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!