I have been pet sitting long enough to know there is no such thing as a routine day. What may seem to start out as a routine day, can change rapidly. Often the “problems” are not always animal related!

I have had clients forget their cell phone chargers, only to call me frantically asking me to send the missing charger to them via overnight delivery. I have also had clients call us asking us to find their passports and to find their forgotten credit cards. Yes, we’ve overnighted it all!

Many years ago I had a client who was out of town. It seems their neighbor had called our client telling them water was gushing from our client’s front yard into the neighbor’s yard. I drove over, not knowing what I’m going to be able to do…”I’m a pet sitter, not a plumber” I kept mumbling myself!

I arrive to find the neighbor anxiously awaiting my arrival. And, true to her report, there was water spilling onto her property. A small retaining wall covered in ivy, separated the two homes. I was a little baffled because there was no sign of water in my client’s front yard, but there was definitely water spilling from somewhere. I started looking in the ivy, where the water was pouring from. After a minute, I uncovered a faucet that had somehow been turned on. Not only that, the faucet was on the neighbor’s property and not on my client’s property!

On another occasion, I arrived at a client’s house only to hear the voice of my client on the phone. I called out to him several times, so that I would not scare him. Imagine his surprised when I walked into the living room, only to find him sitting in his briefs talking on the phone! The client was definitely more embarrassed than I was!

One Christmas holiday I arrived at a client’s only to hear the sound of running water. I checked all the faucets. I even checked to make sure the sprinkler system was not running. Everything was in order. Still I kept hearing the sound of running water. As I walked into the laundry room, my shoe made a squishing sound. The water heater, which was located in the laundry room, had started leaking. There was water all over the floor of the laundry room! I found some towels and cleaned up the spilled water as best I could. The client was very grateful we arrived when we did as it saved their hardwood floors from damage.

You will never hear a pet sitter say they have just a routine day, because we never know what we will encounter!