Petsitters: the aftermath

[Dammitall]

This weekend marked the third occasion that my partner's coworker's daughter (30 years of age, currently unemployed) has come to take care of our pets while we were out of town for the weekend. She has experience working in a vet's office and our pets (two cats and a greyhound) are well behaved to begin with, so we have little to no concern about the animals being in her care.

Also to her credit, we came home to find that her boyfriend had thoroughly mowed and weedwhacked our back yard, leaving it in much better condition than it had been when we left last Thursday night. In fact, the house was generally in better condition than we had left it.

This all makes me want to know whether I'm overreacting to a couple of things that have gotten under my skin after she has spent time in our house:

- The first time she came to pet sit for us, I discovered that she'd clogged the toilet but never mentioned anything about it to us (the clog was stuck in the trap, so not visible in the bowl). I can understand her not wanting to make a big deal out of it out of embarrassment, but to me it seems worse to say nothing and then have the owners of the house come back and make a potentially unpleasant discovery after using the bathroom.

- At least twice she has used my partner's hair brush, as evidenced by the many long black hairs of hers left behind on it. That just seems odd to me. First of all, if you have that much hair and are going to be staying somewhere else for several days, wouldn't you have brought along your own hair brush? Second, why do you want to be using someone else's hair brush to begin with, especially when it's been well used by its owner?

- I have a feeling she (or her boyfriend) may have used up most of the remaining liquid dish soap we had in a bottle by the kitchen sink for the dishwasher, even though we had two brand new boxes of powder detergent for it under the sink. Another assumption on my part, but the bottle was at least half full when we left, and we have a scrub brush full of liquid detergent in plain view by the sink to use to clean the dishes. Another thought: isn't it fairly common knowledge these days that using liquid dish soap in a dishwasher designed for powder might end up being a really bad idea?

- The glass lamp we have on our bedside table was on the floor between the table and the bed when I came upstairs Sunday evening after we arrived home. Fortunately it wasn't broken, but I'd like to know what it was doing on the floor. The thing isn't dainty and its falling to the floor should not have gone unnoticed.

- Perhaps most annoying of all was my discovery that the lid on a bottle of Tylenol PM in the medicine cabinet hadn't been snapped onto the bottle. As I was getting ready for bed Sunday night, my hand brushed against the bottle (I'm a bit spastic) and knocked it off the shelf, and candy-coated Tylenol PM tablets went flying everywhere. This is hazardous for pets, particularly our greyhound, who doesn't exactly exercise discretion when she picks things up off the floor with her mouth, especially when they're bite sized, sweet and meant for human consumption. Yeah, I was pretty pissed about that.

I won't go into it about the glasses, pots and pans being put back into the wrong cabinets, because I understand her and her boyfriend not knowing where things belong in an unfamiliar house, and having several pieces out of the cabinets at once makes it much more difficult to remember where they came from. So no need to mention that...

But for the other things, am I being overly anal and getting worked up for no reason? Is it worth mentioning anything to her about them, or should I just let them slide? Or does anyone else feel like these sorts of things would have sparked a reaction similar to mine, of surprise and mild to moderate annoyance?

[Halx]

I'm sorta surprised that they took so much liberty with your stuff. I didn't realize that pet sitting was an invitation to help yourself to everything in the possession of the owners.

[Poppinjay]

If I could get somebody to mow my yard during the hot months, the odd bit of misplaced stuff wouldn't bother me.

Also, a good bit of this is likely attributal to them, but is there a period of time between when they left and you got home? 'Cause maybe the dogs are primping themselves and knocking over lamps.

You are annoyed by these things, yet you say the house and yard were generally in better shap than when you left, so is this really a problem? Also, did you pay her or was this a favor?

[PonyPotato]

I think Crompsin and I are both in agreement regarding not having a petsitter (not a housesitter) stay in our home while we are away. Petsitting does not require you to stay in someone else's home, use their hairbrushes, their medicines, or pots and pans - especially when they're only gone for a weekend!

I petsit for the barn owner I work for, and I let myself into the house, refill the food, clean and refill the water, scoop the kitty litter, deposit the mail, and then make sure the cats are both there and healthy and play with them/pet them for a little while. She did the same for us when we went to Ohio for the weekend. Yes, we swam in the pool.. but it's outdoors and the invitation has been a standing one since June (and her note specifically said PLEASE use the pool..).

I would be pretty pissed at someone getting into my personal things while I was away. Why was there any reason for her to go upstairs other than to use the bathroom or find one of your cats?

[Dammitall]

We've definitely paid her every time she's come to petsit for us. And she does it for other people, too, so it's not a first time deal for her.

We had said she could help herself to any food we had in the house. As for the Tylenol, if you've got a headache or are having trouble sleeping, help yourself! But is it so much more to ask that the cap be put back on tightly? And like I said, the hair brush thing just strikes me as odd.

A few hours did pass between her leaving and us getting home, but the dog was crated and the bedroom door was closed, so the cats couldn't have knocked over the lamp. And they've said they prefer their own tongues over a hairbrush the size of their heads.

As weird as some of the other stuff is, the yard being mowed was a complete (and very pleasant) surprise. We agreed afterward that we'd happily pay her boyfriend to come mow the yard for us on a regular basis. Considering this is the first time (out of all three) that we've come home to the house in such a better state than it was left, the visible benefits of this most recent visit could be attributed to the boyfriend, who is new to the picture.

I'll also add that she was staying overnight at the house for the weekend, since it made more sense for her to be there early in the morning and later in the evening to let our dog out.

[Poppinjay]

Boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. We tend to not amuse personal boundaries much.

[pig]

The hairbrush and the lamp would have bothered me. The other items, as annoying as they might be, I could chalk up to coincidence or bad juju or something. Anyone could have accidentally not put the lid to Tylenol back on if they were at your house for fifteen minutes, and the detergent thing tells me that one of them simply doesn't know how to use a dishwasher. I'd include an instruction on it in a note if I had her do the chore again. She might not have known that she left a surprise for you in the toilet - maybe she used the restroom last thing before she left?

Picking someone else's hair out of my soap or hairbrush I would not care for. Having my personal possessions laying around in a fashion as though they'd not been cared for I would not have liked. I'd ask her about the lamp. The hairbrush maybe. I don't think it needs to be overly confrontational - depending on how good you are with people, I can see this being completely painless and uncomfortable, with the result that future stays are more pleasant when you return. And thanking her (and him) for the good things when you returned also takes the sting out of any criticism.

[Ayashe]

The hairbrush would have been an irritation the rest, not so much.

I can't think of a time I could be irritated about dish soap usage. A lot of people use dish soap for more purposes than just washing dishes. It can make a good all around cleaning detergent, especially for homes with pets and small children. No worries about a dog walking across a pine-sol covered kitchen floor, licking their paws and getting sick.

Tylenol bottle, that was probably just bad luck. Not feeling well and putting it on incorrectly. I could say the same for the toilet. Sometimes they get plugged but they seem to go down properly, I would have thought the issue sorted itself out on its own.

Could it be possible she felt the lamp was in the way of something? Perhaps she used her own alarm clock or had set a radio on the stand and moved it out of the way?

My best advice, if these problems bother you so much you should consider setting your pets up at a kennel in the future.

[Cernunnos]

The clogged toilet may not have been noticed. I would let it slide. The hairbrush being used is rather odd, and I would mention to the pet sitter that your wife is particular about it (if, indeed, she is). I would leave specific instructions for the dish washer so as to prevent the detergent from being wasted. Mention that anything which is moved should be placed back in its original condition, such as the glass lamp, and anything used should be secure afterwards (the Tylenol bottle).

This can be accomplished with a note, you need not bring it up in conversation.

[Crack]

Maybe I am odd because everyone else seems to be in complete agreement, but everything you have listed here makes you sound to me like an anal obsessive wierdo. Like the guy in the Cheetoes commercial. "Theres been an incident"

[*Nikki*]

I think maybe she forgot her hairbrush?? Who knows.

Don't obsess over these small things, as irritating as they may be to you. Your pets are safe and sound and well cared for, that is the most important thing. Bonus was you got your yard mowed.