Play It Safe With Pet Sitters

Pets are a part of our family, so it's important to be sure they are well taken care of, even when we are not home. What do you do with your pets when you travel?

Since I have three dogs, it can get really expensive to board them. A couple of them have anxiety, and one of them doesn't get along with other dogs, it's a complicated process.

For me, it's better to have someone watch them in my own home, but how do you know who to trust? There are services that we can use to find pet sitters, like Rover. When I contacted a sitter on their app, they were pretty hesitant about spending time at my house, which seemed odd, since that was the service they had listed as available. I ended up not going with her and put up a Facebook post asking if any friends had the time.

Personally, going with someone you know and trust seems like the best bet. That's what I'm going to do from now on.

Especially because I learned that my cousin used one of the popular services and things went horribly wrong.

He and his wife were traveling out of state and found someone to dog sit using an app. While they were gone, one of their dogs escaped from the yard. They sent friends out looking for the dog but could do nothing themselves from so far away.

After they got back to their home, they found that she had passed away. Such a tragic experience. Makes me anxious to this day.