Sugar Rimmed
Why a rotating door of someone else's pets might be exactly what I needed
Loud barking out the front door is one of the best sounds to me. I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but what that means to me is that there is at least one dog behind that door that has lots of love to give and I cross my fingers they’ll give a little to me.
Housesitting, but more specifically petsitting, as a way of life means I get a continuous rotation of animals I spend a couple days with or months with. We do our best to meet the pets before the sit begins so these pet parents can introduce us to their babies, but when we arrive for the sit we’re usually on our own. And that’s where that loud verbal greeting is so much fun for me.
Some pets are much more people-friendly than others and those I find hard to leave behind. I mean how am I supposed to give up the Australian Shepherd that wants nothing more than to cuddle you to death in the bed? The horses are also hard to leave behind. I would have never really seen myself as a big horse person at this stage in life but I’m now four sits in with horses and I really love them. They’re really like giant dogs who want their food and give great hugs and can be huge dorks when they’re feeling like a troublemaker. Cats are a more curious experience for me. I didn’t grow up around cats or have any experience until I was in my 20s, so that first cat sit was a huge learning curve as to what they’re like and what’s normal for them.
One of my favourite pets is “Marmaduke” as my partner so lovingly nicknamed him. He’s supposed to be a lab of some sort but he’s more the size of a Great Dane. He’s huge but is the pure definition of gentle giant. He doesn’t jump, barely barks, and walks beautifully on leash. Being slowly crushed into the floor by one of the softest dogs I’ve ever met is something you need every so often, you know? It’s just like a living weighted blanket that exudes love. And when I’m done with the velcro status he’s super respectful about giving me space when I ask for it and doesn’t argue or require a lot of work or treats to get him to go do his thing. One of the cutest things was his love of ice cubes. Dude would do almost anything for some ice cubes and that was really fun being able to play with him and do his tricks without having to worry about too many treats or food consumption. I feel really lucky that we get the opportunity to go back to some of our sits and meet up with some of our favorite pets again and again.
Most of the pets we see are used to people coming and going. Their parents have been using pet sitters for a long while so they know the drill, but the first few times we left the pets (who were nonplussed about the whole thing) we kept going back through the checklist - did we lock all the doors? Did we leave enough water out? All the food is off the counter, right? We’ve never had an issue leaving besides the issue of dragging my feet away from the very intense puppy dog eyes we get. It’s a bittersweet moment as we leave since we’re saying goodbye to one house full of love and are on our way to the next.
But really any pet is going to be a win for me. I love animals and with the way we live it’s not feasible to have our own. For the longest time I thought I would have a house full of dogs by this stage of life. Looking at what I want now, I can’t picture being tied down to a single place - even if I did have all the dogs I could ever want.