Just Say No!

I HATE doing sleepover jobs.
This is my last one.
I figured if I wrote it in my blog, it might become a reality. I might actually learn how to JUST SAY NO!
This week I am sleeping in the Bronx, not a great area for someone like me. Starting on Wed., I have to go from the Bronx, to City Island, to Pelham Manor, and then home to my own cats in New Rochelle for maybe an hour before I start my usual rounds (plus the away clients). Sure, I will make a gazzillion dollars, but is it worth it? Do I really need a gazzillion dollars? Will it all be worth it when my own cats are dead, and I didn't spend that time with them, because I was working my butt off? If I say NO to a client, will it be the end of the world if they hire someone else to do the job, and I lose a client?

Remind me of this.
I work WAY too hard, WAY too much, and I have very little social life because of it. Sometimes a girl just wants to have fun.

Potential Hero

This is Winston. He lives in an apartment building. I walk him every day.
Today when I went to get him, I smelled something funny on his floor. It gave me a headache. I wondered should I call the police. After I put Winston back in his house after the walk, i decided to call. Hopefully, it is just my overactive imagination, but it smelled like gas to me.

Sometimes life gives you a little glimpse as why you might be here. This was one of those moments. Who knows what might have happened if i didn't call it in to the authorities. It was a gas leak, and no one was hurt, other than my head, and probably the heads of the fire fighters who responded.

i wonder if the town will hold a ticket tape parade in my honor, and erect a statue of me in some prominant place. (LOL)

Not Just the Glamour

Dog walking is not a glamorous job.
And sometimes it's not interesting at all.
But it is a great job, and I hope I never have to go back to working for someone else, in a 9 to 5 job. Although having a day off once in awhile would be nice.

Part of the reason I write this blog is so other people who might be entertaining the idea of becoming a pet sitter, truly understands what they might be getting into.

I am doing a job now for someone with two Labs: Hershey, the old chocolate lab (great name for a chocolate, no?) and Monty, short for Montana, the younger yellow lab.
Hershey is a sweet old guy, with some bad arthritis. He has a hard time getting around, but he refuses to believe he is old. He wants to play fetch really badly, but Monty can get to the ball alot faster than he can. As for Monty, he is HUGE! Not just a little overweight, but just huge all around. His head alone is the size of a bear's. He too, is a sweetheart, and at least twice, he rushed at me as I was bending over to pick up the mail, and rammed into my head in his excitement, almost giving me a black eye.
(These dogs, incidently, are the ones who spoke to me before my long awaited and overdue vacation. See the first ever entry of this blog.)

Day One of the job: The humans left really early in the morning, so I made my first of 4 visits around 7:30 AM. Last visit was about 8:30 PM.
Day Two: I arrive at 7:00 AM to find diarrhea everywhere in the kitchen. (Good thing the dogs are confined tot he kitchen at night!) I will save you the details, suffice to say, it took half a roll of paper towels to clean it up, followed by washing the floor. I was there an hour.
I called the humans to let them know, as the older dog was on medication, and I wanted to know if the meds were either for diarrhea or could cause diarrhea. (Answer is "no" and "who knows?", respectivly). They informed me there was probably too long of a time between my last visit on Day One, and the morning visit on Day Two. My last visit on Day Two was at 9pm.
Day Three: (that's today) I arrive just after 6:00 AM. No poop (Thanks!), but pee everywhere (despite the fact that I left very little water in the water bowl). The floors got washed again.
I will return several more times today, with a last visit at 9:00 PM again, and plan to arrive at 6:00 AM tomorrow. I hope by then they will have adjusted to the time schedule, and the only clean up I will have to do is of the food bowls after breakfast. Four visits tomorrow and the humans return that night.

Update: Morning of Day Three: Diarrhea again! Not as much as Day One, but it was still there, all the same. I have nothing better to do than clean up a runny mess and wash a floor in the wee hours of the morning!

Goodbye, Sammy!

Sammy, my dear Sammy!
You may be gone, but not forgotten!

I took his human mother and Sammy to the vet today, for his last visit. He had recently been diagnosed with liver cancer, and was very bloated. He was uncomfortable. He kissed me goodbye in the reception area, and we all went in to help him pass over. Everyone was there to see him off on his next adventure: His (human) Mom, and her parents, and a younger girl I took as the (human) Aunt to Sammy. Sammy's (human) father was out of town on business. Sammy was a lucky dog to be so loved.

Sammy, I didn't know you long, but I loved you all the same. I know you loved me. Goodbye my friend! I hope to see you again soon.