pitbull1845 Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 I have just taken delivery of my mates daughters 2 rabbits, I am looking after them for two weeks whilst they go away on holiday.. Upon arrival I was given a long list of instructions on what to do, it was evident that they are much loved pets. Whilst the orders were being given all I could think about is what if the worst case scenario happens??? Could I get 2 replacement rabbits that look just like Marmalade and marmite?? (not the food stuffs) I don't think I could, so now I have 2 weeks of worry. So my question is, have you looked after pets for friends and has it gone horribly wrong and if so did you come clean or try a cover up?? I've got to go, the rabbits need a bed time story and tucking in! Cheers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 Gone wrong?, Oh yeah. We've looked after lot's of dogs for friends and because we've got a very large walled garden they can roam it safely. However, a few years back a friend said she was putting her cats in a cattery for ten days whilst she went on holiday. "Oh, we'll have them" volunteered my wife. As they were a very timid pair and likely to be keen to escape it was agreed that we would keep them in our studio, a large but secure room in the garden. All went well for eight days until we went down to feed them one morning and WTF!!, NO cats. The mystery was soon solved, my wife had been down the previous evening to feed them, opened the toilet window to air the room but had forgotten to close the toilet door when she left. We spent two days scouring the area without luck. It was with dread we awaited our friends return, and it was a desperately difficult moment when we had to tell her.  She took it well enough under the circumstances. We borrowed a cat trap and for a week placed it all over the area. I didn't think a cat would ever go in it but we caught a different cat every night, sadly neither of the missing ones. We then got a report of a cat hanging around a house and some woods just down the lane, that night the trap caught one of the escapees. Unfortunately the second cat was never found. We felt dreadful, had we not tried to be helpful the cats would have been fine in the cattery. Still, we have remained good friends despite the incident and they still have the one cat. We still look after dogs so it hasn't put us completely off! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckjumper Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Yes, a complete disaster, and I vowed never to pet-sit again. Back in 1995, during the very hot summer, I was asked by a neighbour to keep an eye on and feed their koi carp which lived in a huge pond with proper filtration while they went away for a week. On the third scorchingly hot day two were belly up, so I scooped them out. Next day there were two more. Then five. Then... By the end of the week the death toll was in the mid-teens and the number of remaining fish could be counted on one hand. They were very good about it, and even dared ask me to babysit their three kids sometime later. Fortunately they survived. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 My wife volunteered to feed and keep an eye on the neighbours' cats a few years ago. They hadn't been gone two hours before she went next door to find one of them stone dead and stiff as a board. Never again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew1974 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 We have a few pets and have had people watch them successfully many times, we have also watched over peoples. In the 16 years we have been married and doing this we have only ever had two incidences: We had an old cat and asked a neighbour to feed it for a week. The cat mostly lived outside anyway so we asked them just to leave food an water on our back step each day. All was going well until the neighbour came around half way through the holiday to find the cat dead on the door step. hardly his fault as we had been waiting for that event for some time, just unfortunate timing. The other incident was shortly after we married, at the time we lived in a flat and our only pet was a hamster. Before going on holiday we dropped it off with my wifes 8 year old brother to watch for two weeks. He took excellent care of it and was very diligent (according to the MIL). We arrived back two weeks later until all is well, it was a nice day and we were talking in the back Garden. Wifes brother brings the hamster out to see her, slips on the back step, and drops the hamster how quickly darts under the shed. After ages of trying to coax the little animal out we almost gave up hope, we were discussing alternative when the cat tunrs up, dead hamster in mouth.... Sill two incidents in all those years is not bad...and we have had plenty mare 'bad' incidents whilst we have been in charge... ...Good luck and if something bad does happen, don't try to cover it up, just own up! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Gerbils.. One ate the other.. The owners didn't seem too upset for some reason. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted July 29, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 29, 2011 Huh! You've had it EASY! Neighbour has sheep, penned in large divided paddock with only electric fence surrounding it. In a three-day spell I found the sheep out in the lane, and across the road eating the farmer's corn. Subsequently turned out there was a bit of fencing which had not been connected to the power. Have you tried rounding up sheep? A subsequent bout of watching had lambs climbing through the fence, leading to distress by their mums and fence damage as a result. And now she's getting goats and pigs, as well! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Last Saturday morning just before coming away on hols SWMBO was stung by something, so went up to pharmasist to check out. On the way we spotted a white with black spots rabbit hopping across the road in front of us. "That's someone's pet", says she, stating the obvious again. Ten minutes of fruitless attempted catching later another car draws up. "Would you like some help? It is your rabbit?" Yes please, and no, we just spotted it". Another ten minutes passes now with four people against bunny, when occupant of other car procures carrot from neighbour., Five minutes later carrot proved too tempting for bunny and hand descends behind its neck and grabs. Bunny then makes another dash for freedom, but big strong arms of Coombe Barton now have it and walk it round to the vets, fortunately not far. Releasing it even momentarily from tight grip getting in car would have caused another twenty minues of pursuit. Vet knew about it - had been round for a couple of days, Was being looked after by neighbours whilst owners were on holidays. Would we pet sit? Nope! We camp because we can take the dogs with us. Now all the time we were chasing bunny the tune running round my brain was from "Die Valkyrie" - used in the Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd cartoon in the Wagnerian chase. If you recognises it you'll know the one I mean. And yes, we did get to the pharmasist. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitbull1845 Posted July 29, 2011 Author Share Posted July 29, 2011 Some funny stories there! All be it not at the time I expect.. Fingers crossed I have nothing to report at the end of the two weeks, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Our neighbours actually asked if they could pet-sit our West Highland Terrier whilst we went to a party - because the dog gets on so well with the Husband (she really loves him). So, everything OK until said husband goes to have a bath. Dog stays down with the Wife until dog suddenly runs upstairs pushes open bathroom door and jumps in the bath with him......... Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 With any mishap, own up don't cover up - no brainer. We often feed the neighbours' cats when they're away, and it's reciprocated, but always in their own houses and they know us so no problems there, and that's the most we would do. The only exception was when my wife agreed to look after two cockatiels belonging to a friend - no problem she says, they can be left in the sitting room so they can fly about occasionally, but mostly they'll just sit on the curtain rail. We'd covered all the soft furniture to avoid 'bombs', but they started eating the curtain rail (wood), curtains and any plasterwork they could get at. I then asked how to get them back in their cage if they didn't want to go - err, not sure (!*/*?!!). Eventually did it with patience and millet seed, but never again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
halfwit Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Had a near disaster a couple of years back. We agreed to look after a colleagues dog for about eight days- a lovely young Springer bitch called Izzy who wasn't very well trained but got on well with our Springer. I took the two for a walk across the road near the sidings and, as I as in a small wood away from any roads, let the two off their leads. Izzy was fine until we met another larger dog when she freaked out and run away. I looked and called for her for about five minutes before realising that she'd disappeared so I phoned my wife to confess that I'd lost Izzy, only to be told that Izzy was in the back yard. She'd ran home and somehow found the way around the back of the house into the right yard. The frightening thing is that she crossed the A6 to get home, which was rather busy at that time of day! We never told Izzy's owner about that... A couple of days later we went camping in Wales with her, all ok apart from the last day when we decided to go climbing on Tryfan Fach. As this is a 2 pitch crag in sheep country we tied the dogs up at the bottom (our dog is used to this and just chills out, we make sure he has shade and water) and started climbing. She started howling just after we set off and continued all the time we were climbing, much to our embarrasment. So rather than climb several routes as we planned we just did one route then went home... Never again! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike Posted July 29, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 29, 2011 Some brilliant stories there folks! Even if there were some that shouldn't be laughed about! We have let other people cat sit our beasts occassionally with no disastrous problems, mostly because our cats tend to hide when strangers are around! One person questioned if there were actually any cats...except the food and water kept disappearing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Lamb Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 The people five doors down the road at one time had a collie. SWMBO volunteered me to look after it when they went on holiday as she said that I was good with dogs. I fed the dog the first evening and ensured that he was safely tucked up in his bed. At around 2.30am the people from four doors down the road were banging on our door. They could not sleep due to the noise that the dog was making. I went round. The dog would not stop barking. By this time the people from three doors down had come out to see what was going on. SWMBO came roud. The dog suddenly became friendly, curled up in his basket and went to sleep. Explanation. Both SWMBO and the woman from five doors down are German. The dog woud not respond to either english or a male voice. The school hamster came home with my daughter one summer holiday. It did a suicidal leap from the landing. A permanent dark blood stain on the hall carpet was a reminder of this unfortunate event. Bernard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
10800 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 The school hamster came home with my daughter one summer holiday. It did a suicidal leap from the landing. Sure it wasn't a lemming Bernard? (sorry couldn't resist!) Oh yes, the school pets rota! The hamster came to us one holiday with fully equipped space-station to run around in (you know the kind of thing, tubes, modules the lot). It was only when it went back to school I found out one of the cylindrical modules had no bottom, so there was a perfect circular hole in the carpet and underlay right down to the floorboards. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Mine went wrong the day before I was due to start! Was meant to "horse-sit" a friend's Dutch Warmblood, and ride it whilst she was away in Holland. Horse sustained a leg injury, so I ended up having one-sided conversations with it for a week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted July 29, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 29, 2011 My dog will be going to a friend for a couple of weeks. I'm sure he likes her more than he does me so I suspect the dog will sulk when he comes home! I was quite happy feeding my neighbours carp but one day I went round and the submersible pump wasn't working and seemed to be in a separate parts. I managed to get it back together though. My aunt's budgie dropped dead just after they left it our house. Our hamster died at the small rodent boarding establishment the day before we were due to come home. As my son wanted a pet that lived longer than a hamster we then acquired Robbie the Spaniel but he has been happy accompanying us on holiday, staying with friends or going to kennels. I know my friend will care for Robbie as well as she does her own dog but I accept that things could happen. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham_Muz Posted July 29, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 29, 2011 Pet sitting always goes wrong for me as I keep falling off the dog.... ...where's my coat? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted July 30, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 30, 2011 I've had a good chuckle at some of the incidents recorded above. Will I pet-sit? no way! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium petethemole Posted July 30, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 30, 2011 Ex-SWMBO pet & house sat for a friend in Somerton a few years ago for over 2 weeks & I spent the weekends there. There was virtually no dogfood or catfood (for the ferret) so we had to buy it all, the elec key meter ran out so we had to charge it and SWMBO was expected to drive them to Bristol Airport and pick them up, so 2 round trips, at her expense! No problems with the animals though, apart from the hyperactive lurcher getting away, but he came back at food time. The next year she was asked again. They don't speak now. So just be sure you're not being taken for granted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireman Sam Posted August 13, 2011 Share Posted August 13, 2011 My Mum and Dad used to regularly dog sit for their friends two Rottweilers. The years passed without too many problems except one escaping after the old man left the side gate open when he came back from the pub. So of course the search party goes out looking only to find the dog has returned home which was well over a mile away and got into his back yard which was locked and my Dad had to use a ladder to get in how he got in we still don't know. The other time they had trouble the male dog had passed away and only the female was left, so they were taking her in the car to take her for a walk near the beach. Unfortunately she decided to jump out of the window when she saw another dog to play/fight with but the lead was around my Mums hand and injured my Mum as well as herself but luckily not serious but my Mum was bruised for weeks. So I think I'd give it a miss myself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitbull1845 Posted August 13, 2011 Author Share Posted August 13, 2011 Good news, handed the rabbits back this afternoon, with no incidents to report of. Which in a way is a shame as I would have like to have added a funny story here! Cheers Scott 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chubber Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 There are certainly some chuckles here! My only experience of pet-sitting was to agree to look after a little old lady's budgie when she had to go to hospital, a friendly little bird that would say 'Gip's a lovely boy' and run round his cage dinging his bell. The day of the handover I was given a biscuit tin with his feed in it and a bunch of millet spray on a string. I rested his cage on the tin, got into the lift to go downstairs and moved over to let a lady holding a baby in beside me as the doors closed. The cage slid a little, the bars rested against my face and like a striking peregrine falcon 'Gip' shinned up the side of the cage and, seized the side of my right nostril in his beak. My shout made the baby cry, the blood [gallons of it...] poured out and as Gip flailed away with his wings it went everywhere in a fine mist............ The lady was screaming, and I was shouting things roughly like 'Silly budgie, DO let go!!!!' as we reached the lobby and the doors opened to group of residents waiting for the lift. Gip dropped swiftly to the bottom of the cage and began to run round, dinging his little bell in its orange plastic ball. To this day, the sound of a little bell makes me shiver. Doug 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffers Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Occasionally cat-sit for a neighbour. The old cat (now history) ate something which disagreed with him and I ended up cleaning the piles of cat vomit in their kitchen. Made them chuckle when they came back, though. We're still friends. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Lambton58 Posted August 17, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 17, 2011 Years ago we often looked after a shepherd friend's working border collies who were used to us and the house. Too used to us infact as on one occasion, one of them jumped through the french windows, which were shut at the time. But before the sound of breaking glass has died away and the dust and debris settled on the ground, Floss (for that was her name), presumably spooked by the commotion behind her, turns around and jumps back into the house through the smallish jagged hole she's just made! For an intelligent dog she could be amazingly daft! Nowadays our dog sitting is limited to a very docile Black Labrador who does nothing stupid... Ralph Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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