There have been three exceptions to my pet sitting AT YOUR HOME rule. Over the ears and because of the relationships I had with the pet owners, their dogs stayed with me and my dogs and my cats and my children...
Ellie Mae was a Bichon Frise, owned by a co-worker. I don't remember the circumstances other than my friend had NEVER had a pet sitter and didn't feel comfortable with scheduled daily visits. I can not recall how many dogs I had at the time, but there were no issues. The meet and greet of the woman and Ellie Mae went smoothly. My dogs are always expecting the pack to grow, so introducing just one relatively well behaved dog to them didn't cause any aggressive behavior or feelings of jealousy.
My reputation for not putting up with ANYTHING preceded me as I was a secretary in a middle school Attendance office. My job was to interview the students needing to go to the principal's office. While they squirmed at my desk, I typed the discipline referrals or suspension letters which would be hand delivered to parents or guardians that same day. I had a wonderful pair of eyeglasses, which when slid halfway down my nose, gave me the appearance of The Terminator. Kids just didn't like me.
Dogs, on the other hand, loved me and took it for granted that when the glasses slid, they needed to correct whatever behavior had preceded my glare. Once in a while, that glare would be accompanied by my outside voice. Enough said.
In my house and I'm fairly certain that in yours, there are designated rooms for meal time. The kitchen is not always the best place to feed a pack. When you have dogs that gulp their food and dogs that do not, you are inviting turf wars. I was always well aware of my dog's personalities, their eating habits, and territories. When having a guest animal in, I would always default feeding them in a bathroom behind a closed door, with me in it. My dogs would eat when the guest was fed and outside in the yard.
Phoenix, a black and white coated spaniel, came to stay just once. The owners were having remodeling done while they vacationed. Their cat stayed home and I traveled to visit her daily.
She was pent up in the master suite and unhappy, I'm guessing by the frantic mews which greeted
my arrivals.
The dog was typical spaniel, needing huge chunks of time and exercise which I could not
accommodate. There was no way I would take her walking and bring the herd as well. So, no one went walking. This interruption to her routine gave her an excuse to teach my dogs how to jump over the sofa in route to see who was passing the house on the sidewalk. She could hurdle the chunky piece of furniture without a second thought about it. My dogs, on the other hand, completed the maneuver in stages, especially the cairns. Funny, it was always a one way kind of game. Never did I observe any of them reverse the effort, clearing the back first and land squarely on either of the seat cushions!
Phoenix wanted to sleep with me. I think she did a couple of nights as evidenced by the flattened warm spaniel sized divots in the bedding. She never did thank me.
Dallas who is a Yorkie-Poo began having sleepovers a couple of years ago. I used to sleep over at her house, but driving half hour in morning congestion to get back to my house to care for everyone here became a headache. So, I asked her owner if she could stay here. It has worked out well and as she is quite senior, my husband's honey-do list is getting shorter as he has installed motion detecting flood lamps in the yard for her low vision challenges. He also clears the lawn of debris, especially the pine cones which are quite painful to old dog paws.
She sleeps on our king size bed, always at the precarious far edge, which causes both of us to sleep with one eye opened. Dallas assumes she can jump down on her own. The last time she did that at her house, she had a back leg fracture and shortly after that mishap, she was back here for a week. Her splint had to be waterproofed before she could use the yard. It's wonderful that our newspaper's plastic sleeve was just Dallas splint size. All I needed to do was to trim the length so that it would cover foot to hip joint, tie with a pretty pink ribbon and she was good to explore the wet grass at first light.
I have her in my care frequently, sometimes just for a playdate when her owner has exceedingly long days at work. I think her mental health benefits, having a change of scenery and plenty of playmates to keep her active. As a matter of fact, she's here now, on guard duty at my front glass storm door. Her companions are napping, scattered about on chairs, rugs, and under my makeshift card table work station.
I am thankful that my dogs have the generosity of heart. There is definitely a lesson to be learned
from observing how they treat every guest with respect. There's no discrimination. Everyone is equal. Maybe if people were just more like their dogs.....
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