.
6 cats, 4 chickens and a lizard.
They weren’t much work at all. The most demanding sit I’ve done was for 2 dogs.
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