I did not want Professional Pet Sitters Week to pass by unnoticed! Because if there is a pet sitter coming to your home, it means (usually) that your humans are going away. And it is important to know how long your humans are going to be replaced by a pet sitter! See the suitcase above? That is a small suitcase. When my human packs this one, it means she won’t be gone for more than a weekend, three days at the longest.
This big suitcase is Bad News. It means that someone is going missing for several weeks! Fortunately for me, it is always my human’s boyfriend who packs this suitcase. He is a touring musician and when he packs this suitcase, he is usually going to Europe, or has a bunch of shows to play on the East Coast. I don’t care if he is gone. In fact, I kind of like getting to use his pillow when he is away.
There are a couple of in-between suitcases, and when my human packs one of those, it is usually good news because she is probably going to a conference like BlogPaws or the Cat Writers Conference, and she is going to bring back a goody bag of swag for me, Binga and Boodie!
As you probably have guessed, we kitties have lots of experience with pet sitters! The first one we had was back at the old house, in 2004. My human went back east for some shows her boyfriend was playing and we got a nice woman named Nora. In those days neither my human nor her boyfriend had a cell phone, so Nora put temporary tags on the collars we were wearing at the time that had her phone number, in case something happened and we got out. If you want to read more about Nora, and the humans’ trip, you can read my September 2004 blog post!
Here are just a few suggestions about what you kitties can do about the whole travel and pet sitting thing:
- Sitting in the suitcases may seem like a good idea, but it really isn’t. For one thing, it won’t stop the humans from leaving. For another thing, you do not want to be shut inside the suitcase! Luggage does not usually get the First Class treatment a kitty deserves and you may wind up the worse for wear.
- Pet sitters may smell funny and unfamiliar at first, but don’t worry, you will get used to it.
- Sadly, if you are on a special diet or you are not supposed to have extra treats, your pet sitter has been told this and you will not be able to wheedle any goodies out of him or her.
- If you do not like your pet sitter, there is a chance your human will fire them! It’s true: one time, after Nora moved away, we had a pet sitter that did not make us happy. How did my human know? I was really happy to see her when she came back! Usually I am mad or indifferent. If I was happy, she knew I must not have enjoyed my time with the pet sitter, so she did not use them again.
- Pet sitters are usually pretty cool! If they are anything like most of the ones we’ve had, they treat you better and play with you more than your actual humans! Our current pet sitter sleeps over when the humans are away, and even Boodie hangs out on the bed with her.
- One bad thing about pet sitters — it is quite possible they will take photos of you. They do this to send the pictures to your humans. Yes, there is no escape from the paparazzi!
I hope you enjoyed my tips! And nice as they can be, I hope your experiences with pet sitters are few and far between!
Great tips about preparing for a pet sitter 🙂
We can’t have an open suitcase around here because Grace likes to pee in them as a special surprise for us when we get to our destination! Yeah! Nothing like pee-smelling clothes on vacation. Ugh.
We do have pet sitters. We’re not really happy when we do because she just doesn’t treat us the same as Mom Paula. Most of the time our human Grandma watches us, but she doesn’t know how to groom us. In fact, neither does our pet sitter. Truffle is really shy around the pet sitter, which concerns Mom Paula.
Pee ess – Mom Paula is excited about meeting your human in a couple of months
We’ve never had a pet sitter and I think Neytiri would be scared of one, she is shy with strangers. Great post, Sparkle.
We can tell you have lots of experience, and as always, lots of good advice in both training and firing sitters! Teri snorted at the last comment, too…cuz she always takes daily photos of the cats that stay at our B & B…although some of them like to stay under the bed, hahameow!
Ps: Coco can’t wait to see your servant in Las Vegas, too! and she wants you to know she so enjoys your visits and ‘trendy’ comments on her blog!
Hmm, wes never had pet sitters! Wes always had our human brothers our Mommy and Daddy’s Mommy and Daddy takes care of us, or my furrend Gayle (who is also Mommy’s furrend).
Usually, wes travels with Mommy and Daddy
Kisses
Nellie
My Aunties next door always take real good care of me. I don’t usually allow them to pet me or touch me, but I don’t hide from them anymore. Their reward for feeding me and scooping my box is that they are allowed to see me.
Whoa! I’ve never had a petsitter. The only place Pop goes to is work. Before they had cats, they travelled much more. TW had to stop touring cos Nicky wouldn’t eat when she went away.
We hate when the suitcases come out. But we’ve been pretty lucky that our peeps don’t go away at the same time very often. So we don’t see a pet sitter much.
We do not allow both the peeps to leave together.
EVAR.
Great tips. We’ve found that sitting in the suitcase doesn’t change anything but it does mean they leave with loads of extra furs!!
The Florida Furkids
We had a pet sitter one time but usually our Grandpa from KS or our Grandma from Vegas comes to stay with us since the pet sitter never saw Angel so Mommy worried about her the whole time. Our mommy would love to have a sitter who we liked and who stayed overnight with us too! We knew you’d have the best sitters ever!
Sparkle, I knew these things with mommy but YOU are a kitty among kitties and always have the best information.
Insight and suggestions we’ll have to remember should we get a pet sitter. Thanks, Sparkle!
We have not had to use a pet sitter yet but; these are good tips to know.
You’ve made me think, Sparkle!?? I think that The Person Formally Known As The Staff is actually a cat sitter ……. AND I WANT OUT!!! I didn’t know they could be changed if you don’t like them!!! Hmmmmm??
PeeEss Great post 😉
We have suitcases out at the moment….. * checks Sparkle’s pictures * LARGE ones!!!
It’s taken a LONG time…like 7 years. But I’m finally *sort of* used to our cat sitter. The last two times she was here I even let her touch me. Briefly, of course. I know we’re very lucky though because I had another pet sitter before her that was AWFUL. Glogirly could tell by the notes she left that she really didn’t care much about me. Even though I’m not gushy-friendly, I know that my current pet sitter loves me.
xo
The pet sitters can take pictures, TOO? MOUSES! I never knew that. Hmmmph!
Purrs,
Nissy
We’ve been very lucky because the Rumbleparents make sure that one of them is home if the other one wants to go travelling. We would not like a pet sitter, we’re very specific in our need to cuddle a Rumbleparent at night.
Great post=we enjoyed your adorable suitcase photos and as always, you give the best advice, lovely girl…Have a fun weekend, sweet friends…kisses…Calle, Halle, Sukki, Mommy Cat, Daddy Cat
Nice post. We heard HH talking about trying to find a pet sitter so she can go away occasionally. We honestly don’t know why she would want to be away from us, but we’ll deal with it when it happens. Anyway, thanks for the good info.
Have a super weekend.
hugs, Bugsy and Knuckles
You are most experienced Sparkle. The publicist used to have her brother as a pet sitter. Now she leaves the male person.
These are great tips. I travel a few times a year and my mom takes care of my babies. I also have volunteered to be pet sitter for my neighbors’ cats and I have really enjoyed it. Pet Sitters are very important for our pets, they care for them as if they were their own.
Excellent tips, Sparkle! I like that you can gauge the gone time from the size of the suitcase, too. Very clever!
Thanks fer the good tips. We’ve never seen suitcases before (ecept in other blog pictures). Now we know better about what to look for an what ta do iffen we see one here!
We hate the suitcases too, Sparkle! Though the pet sitters we have had are very nice, they never compare to Mom and Dad. Nobody else lets all of us sleep in bed with them like Mom and Dad do. And nobody is as good at scooping the box as Mom is. Mom does the best job. Hope your humans aren’t going out of town anytime soon, Sparkle!
We have a petsitter! She´s adorable!
Look here -> http://repositoriodamarilia.blogspot.com.br/2014/03/enfim-2014.html
Kisses sweetie!
Hey Sparkle…happy professional pet sitters day to mine too,Kathy. We love and appreciate her dedication to all her charges. Mom says if Madi loves her that means she is A OK!!
Yep I’m a tad pee-cu-liar about who comes here.
Hugs madi your b fff
The Woman keeps our pet sitter because Gemini likes her. Gemini is afraid of everyone! So we figure that says something! In fact, Gemini isn’t even that interested in the woman being home when she gets home and usually she’s all cuddly.
Husband and I no longer travel together because there is no one to take care of the fur babies…I don’t mind because I don’t care to travel but it is very nice when your next door neighbor likes your kitties almost as much you do.
Our catsitter is Auntie Kirsten (@bdgrlaw). We love Auntie Kirsten almost as much as we love Mom, so we don’t mind when she comes to stay with us. We miss Mom of course, but if we have to have a catsitter, we’re glad it’s Auntie Kirsten. She’s very good at my favorite game – fetch. She’s also very good at cuddling. She works on her laptop a lot, so I cuddle up next to her and let the laptop blow warm air on me.
I love the tips, especially the suitcase tip is very useful to cats! I don’t know what it means for us though because usually the foster kittens go and sit in the suitcase…probably because they don’t want to be left with Wubbikins without us! And thanks for reminding us about pet sitters week!
We have never had a pet sitter but I hear they do some great things!
Thanks for this nice post and reminded the Person to look into someone to come help with all these animals here. We are hoping to get a vet tech to come out here. But that was some great information.
Take care.
I know suitcase is a bad news to my boys! Still, they love sitting on and exploring the suitcase. Fortunately we don’t travel much, just a few vacation trips and no business trip at all.
Oh, how true are your words, Miss S. Mom said that long before us, they had a sitter come. She took the dog home with her – totally not allowed! – and left one kitty outside for an extended period of time. The second kitty was all alone for who knows how long? But that was an exception to the value of in home sitters, she swears. She always recommends people not to board their furriends when it comes time.
We don’t like the sight of a suitcase because it means Mum is going away. Fortunately she doesn’t like leaving us so it doesn’t happen very often.
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
We don’t get pet sitters often either. THANK GOODNESS!!! But ours are very nice!
We feel the same about the suitcases! There is only one pet sitter that we allow near us…
We still hate it when Mommy’s not here though!
p.s. thanks for the purrs for Leo – he really need them 🙂
We do not get sitters very often,
but the one that does come is very nice.
The only thing we miss is cuddling with Mom on the bed at night.
Purrs Georgia and Julie,
Treasure,JJ
and Angels Tiger and Tillie