Fun fact: I have 2 cats! In the photo below, Walter is on the left and Biddy is on the right.
One of the nice things about cats is that in most cases, if you need to go out of town for a few days, you can just leave plenty of food and water out, and they’ll be fine (not entirely ideal, but fine).
However, Biddy is a special boy. He’s diabetic, so he requires twice-daily insulin shots, and he’s on a wet-food diet.
So over the last 5+ years, I haven’t traveled all that much, and when I have, I’ve greatly inconvenienced any friends who are willing to check on him. We don’t have any close friends within walking distance, so twice a day these friends would drive 20 minutes round trip to check on Biddy (and Walter, but he’s fine). I paid them for the inconvenience and have checked on their cats, but it’s nowhere close to the same.
This has bothered me for a while, but I wasn’t sure what to do. Finally, however, I decided to try something different during my recent trip to Virginia: I hired someone from Rover to check on Biddy and Walter.
The process was very easy: I signed up on the Rover app and searched for catsitters in the area, specifically people who had good ratings, indicated that they were comfortable administering medicine, and were willing to send photos of the cats while we’re away. I was able to see almost exactly where the catsitters were located, which allowed me to choose someone within walking distance.
I sent the times and dates to a prospective catsitter, and she replied almost immediately. I explained Biddy’s needs over a message, and she said she could take care of it. To help us get over the discomfort of giving keys to a complete stranger, Megan and I met with the catsitter before the trip, and she seemed great.
During the trip, the catsitter did a wonderful job. She arrived when she was supposed to, she took good care of the cats, she scooped the litter, and I’m pretty sure she even cleaned up some anxiety barf. The Rover app made it easy for her to send me questions, updates, and photos of Biddy and Walter.
All of this combined with a very affordable fee, most of which I think went to the catsitter (not Rover). I think it’s a clever way to make some extra money if you don’t have a full-time job or you have flexible hours.
Like with any app or service that has you inviting a stranger into your home, I’m sure there are outlier horror stories. But that wasn’t the case with our Rover catsitter–she did a wonderful job, and I will absolutely do it again.
How do you care for your pets when you’re out of town?
I have used Rover for 7 years now for Carly, our cats, and my previous dog Fuzzy who was on a large number of medications at the end. I have had nothing but great experiences. I feel a lot better about doing that than inconveniencing friends and most sitters do this as a job so I can be sure it will get done and that I’m not being unfair to anyone. Carly has grown to love her sitters and clearly has fun “on vacation.” I send her to a sitter’s house that only watches small dogs. For the cats we have had someone stop by the house.
That’s great! I’m glad Rover offers both options, as the cats prefer to stay where they are. 🙂
I use a licensed and bonded pet sitting service. I thought about using Rover, but none of the individuals listed on Rover resonated with me and I was leary using a service I wasn’t super familiar with. I’ve used pet sitting companies in the past when I lived in other areas and have had excellent experiences with them, so ended up deciding to go that route again when I moved. I’ve had acquaintances check on or friends stay with my two cats before, and the experiences have never been good ones. My discomfort was for various reasons, including learning that an acquaintance brought her kids with her when coming to care for my cats, which made me very uncomfortable especially that I was told after the fact. She apparently thought it was no big deal, but to me it was. I now feel more comfortable hiring a professional service provider and having that professional relationship instead of a personal or semi-personal one. When using a professional pet sitting service I don’t feel awkward telling them when I am uncomfortable with something like I was with an acquaintance or friend. I do have friends who use Rover and who are very happy with the person they found.
Thanks for this Jamey, it’s very helpful. I have a friend here in England who LOVES animals and was thinking about dipping her toe into petsitting.I hadn’t thought about agencies. I’m going to send her this post. Cheers!