Interview with a Pet Sitter with 10 years of experience
Interviewer: So you are our favorite pet sitter.
Pet Sitter: Thank you. How many have you tried?
Interviewer: Just you.
Pet Sitter: There you go. (Laughter)
Interviewer: You are my favorite and only pet sitter. How long have you been doing pet sitting?
Pet Sitter: Oh my gosh, since I moved here in '86.
Interviewer: '86, so we're 12 years now you've been doing pet sitting, and the thing you've -
Pet Sitter: 10 quality ones.
Interviewer: Sorry?
Pet Sitter: 10 quality years.
Interviewer: OK. About how much pet sitting do you do now?
Pet Sitter: Well, actually I retired last April -
Interviewer: Really?
Pet Sitter: And - because of circumstance I've had the busiest summer house sitting for people.
Interviewer: Well, you have said that like pet sitting really is house sitting.
Pet Sitter: Right. It is house sitting. It's - in my view it's when I walk into somebody's home when they aren't there,
and their animals are, but everything involved is part of the job. I say that because when I go into someone's home I like to
feel at home, and so when I'm gonna have any stay there, I make myself at home. Like you said, it's a home.
Interviewer: Do you stay overnight at people's houses?
Pet Sitter: When there's dogs I like to always stay because dogs are a different creature than a cat.
Interviewer: Yes, they are.
Pet Sitter: Yes, and they're - most domesticated pet dogs are needier, you know. And a little more insecure being alone.
Interviewer: Yeah, I was wondering if you didn't have maybe - I don't know of a horror story, but a couple of
stories of having dogs coming home, checking in on a dog and having them, you know -
Pet Sitter: I really never have had any real destruction. One of the funny things is on this dog that I was watching once,
a great big white furry dog, the dog was allowed to roam the neighborhood and always came home, and so the following morning -
I was not staying over - the following morning I went over to their house and proceeded to find the probably 95 pound dog stuck in a cat door -
Interviewer: Oh, no.
Pet Sitter: (Laughter) - that was way not big enough for - so he had his head stuck in the cat door.
Interviewer: Oh my gosh.
Pet Sitter: Which was - and I don't really - couldn't tell you how long he'd been there. He wasn't hurt, but he was
the most pitiful sight you've ever seen.
Interviewer: Thank God he didn't hurt himself.
Pet Sitter: He had this pitiful look: "I'm stuck." So it was a matter of dismantling the dog door. (Laughter)
Which took, you know, a little while, and fitting - kind of greasing him so I could get him out of there. He was very patient though.
Interviewer: That's good.
Pet Sitter: They didn't have a cat, either. That was the kicker. (Laughter)
Continue to the second page of the petting sitting interview
Pet sitting interview
page 1: pet sitting as house sitting, worst dog sitting experience
page 2: walking dogs, insurance, and pet sitting companies versus solo sitters
page 3: accessing client's needs, dogs in crates overnight, charging for overnight stays
page 4: how many animals and households is too much
page 5: injections, emergency numbers & menageries
page 6: written instructions, turning off water and unplugging appliances, long term house and pet sitting