The holidays are BUSY for pet sitters!!!

[shine]

This is the first day in almost 3 weeks that I have not had a petsitting gig.  Between my own crew of six and all my clients, I have been up to my eyeballs in dogs, LOL! Here is an example of my days...this was my schedule last Friday:

6 a.m. - Out of bed and rushing out the door
6:40 - Arrive at the house of Max & Chugach & China the cat, who live waaaaay out in the boonies....I feed them all and take Max & Chugach out for a walk, taking great care not to let China out....she is NOT happy about being kept inside while her owners are gone and serenades me with yowling the whole time I am there, lol
7:15-7:45 - Drive back out of the boonies to my next client
7:45 - Arrive at the house of Onnie & Lucy for breakfast, medications, and a 20 minute walk
8:30 - Arrive at the house of Mac & Gitchi (the Cairn Terrier Wonder Twins, lol. They are my "VIP" clients...Very Important Puppers!) for breakfast, walk, tummy scratching and serious spoiling
9:30 - Back home for a couple hours to take care of my own dogs
11:30 - Back to Chugach & Max for last visit before owners come home....so I do once over of the house, run the vacumn cleaner, leave them my Visit Log, and listen to China the cat yowl some more
12:45 - Back to Onnie & Lucy for their long lunch walk, about 40 minutes
1:45 - Back to Mac & Gitchi for a short lunch walk
2:15 - Home again for a couple hours
4:30 -Back to Onnie & Lucy for dinner, meds, and another 20 minute walk
5:00 - Back to Mac & Gitchi for dinner and walk
6:00 - Home again for my own dinner
8:00 - Back to Mac & Gitchi for bedtime walk and Snuggle Time on the couch (they are so cute...I call "Snuggles!!" and they run to the couch and sit up and wave their front paws at me, then jump in my lap and roll around with glee!)
9:00 - Back to Onnie & Lucy for bedtime walk...and since the owners make me leave Lucy out of her kennel at night in spite of her horrendous separation anxiety and never put anything away, I must go through the house and lock up all potentially dangerous items....clean ers, lotions, soaps, glass, etc
10:00 - Home and ready to drop....get to catch about 6 hours of sleep before I start all over again!

And the worst part is, I've had Bronchitis for 2 weeks and have been coughing and sniffling and am really worn down.  I feel like I've been pulled through a wringer....lol ol...

[marypyrs]

OHHHH!!!    Bronchitis is NOT GOOD!!! I think you need some time off to take care of yourelf.

BUT = I wish I had someone like you to depend on when I have to go out of town. I do have someone who comes to feed and check on the horses, but the Pups go to the Kennel. They'd LOVE to be able to stay home with a caregiver. There's just no one in the area I would trust.

Want to come to Northern Minnesota? 

[ptkennel]

We have a crazy few days as well!  There are 16 dogs boarding here this Christmas.  All sizes, 3 shih-tzu, 1 Jack Russell terrier, 1 doberman, 1 rottweiler, 3 german shepherds, 1 irish setter X, 1 great dane, 1 mix of sorts, 1 terrier X, 1 airedale terrier, 1 bichon X, and a pug.
Nuts.......... ...yep........ ...we are...........
And of coarse our own four dogs.  Plus the farm cats.
Your life sounds more hectic than ours though, we don't have to leave the house, they all stay within our yard.
There is enough poop to clean up here and I wish there was a magic ingredient you could use to make it disappear.

[ZooCrew]

Wow, you make 4 visits a day to some of them?  The most my clients ever wanted me to visit was twice a day for dogs, once a day for cats.

And even though I haven't been petsitting in Ca for almost 2 yrs now (will be 2 yrs in April) I've gotten 3 calls for jobs over the last couple of months........ .lol.  I think that is funny. 

[ptkennel]

Hera are a few of our "Big Paw" guests over Christmas:

[shine]

It's extremely rare for me to have a client only want 2 visits a day....and many of them pay me to spend the night with their pets! 

I've had bizarre requests, too.  I always offer to come to a potential client's home to let them meet me and see how I interact with their animals.  On one visit, an owner was talking to me about her beloved poodle's daily routine and said, "Here is her leash for when you take her out...and here are the wipes that you take with you....."....I stood there for a minute, not understanding. ...then I realized....sh e expected me to wipe her dog's butt every time it went to the bathroom!  LOL!  Uh....I think I should charge extra for that! HAHA!! 

I have a website (though it needs updated...have to get on that!)...http://www.anythingbutalligators.com
(I hope it's okay for me to post that....if not...Admin, feel free to pull the link!) 

[lorim2]

Hey Lynn...Loved the website..I also have a pet sitting business along with one business partner.  We are both teachers and this works well for us.  I actually contracted with a large sitting service for about a year to learn the business side of it.  We have been on our own since March and are really picking up.  I too have been so super busy this holiday season!  Its worth it though, not only monetarily but the satisfaction of taking care of all these babies!  I had a new client over thanksgiving that was the nestest..haha. ..She had 2 cats...4 hermit crabs, one cottentail rabbit that was actually a sweetheart...t hey found him in the pool skimmer about a year ago...3 huge guinea pigs..Timmy the turtle and two huge tanks of fish!  That one took awhile each day!  Thanks for sharing the website!

[GoldenPyrs]

Ohhhhhh boy do I wish that one of you lived in the NW.  We've taken 3 kids, 3 dogs & 2 cats with us on more than one trip now and it's nuts!      We haven't felt comfortable leaving them b/c Daisy is so attached to me that I've had to wean her off of sleeping on the bath mat while I shower (that was just too much with a small bathroom) and Sammy & Cassie still act like their afraid that they'll be rehomed again (though that will  never happen), so we haven't wanted to upset any of them by taking them to a kennel.  Besides, the only kennel that I'd trust is 2+ hours away.  You provide a wonderful service and I really wish that one of you lived near me!