Professional Pet Sitters Week & Why Your Cat Wants A Pro
It’s Professional Pet Sitters Week
Who cat sits for you when you travel or can’t provide care for your beloved pets? Friends and neighbors can work well, until they don’t. Years ago, when I left on a short spa vacation, I felt comfortable leaving a new friend to care for my cat Merlin. She seemed to adore him. What could go wrong? I went out of my way to have cat sitters stay in my house so someone would be there all night. I came home and Merlin was not himself. My friend said everything was wonderful. Merlin looked miserable. After a close examination, I found the source of his misery: a large wooden splinter wedged in his belly. It looked like the kind of wood from the garden fence. I also found a large empty bottle of vodka in the garbage. When I confronted my friend she denied everything. To make a long story short, she’s no longer my friend and I take greater care selecting cat sitters.
When you don’t want to worry about what a cat sitter will do in an emergency or sudden illness, there’ only one solution: go pro. A certified cat sitter will know how to do CPR, can administer meds, expertly care for your pet and nothing more. They aren’t there to play video games, have parties, surf porn, have sex with the neighbor’s teenager or the worse case scenario: lose your cat. That’s what happened to writer Peter Trachtenberg when he left his cats in the care of a clueless college student. After a harrowing search and rescue, chronicled in his fascinating book, Another Insane Devotion, you’ll think twice who you leave your pets with.
For more info, check out my Q & A with pet sitter Jill Delzer. She use to live with famed cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy and used to work for her before he got his big break with his TV show My Cat from Hell. The tables turned, they broke up, Jill does some work for him now and they both date other people. What remains the same is their devotion to their pets.
Do you have any awful, weird or funny cat sitting stories?
Find a certified pet sitter near you. This locator includes certified pet sitters the U.S., Canada and Internationally.
24 Comments
Glogirly and Katie
We are very lucky to have an awesome pet sitter!
She LOVES Katie & Waffles and even moves in when we’re gone for an extended trip. She’s been pet sitting for us for 7 years.
If she ever moves we’ll be SO sad!
Clooney
Thanks for the B-Day wishes for Neytiri! This is a really good post…really great information as I have considered starting my own pet-sitting business so it is very thought-provoking for me. That was a scary experience for you with what happened with Merlin. The only time I have ever used a professional pet-sitter had me changing my mind, cancelling it and getting my keys back as after I had met her, given her my keys and left, I had a really bad nagging feeling, so I changed my mind. I am not away often and friends or family have taken care of my cats when I am away.
meowmeowmans
OMC, your story about your friend is SCARY! It’s really important to have a good petsitter, and luckily, we have one we trust lots.
Skeeter and Izzy
The opinion of my babies plays a large part in selection as well. There aren’t many people that they are welcoming too and if you’re one of them then you probably are a good pet sitter too!!
It is so hard to find someone that you can trust and rely on. You have to trust them with your precious “kids” and your home and other belongings as well. We are lucky to have a dear mature, cat loving neighbor that knows each of us well and we love her.
Luvs to all!
Skeeter and Izzy and the Feral Gang + Twig and Peanut and Romeo >^..^<
Sue Brandes
I have never needed to use one. Good information if I ever do. Even found out they have one here which I didn’t know.
Judy & C.A.T.S
Thanks for the Q & A with Jill; it was very informative. It is certainly important to pick a professional pet sitter for you pet. Love, Cali ,Andy, Tater and Shelly (C.A.T.S)
Pawesome Cats
great article…this is why our mum sends us for a holiday in the country now instead of getting a pet sitter. We are much happier and safer in a boarding cattery.
Layla Morgan Wilde
Boarding is an option but most cat prefer to stay home. Dogs however love a good kennel holiday since they’re pack animals.
Random Felines
we say check references and ask friends. mom used to let our grandma care for us but… well let’s not go there (we were fine but grandma decided to rearrange some of mom’s stuff)
a friend of mom’s started her own pet care service – she is a vet tech and certified in cpr and everything.
Nerissa's Life
This is EXCELLENT advice! My peeps have pretty much given up on ever goin’ anywhere together for more than twelve hours or so. The ten of us are kind of a paw full.
Purrs,
Nissy
Cheysuli
We love our pet sitter. She’s professional. I think we like her better than we like the Woman. She comes in, plays with us and then feeds us. She pets us for a little bit and then she goes and doesn’t bother us any more. I wish the Woman were like that… Even Gemini likes this pet sitter and that’s saying something!
Tamago
What a horror about your ex-friend. Our current cat sitter is DVM. She is not perfect but very nice person. And she lives nearby, just 30 seconds walk away 🙂
Alana
Good tips. I left my cats with some college friends in college and came home to find all my ice cream sandwiches and laser pointer missing. Another time, we came home to a giant bear in the living room. The cats were actually well cared for, though. Once we left an adult friend in charge of them and he didn’t clean the litter box – they all pooped in the tub. Now we just leave them with their grandparents. Much better service and we’re lucky to have it so close by.
Layla Morgan Wilde (Cat Wisdom 101)
You’re lucky to have grandparents nearby to cat sit.
Angel AbbyGrace
You are so right it is hard to know who to trust with your beloved animals. excellent posting.
Kathryn
oh my, what a horrible experience that Merlin had a splinter in his belly. Yep, that sitter – outsville.
We haven’t had any bad experiences, but our cats don’t enjoy it when we’re away. They look at us funny when we return. If we are away for more than three days, we have someone look in on them. Otherwise, we have three large water bowls, and fresh water in the fountain, and three large dry food bowls, and one wet food bowl.
da tabbies o trout towne
doodz…de food serviss gal haz never kneaded a pet sitter, tho sum friendz haz…. N we wood like two say ..
care.com
all sew haz received grate ree views for the peepulz they “employ”
as pet sitterz….
enjoy yur whitefish wednesday !!!
easy rider
I agree with you, it’s better to pick a pro. It’s the best for your pet if you find a good one. To ask friends or relations is sometimes a bad thing. I remember as my neighbors had the dog of her daughter for a week. The dog was run over by a car and with all the pain and the tears for the poor puppy they had a war in the family for months.
Sometimes, Cats Herd You
Our last pro pet sitters went out of business. They were awesome. When one of the cats who came before, Cyrano, fell ill while the head peep was on a cruise, the sitter updated her daily and celebrated with her when Cyrano finally pooped (as only cat people can!). The sitter even fed Cyrano canned food by the spoonful on the bed to get him to eat. Good pet sitters like that are hard to find, and she hadn’t found one as devoted yet… but she needs to look so that we have one on call.
The Island Cats
Our peeps don’t go away very often, so we’re lucky we don’t need a pet sitter much. But we’ve had a couple good ones in the past.
Dorothy
The only thing as hard as finding someone you trust to look after your furry family is finding someone to care for your infant child. Of course, that may be because the only being more helpless than our non-verbal, furry family is often our very young children. So far, I’ve been lucky to have trusted people assist in caring for both but I’ve spent sleepless nights and not a few tears working out satisfactory arrangements in both cases. I decided years ago, that if I felt any true hesitation in walking away then, I don’t. That decision has screwed up a couple of vacations and caused some missed workdays but I’ve been lucky to be able to make those choices. I recognize that not everyone has that freedom.
Fuzzy Tales
There are a couple of professional pet sitters here in our city, though I’ve not yet used them. I see their business cards at vet clinics, though. Doesn’t mean they’re good, however!
Layla Morgan Wilde (Cat Wisdom 101)
Check whether they are certified.
Sparkle
Good pet sitters are really important! I remember once my human fired a pet sitter because when she came home from her trip, I was really happy to see her! She knew that wasn’t right – I should have either ignored her or been mad. The pet sitter we have now is great – she stays overnight and can give us medication if we need it. We have had her for years and we all love her, even Boodie!