Andrea's extremely poor judgement almost led to the premature euthanasia of my disabled dog.
Having used this company to pet sit for my disabled dog before, I felt pretty good about leaving Molly (a three legged dog whose hips are starting to go) in their care while I ran off for a four day weekend. The first day went fine, but the second Molly had an accident in the house. Andrea texted us to let us know what was going on, saying that Molly had peed in the house and made a bit of a mess. We were disappointed but unsurprised, as Molly is at this point peeing in the house every couple weeks or so. Not too frequently, but not unheard of, either. Andrea had been apprised of this fact prior to taking on the job, and a big stack of towels was provided to her for just such an issue.
Arriving home after our vacation, we found an apartment that reeked worse than the men's urinal in our park. The stench of ammonia was pervasive, and not at all fresh. Checking on Molly, I found her completely soaked on one side (she always sits on the same side). I immediately bundled her off for a bath, and discovered both a volume and concentration of urine that I'd never before experienced. She also had a diaper rash severe enough to cause a couple hot spots on her hip.
We saw Andrea the next day to get our keys back and pay her, and told her of Molly's condition. She told us that she thought Molly needed a higher standard of care, maybe hospitalization, next time we went on vacation. We mentioned the diaper rash, and Andrea admitted that she probably should of cleaned the dog a bit better. We found this to be an understatement and parted ways.
Over the next couple days, we realised that Molly had stopped walking almost completely, being unable even to stand. We kept her on the side that she doesn't like sitting on to allow the hotspots to heal, and she would stay in that uncomfortable position for hours, betraying an extreme lethargy. We though she had taken a permanent turn for the worse, cried for awhile, then made an appointment the next week to put her down. Molly has been headed downhill for several years now, and we simply though that her time was through.
We continued to take her out three times a day, the same number that we had contracted with Andrea, though we were forced to hold her up for the first few days. Eventually Molly had a good day, where we didn't have to hold her up much for her "walk". And another good day after that. As Molly recovered, it became clear that she hadn't really gone down hill at all, that it was merely the mistreatment by our pet sitter that led to her near death.
I've used Andrea twice now, and come to the conclusion that while she may be an OK dog walker, but she's not someone that I would trust with my animals while I'm on vacation. Allowing a dog to sit in her own urine for several days is truly inexcusable for a caretaker. If the patient were human, Andrea would be in jail. I don't think she's a bad person, but this mistake was very serious, and almost led to the euthanasia of an animal that isn't quite to that point yet. On a side note, I've never used Yelp before to review anything, but I do feel that pet owners need to be warned that Andrea has in the past exhibited extremely poor judgement. read more
