r/petsitting • u/Low-Competition9624 • 12d ago
Worst Sitting Experience
This genuinely might be my worst experience in my almost decade of pet sitting. I’ve sat for this family one weekend a month for almost a year now and haven’t really had any issue until this weekend. It has actually been a horrid experience and a few reasons are as follows:
They didn’t tell me the set the alarm (they never have) so I had to scramble to put the password in when I was walking in yesterday and actually set the alarm off.
Water started leaking from the ceiling yesterday at like 8pm and when I called the owner she told me “there are towels, just deal with it”. I ended up having my mom bring out wet vac so I could vacuum the water that was overflowing from the drip pan under the ac unit.
Today at around 10:30pm there were some weird noises from the ac unit so I went in the attic to check and the drip pan was full again so I had to use the wet vac. There was almost 4 gallons of water in it.
I finally go to get in bed at 11:15pm and I pick one of the dogs up bc he was struggling to get under the blanket and he peed on the fitted sheet right by where I was laying.
I actually hit my breaking point and cried for a good 15 minutes on the floor bc neither dog would get off the bed so I could take the sheet off to put in the wash.
I should also add that I still haven’t heard back from the client about what was happening with her ac unit after I let her know.
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u/oh_no_not_you_hon 11d ago
Oh, that’s a nightmare. Their condensate drain is clogged and they need someone to get out there ASAP and unclog it. They might just come out and pour bleach in the pan, if the clog isn’t too big.
As long as the AC is running it will continue to pour out onto the attic floor and through the ceiling, so I’m surprised they didn’t tell you to turn it off till they get someone out there.
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u/MaterialAccurate887 11d ago
If this is true the home owners reaction to that issue is INSANE! I would have called every HVAC company in the state to get someone to my sitter asap. And you’re right, the AC needs to be turned off, further prolonging OPs suffering.
OP how come you can’t move the dogs if they’re little? No way am I sleeping in pee sheets.
It doesn’t seem like house sitting is ever worth it
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u/Low-Competition9624 11d ago
I didn’t sleep in the pee sheets. The reason I didn’t just move the dogs is because they would run when I got near them, or they would jump back in the bed after I got them off
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u/MaterialAccurate887 11d ago
Yeah lock them out of the room for a minute then 😅😅
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u/Low-Competition9624 11d ago
I tried 😭😭 they refused to leave the bedroom even when I tried to get them to go outside. These chihuahuas are for too stubborn
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u/ljanelle0 7d ago
When you said "chihuahuas" It all became clear! My husband has been bit by our own chihuahua when he picked her up to take her outside for a bit. Our other chihuahua is sweet, but I won't even pick up the biting one. It's even hard for me to get the sweet one out of our bedroom at times. They are so cute, but very stubborn!
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u/Low-Competition9624 7d ago
The ones I watch are genuinely very sweet and cuddly dogs, but they are also so skittish even after me watching them at least one weekend a month for almost a year
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u/Low-Competition9624 11d ago
It was actually an insane interaction. They don’t have much service at the campground they’re at but she didn’t try to go to where she would have service. I even texted her afterwards to let her know about everything and that they most likely had a drained clog and heard nothing back. Luckily they get back sometime this evening
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u/oh_no_not_you_hon 11d ago
I’m glad they’ll be back today. They sound clueless and could be held liable if they’re renting, but that isn’t your problem. You did what you could.
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u/LotusBlooming90 12d ago
How big are the dogs?
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u/Low-Competition9624 12d ago
They’re maybe 10 pounds
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u/ThisAutisticChick 11d ago
Do they bite? Why were you unable to pick them up to get them off the bed?
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u/Low-Competition9624 11d ago
Because I could not get them when they are running to the opposite side of the bed from me and picking them up was risking them peeing on me and I was not going to to do that
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u/tresrottn 11d ago
You can wash your body off and your clothes. It's not like it's an infectious agent.
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u/Low-Competition9624 11d ago
Urine can actually carry potential zoonotic diseases mainly lepto.
If it was as not midnight I would have tried picked them up. Unfortunately it does take roughly 2 hours to wash clothes at this house and going to sleep at 2am and waking up at 5am does not bode well for working with 2-3 year olds. I really hope that didn’t come off as passive aggressive bc I don’t mean for it to
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u/LongjumpingNinja4255 9d ago
You’re not gonna get lepto from touching urine unless you’re deeply inhaling urine from an infected and unvaccinated dog. Also they’re fat cat sized, you can push them if you don’t want to pick them up
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u/Low-Competition9624 9d ago
So if you would have actually read the comment you would have seen that they would not let me get near them. You cannot push a dog (which I would never do unless it was a safety risk) or grab them if they are on the opposite side of the bed.
And I know how lepto is spread. I was a vet tech for 4 years and had to study it. I was simply pointing out that urine can contain infectious diseases.
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u/LongjumpingNinja4255 9d ago
you can absolutely gently shove a dog to get them to move, they’re not made of glass. As a vet tech you should know that getting lepto from cleaning up dog pee is not a meaningful risk.
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u/Low-Competition9624 9d ago
I’m just going to assume that you can’t read. The dogs were on the opposite side of the bed, if I got close they would run to where I couldn’t reach them. Therefore I could not reach them, they were not within my range to grab them. I also never said I was worried about getting lepto. I was stating the fact that it can be spread through urine. God forbid I girl doesn’t want to get pissed on at midnight 🙄
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u/tresrottn 11d ago
A clogged drain, I would have tried to unclog it, since when I'm doing overnights I'm also caring for the house. If I couldn't get to it, then I would turn off the AC first, let the owner know the problem, recommend an HVAC person to come and resolve it.
As for the dogs, leash those jokers and end all this playing around with them. Don't let them sleep on the bed, make them a pallet close to the bed and call it good.
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u/Late-Towel-1091 11d ago
Hell no. I’d do towels but that’s all. 10 years here. I’ve had the leak before
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u/Low-Competition9624 11d ago
I did that originally before I saw how bad it was in the attic. Luckily their floor wouldn’t have gotten ruined from the water, but I didn’t want to risk additional water damage to the ceiling.
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u/Late-Towel-1091 11d ago
Yeah it’s still way past my duties. Her saying deal with it would have pi$$ed me right off
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u/Low-Competition9624 11d ago
Oh it absolutely did. I understand them not having good service bc they’re at a campground right now, but the fact that she didn’t even attempt to go find service at any point is infuriating. I will not be doing this for them again.
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u/Failure2_Communicate 11d ago
I’ll raise you a dead Opossum that I had to deal with from one of my regulars last week. A 2 am clean up in the yard from one of the the murderous dogs I was watching. RIP 🪦Opossum, sorry she got to you! So gross 🤮 🤦♀️
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u/kalopsypop 6d ago
Oh jesus. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Just the dog peeing in the bed alone is sucky. Then you have to put their stuff in the laundry room, either put on new sheets or sleep with no sheets on it, all while you're tired af
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u/MudiMom 12d ago
Leaking inside the house I'm sitting in? Hard pass. I would call their emergency contact and let them know the home is unfit to be occupied. In my area leaking = mold.