I had a few problems with Hannah as a cat sitter. She came round to my flat prior to my trip, and I showed her how to open the front door. However, on the first day she was contracted to visit, she texted me at 11.30pm to say she couldn’t get into my house. It was 12:30 where I was holidaying, so I was fast asleep and didn’t get her message until morning. I texted her to remind her how to get in, and she managed to get in without any problems. If she has trouble remembering instructions, she should write things down.
She texted me twice during the holiday to say one of my cats had been ‘a bit sick’. When I returned home, I found vomit everywhere. Two lots on the bedroom carpet, on two separate rugs (hall and living room), in two places on the living room floor, on a sofa cushion, and on the table in the conservatory. She had made a half-hearted attempt to clean the vomit from the cushion, but none of the others had been cleaned. I appreciate that she might not have seen it all (particularly the ones in the bedroom), but she would have had to step over three lots in the course of feeding the cats. The vomit was all old and dried, so it had not occurred between her last visit and my return.
I understand that cleaning up vomit is not very pleasant, but every cat owner knows that this can happen, and a sitter should be aware that it might be part of the job. More importantly, she did not let me know about the scale of the problem – a cat that is vomiting on this scale should be taken to the vet!!!
On the last day, she told me that she would visit in the morning. When I returned home in the afternoon, the water in their bowl was very low and a bit dirty – it's highly unlikely it would be that low if it had been refreshed in the morning.
So, all in all, I’m not terribly impressed.
----------------------------------CAT SITTER RESPONSE--------------------------------
I am sorry Sarah was unhappy with my services. Unfortunately I did experience some difficulty opening the front door on my first visit which I take responsibility for. I tried for over 20 minutes and messaged Sarah with the hope we could video call on whatsapp but she understandably didn't respond. Unfortunately the door was quite stiff... I managed to get it open in the end the following day, actually turning it the opposite way to what Sarah advised me to do in her text message to me (understandably not ideal but we agreed I would issue a refund for the missed visit.) The remarks about the vomit are not true. I didn't ignore or step over any I saw. The cushion needed to go in the washing machine so I did what I could and left it on the side in the kitchen. There was also definitely no danger of the cats not having water - there were water bowls in 2 separate places which I topped up daily. I always take good care of the cats and was disappointed to read the negative comments on this occasion.
