Mama, don't go! Who's gonna feed me?

[bigdoglover]

The Free-Lance Star

By Sarah Farrell

ASK WHAT BRAND of food I feed my dogs. Inquire why I get up early to massage my elderly dog. Request that I send my darling husband over to mow your lawn. But, don't, please don't ask me, "Who is your pet sitter?"

There're nothing more personal, nor dearer to the heart of a protective, care-intensive dog lover than the question, "Who looks after your dogs when you go out of town?"

Why do dog mothers and fathers guard the names of their pet sitters? Because the pet sitter who safeguards your dog's health and happiness, lives in your house, sleeps in your bed, and gives up time away from her own family and pets, providing a service that is almost too dear to share.

Can you be sure that the person you refer your treasured pet sitter to will not ask her to do non-pet-sitting jobs--housecleaning, pool siphoning, lawn mowing, you name it?

What if the person asking for the referral is one of those tacky people who is under the misapprehension that staying at their fine home and spending time with their precious pet is more a privilege than it is hard work requiring diligence, training and experience?

You have to be mighty darn close to a friend for them to feel forthcoming to share their pet sitter. As in all personal matters, it is best to politely float the conversational fact that you are leaving town and desperately need a pet sitter. If the dog mom or dog dad knows you intimately enough to want to share their pet sitter, they will. The rule: Don't ask and they may tell.

While you wait for a dog-obsessed friend or acquaintance to divulge their pet sitter's name and phone number, there is help for your pet-sitter search right now.

Pet Sitters International is a professional pet sitters' membership and referral service. A visit to their Web site (petsit.com) explains: "Pets and their people are a unit. What's good for one is good for the other. We stress strong ideals, professional standards and common-sense methods that reinforce our members with dependable know-how. It's an approach that equips pet sitters with quality awareness, pet owners with quality assurance and pets with quality care."

Professional pet-watcher organizations offer many compelling reasons why you need an experienced, bonded and insured, quality-controlled service. A few convincing reasons to seek out a PSI member, says the PSI Web site, are: "Pets are happier and experience less stress at home. Diet and exercise routines are uninterrupted. Travel trauma for both owner and pet is eliminated. Pet's exposure to illness is minimized. Untrained or unwilling friends/family/neighbors need not be called. In-home professional pet care provides added peace of mind." It's hard not to want to hire a professional pet sitter when you consider all the reasons why your pet will be safe and secure in his own home.

I entered "22401" in the pet-sitter regional search bar at the PSI Web site. Six local pet-sitting services appeared on my computer screen. Four of the six had detailed and lively Web sites offering every pet-related service imaginable. Several services offer "vacation tasks," like turning on and off lights, changing the angles of blinds and curtains, watering plants, bringing in mail; even grass mowing. Exact services and their corresponding fees were clear.

Two of the pet sitters offered to stay overnight with pets. The fee ranged from $50 to $80 per night. Expensive? Some might say yes; many of us would shout out a resounding "No!" If you have an elderly pet who has physical or emotional difficulties adapting to a new place without his family, or who has mobility problems requiring assistance moving from surface to surface, a trained professional ready to spend the night and day looking after this adored senior citizen is worth her weight in gold.

If you have several pets, once you multiply boarding fees for the whole kit and caboodle of your boarders, a pet sitter's 24-hour fee suddenly screams, "Bargain!" Telephone a few local boarding kennels, and do the math.

One local pet-sitting service offered an "Are you stuck on I-95?" service. Knowing that many of our dogs are poised behind the door with their legs crossed hoping for a potty break, this pet sitter understands that a dog can "hold it" for only so long and then its inner schedule clock says, "Gotta go!" Have you ever thought what it would be like if you left for work in the morning and were not allowed to go to the toilet until you returned home in the evening? Unreasonable to blame a dog with a bladder far smaller than your grown human bladder, isn't it? What a wonderful service to offer: peace of mind for a small fee.

Recently I picked up the book "Pet Sitting for Profit" (Howell Book House) by Patti J. Moran. The book was brimming with eye-opening information and pet-sitter screening tools. I was captivated to lie down on the bed with my dogs and read it from cover to cover. Do I entertain illusions that I might open a pet-sitting service? Definitely not.

To shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding another dog parent's pets requires more diligence, attention to tiny, life-guarding details and organizational skills than I will ever possess.

Moran's book, while intending to teach a pet-sitter service owner how to interview pet sitters for their staff, also offers pet owners keen guidance for interviewing and choosing a pet sitter for their own dogs and cats. Moran explains that a pet sitter should be "a true pet lover, dependable and reliable, trustworthy, able to provide their own transportation and telephone, and comfortable and happy meeting the public."

"Pet Sitting for Profit" includes a checklist of questions that pet owners can use to decide if they feel comfortable hiring a pet sitter. Moran insists that a one-time, pre- assignment meeting of you and your pets is critical. If a would-be pet sitter is unwilling to come to your house and meet your pets and hear all about how they are cared for, forget hiring that person.

A pre-trip interview will let the pet sitter see if she feels comfortable in your home and around your dogs. You will see her interact with your pets. Of course, you are going to pay her usual rate for a pet home visit at the end of this interview. Her time is valuable and she should be paid for interview time even if you decide she is not the pet sitter for you. Don't be a penny pincher: Word gets out that you don't want to give high value for services rendered. Do you want your dogs to be ashamed of you?

"Pet Sitting for Profit" also shares necessary interview questions for pet owners to ask themselves, including: "Was the applicant prompt for the interview? Would you feel comfortable opening your door and allowing this person into your home on a first-impression basis only?"

The best advice I found in Moran's pet-sitting book detailed how the dog owner properly prepares to leave town with her home and pets ready for the pet sitter. How to leave written, detailed instructions for feeding, special health needs, taking a sick pet to the veterinarian, leaving plastic disposal bags and instructions for disposing of dog waste products, and being prepared with an emergency plan, if needed, were a few of the checklist details that could be overlooked when leaving a pet with a sitter. This book makes a pet owner a better pet-sitter client and will make your pet's home, but not alone, experience more secure.