dog walking and cat sitting on Wed 8/10

All is well.  All dogs have been outside for their potty break and all dogs and cats have been fed. :)  I did see Lulu, Bosco, Rocky, Lucky, Mattie, Cotton, Gaylord, Finnegan, Madison and Murphy this morning. This was my morning:  (this is how you make a pet sitter panic:)

My morning:  up at 5:30am.  Walk my dogs.   Don leaves for the airport at 6am.  I leave at 6:10am for my first job.  Walk that dog, feed the dog and cat, give the cat his insulin injection, scoop his box.  Go to leave and my car won't start.  Nothing.  It's dead.  Panic sets in.  I must get to 2 more "dog" jobs first thing to get the dogs out for potty breaks.  I walk back to my neighborhood and start walking through it hoping to find a neighbor who is up and who will let me use their car.  It is EARLY!  I'm thinking about who I can call but again, it is really early.

To be continued.... AAA just called and is 5 min away.   Wish me luck.

9:40am and I am back home after getting the battery replaced in my car.  More on that in a moment.  Back to the drama:  So, I'm walking down my street trying to find someone who is awake and luckily my neighbor Tom drives up.  Turns out it isn't actually Tom, it is his wife Rosemary driving Tom's car.  I flag her down, explain my situation and she without hesitation says, "here, take Tom's car."  It's a Lexus.  Mind you, I've never driven a car this nice... or expensive.  I thank her profusely, jump in the car and take off.  I've pulled into the driveway of my next client and I hit the button to turn the car off.  The dogs both see me sitting in the driveway.  They are ready to go out.  The second I hit the button, panic moment of the day #2 sets in.  I don't have a key.... how am I going to start this car again.  (My car is a 2004, it has a real key.)  I hit the button to immediately to try restart the car and no, it doesn't start.  I'm thinking, great, now Tom's car is stuck in the driveway of my client's house and I still have another house to get to (actually 2 more).  I'm panicking.  Oh, the dogs want out.  So I get out of the car, let the dogs out, feed them, feed the cats and the whole time I'm praying... car please start, car please start!  I have my bb so I look up Rosemary's phone number.  Of course I only have email in my phone not her phone number.  I'm googling her trying to find her phone number. I can't find it.  So, I go back to the car and try to start it again.  As I'm sitting there, a screen pops up that reads: to start the car, press the break."  Or something to that affect.  It worked!!  I am back in business.  I turn the car off, go back in with dogs and cats, leave this house, go to next 2 houses to take care of those pets.  My phone rings while I'm at the last house.  It is Rosemary.  She says, "I realized I didn't tell you how to start Tom's car."  We had a good laugh.

I'd emailed Don to tell him that I wish this problem with my car would've happened yesterday b/c he was home so I could've just used his car.  Don calls me and says he had the battery replaced in my car a year ago so it's probably the alternator or starter.  Great.  The guy from AAA says he thinks it's the battery.  This is good news.  He looks at the battery and he says the date on it is 2003. Guess that new battery we got last year wasn't so new.  Nissan confirmed it needed a battery so I was home by 9:40am and my car running just fine.  I did back it into the garage just in case.

I could use a drink!  Instead I am calling my dentist to reschedule the 9am appt that I had to cancel.

dog walking and cat sitting on Tues 8/9/11

Big storm last night with lots of wind, rain, lightning and some thunder.  (Not a ton of thunder and lightning strikes so it wasn't too noisy but definitely wind and rain for about an hour or so.)  Well..... the power went out at Gaylord, Finnegan, Madison and Murphy's houses.  I know it was out at Gaylord's house b/c I was there when it was out and I saw one of Madison's neighbors this morning who told me it was out for about 6 hours at your house last night.  It was back on this morning.  Big tree down in one of my neighbor's yard but we didn't lose power.  No damage at anyone's houses... just some limbs down (nothing big.)

Gaylord & Finnegan - they didn't want to go out last night but we did.  I'm standing there with a flashlight in the rain and Finnegan finally follows me down in the to the grass to pee.  I could tell that Gaylord had to pee too but he stood there and waited for Finney to finish before he peed on the same exact spot.  Really?  Couldn't they have peed at the same time to limit our time outside in the pouring rain?  Silly boys!  (I'm kidding but it was kind of funny that he waited b/c he DID NOT want to be outside.  Seems like he would've peed as fast as possible to get back inside...guess i don't  think like a dog!)

Scooby - Scooby had power last night and he didn't seem to mind the rain either.  It wasn't raining too hard when I was there.  We took a quick walk so he could pee and poop and of course he peed and pooped again this morning too.

Madison & Murphy - I gave them some lovin' this morning when I came in before I fed them b/c once I feed them, they are both nose down in the plate!!

dog walking and cat sitting on Mon 8/8

Madison and Murphy - they are quite the greeting committee.  2 days in a row... they're greeting me right at the door.  I fed them again this morning, scooped the box and then watched them lick every single morsel off their plates.  Madison didn't leave Murphy anything at all this morning! Gaylord & Finnegan - crazy boys.  Gaylord wanted to play this morning so we did which basically means I ran around and he stood there looking at me wagging his tail!

Chester & Bailey - here is Shannon's note from yesterday after her daytime visits:  We came in from our walk and plopped down~ me included! (Man it was hot!) Bailey started playing with her toys and did this pose!!! Chester was laying on my feet at that point!

Scooby - we've been getting some nice walks in yesterday and this morning although this morning it was really humid again.  Yesterday Scooby got to see one of your neighbors too.

God bless the 30 US troops and the dog that were killed in Afghanistan when their helicopter was shot down over the weekend.  I just finished reading "The Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell for my book club.  I don't think I've ever read a book that made me feel so many different emotions.  I highly recommend it.  Every American should read it.

dog and cat sitting on Sunday 8/7

Scooby - he is doing just fine.  We took our walks yesterday and again this morning.  It was nice last night on the last visit so we took a longer walk and then again this morning.  He'd eaten all of his dinner from last night too.  I fed him breakfast this morning and gave him fresh water... and a treat too. :) Chloe - She was in all day yesterday.  It only sprinkled around dinner time but I wasn't sure if it was going to rain or not.  We took a nice walk this morning and  she peed and sniffed a lot.  She pooped too.  She'd eaten all of her dinner from last night.  I gave her breakfast and fresh water outside.

Sib - He walked all the way to the end of the driveway today!  He peed and pooped.

Gaylord & Finnegan - Your neighbor on the corner was about to open the door and let her dogs out just as we were walking by.  I was very happy when she looked up and saw us and she waited. :)  I'm not sure if she has invisible fence but I didn't want to find out!  Gaylord only pooped once on the walk today!  haha!

Madison & Murphy - they both greeted me when I came in today.  I fed them and loved on Murphy while Madison finished eating.  I had to love on him... otherwise he was trying to eat her food too! :)  I scooped the box and grabbed your mail too.

Chester & Bailey - I saw them the first visit yesterday.  They were just great.  We took a short walk up and down the street so they could both pee.  Chester kind of stumbled down the driveway.  I think it was his back right leg but I'm not 100%.  We took it easy.  I let Shannon know too.  Shannon is doing the next several visits so I'll try to be good about posting her notes but if there aren't updates, I'll apologize now.  I haven't gotten an update for yet for this morning and I'm not sure if I'll post again or not today.  Typically I'm only posting once / day after my early morning round of visits.  Again, my apologies!  AND I forgot my camera yesterday.  I wanted to take some pictures to be able to post their cute faces.  Ugh!  And here is Shannon's note from this morning:  We've had a great morning visit! Chester and Bailey had a nice walk, full of sniffing and squirrel "admiring" ;-) all is well!

Lesson #21 Learned by this Pet Sitter

No two refrigerators are alike and I have a hard time refilling my water bottle using the water dispensers on them.  Some of them are just next to impossible to not make a mess.  I figured out which ones those are and I don't try anymore. :)  Most fridges are also stainless steel which streaks if it gets wet too.... not good.  :( Molly, Sookie and Sawyer's house is the easiest.  I am refilling it every time I am there!