Feel Like Complaining

If someone had told me a year ago that I would soon be a pet sitter, I would have said "I don't think so." But here I am, six months in having the best time I have had in a long time. I make my own hours and get paid for playing with or walking dogs or just sitting around, which I'm really good at! I even have staff (unpaid, the best kind).

I have watched 25 animals in all (four being cats) with 5 repeat clients. I have 18 5-star reviews and rank #1 for boarding in my city and zip code. There are separate ranking for the other services a sitter offers, but since I do boarding the most, that's what I go by. The algorithm works kind of strange, so I'm trying not to get a big head over it.

There isn't any one dog I would NOT watch again, but there are a few I'm not too crazy about. I wish I was making more money but that's my choice to only watch one at a time. If you break it down to a 24 hour period, I'm making about a dollar an hour. Clients r…

We are five days in of a full week watching this sweet little Flower. When I first heard her name I knew she was going to be great. She's a 6 and-a-half year old Boxer mix. I've never known such a chill dog. One that doesn't bark at every little sound. One that doesn't jump up and follow you to every room. One that just goes to sleep at night when we do. One that will eat her dinner without bribery or adding yummy stuff to it. One that walks so good with my husband that I may get out of walking her the entire stay (we took turns, really). I told the owner that hubby has a new rule; no other dog can stay unless they are like her, ha.

A few little oddities she has is chewing the pads of her feet, a nervous habit. And she barks in her sleep which scared the crap out of me the first night.

She was another good candidate to take to my Mom's so she spent one whole day there with me. All she did was sleep and eat some treats. Mom even took a picture of her with her IPad,…

Last Thursday and Friday we watched an American Pit Bull Terrier. It was my first encounter......ever, with any of the Bully breeds. I've seen them from a distance which was fine with me. I've never had a bad experience with one, just really didn't want to have anything to do with them. But I'm willing to try anything once!

The owner brought her by to meet us. She's only a year and-a-half old and he is the third owner in her short life. One owner didn't treat her very well so when he found her in Las Vegas he brought her home. He's very protective of her and she has separation anxiety so he was kind of hesitant in leaving her anywhere. He actually reached me by accident, as a family member had referred him somewhere else on Rover but he messed up.

He was satisfied that we would be a good fit and he brought her by Thursday morning. Angel whined a lot off and on so we just kept her distracted with a walk, toys, treats and a bit of wrestling. She's really …

I found out that if there are no dogs in the house, we can get a whole lot more done. Our latest dog was the many-time repeater Sadie. Other than that, I've had bookings, cancellations, and general annoyances which left gaps in my calendar.

So I decided we should take advantage of the down time and get some cleaning done. Cleaning out that is. Since The Kid moved out of her apartment, we needed more space to put those things that she will need some day. I told her no more storing of crap in my bedroom because I got to that room first. Moved all furniture, vacuumed and cleaned the carpet. We've been going through closets, cupboards, and all corners. We've taken at least 10 boxes to charity so far, and a box of children's books to a crisis nursery center.

We had a great time going down memory lane with boxes of pictures of when The Kid was a baby and all the daycare and school things I saved. I was going to give it all to her someday when she moved out but I'm glad w…

In a week's time I heard something regarding both sides of our family that just boggles my mind.

My Husband's youngest son called to wish him happy Father's Day. As they're chatting my Husband asked him what he was doing. His reply was, "moving." The house they left was brand new when they moved in 3 years ago. So why move? Because when his wife's parents are there to visit, the house is too small. 2300 sq. feet is too small for 4 people? I can really tell who wears the pants in this family. Her parents live in China and I can't imagine them visiting that much to warrant buying a bigger house. We've been invited once; and remember, this is the daughter-in-law that we are not allowed to hug. We haven't seen them for over a year and that was only for dinner when they came into town.

For now, they are going to rent the house instead of selling, for $2300.00 a month. That's 5x our house payment. We definitely don't travel in the same circl…