I knew I wasn't gonna be able to just GO ON A F@#$@#$ VACATION!

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m leaving tomorrow for my first 2 week vacation in God knows how long. We’ve taken weekends off here and there, but haven’t really left for more than 5 days or so in at least 2 years. Maybe longer.

I thought I’d had EVERYTHING set. New tires on the car. Reservations at cute lil’ B&Bs. Money put aside for vacation costs. Lots of guide books. List of stuff to pack. Housesitter to take care of the dog and water the plants.

I call said housesitter this morning to arrange a time for her to come over and get a key. She’s house sat for us before - a college student, daughter of my brother’s wife, which I guess makes her my step-niece. I just moved back to my hometown last year, so I missed most of her growing up years, but she seems responsible. Not a partier. A girl with a Good Head On Her Shoulders.

She just proved to me that no matter how great she seems, she really is still a twenty year old, slightly scatterbrained girl. While I was talking to her, she mentions in passing that she’s going to be out of town with a girlfriend for two nights of our trip.

Um… excuse me? I thought you were HOUSESITTING for us! That usually implies that YOU’RE AT THE HOUSE.

<sigh>

She had gone ahead and arranged with her parents (my brother and his wife) to watch the dog while she was gone. Something about he’d stay at our house at night, but at their house during the day in their fenced back yard, with her 16 year old brother and 14 year old sister watching him.

I get off the phone, slightly upset at this news. I talk to Mr. Athena. We’re not sure we want the dog staying here alone at night. We’re not certain why he’s not staying at brother’s house at night, but I suspect it has something to do with my brother being horribly allergic to dogs. And what about all the other stuff we need her to do, like water the hanging flower baskets that need to be watered every single day or they’ll die? And bringing in the mail and newspaper?

Shit.

I call my mother. “Am I nuts to be a little upset at this?” She says No, I’d be upset, too. Then she says “But what about their pool in the backyard? What if the doggy falls in the pool? He’ll drown!”

Thanks, Mom.

OK, so doggy can’t stay at brother’s house during the day, and alone at our house at night. What to do? Mother mentioned another niece. Nope, sorry, Niece B, although I love her dearly, is NOT responsible enough to trust with our house. Finally, my mother offers to take the doggy for a couple days. It’s not ideal, as my mother doesn’t have a fenced yard. Both her and my Dad are recovering from surgeries, and my Dad recently had a stroke. I don’t like dumping the dog on them, but given that we’re leaving in the morning, I don’t see what else I can do.

I’m also now stuck with having to talk to step-niece and somehow express the fact that we’re a bit miffed that she won’t be here every night, even though we arranged with her months ago to do this and we’re paying her to be here. I need to express this without 1) pissing her off so that she says “fuck it, I’m not gonna housesit at all” and 2) creating a major family scene about the whole thing.

I also have to explain to her why her plan of having doggy stay at brother’s house just isn’t gonna work.

Why don’t things EVER go smoothly? Why does having pets and taking trips seem to be mutualy exclusive passtimes? And why o why does this ALWAYS seem to happen the DAY before the trip, when I’m busy as hell anyway?

2

Can you board the dog at a kennel, or does the dog freak out too much from that? I always board my ferrets with a great woman; my husband and I refer to it as “going off to ferret camp.” They seem to enjoy the experience. Sorry to hear everything’s falling apart on you - I hate thinking everything’s set only to see junk like that happen.

3

I’d check into a boarding facility ASAP. Right now is not a peak travel time, so you should be able to get in OK. Just make sure doggy is up-to-date on shots and heartworm meds as well. If she’s not going to be sleeping in your house all week, it will still be OK - so long as she comes over once a day to water your plants. If you can’t board, check the yellow pages or on-line for RELIABLE pet-sitters in your area. They will often water the plants, etc. while there as well.

Call the newspaper and post office NOW and put your delivery on hold - you can pick up your mail when you get back.

Good luck!

4

Do whatever it takes to get that vacation

No more excuses. GET OUT OF TOWN!

5

It’s ok - my parents are gonna take the dog for the time the housesitter isn’t here. I offered to board him, but my mother pretty much nixed that idea - she says she can’t stand the idea of her granddog sitting in a kennel. Yes, the dog is spoiled.

As far as finding a person who does pet sitting for a living - I’m in a VERY small town, and such businesses have not made it here yet. I’m gonna stick with the step-niece, even though she apparantly had a brain fart. I honestly think she made an addle-brained teenager decision - “OhmyGod! Jessy wants me to go to CHICAGO with her, but I’m supposed to be house sitting! I know, I’ll call my Mom and have her take over so I can do BOTH!”

We’ve all done similiar things when we were young. It just would have been nice to have more than a day’s notice…

6

Without knowing much about your situation, you seem to be a bit too worried about this. Doggy can’t spend the night alone at your house, not even once or twice? Your dog can’t be near a pool without drowning? Your plants can’t last a SINGLE day without being watered?

As long as the dog is taken care of in the morning and in the evening, it should be FINE. Your brother can probably manage to water your plants and bring in your mail when he picks up / drops off your dog. Your dog won’t drown, dogs can swim, and there are 2 teenagers there to help out if he gets stuck.

7

Um, no, Cheesesteak, I don’t think I’m being too worried about this. Dogs can and do die in swimming pools - my aunt’s dog drowned in the pool in her back yard a few years ago. I just don’t think a backyard with a pool in it is safe for a dog who isn’t used to it. I’m not saying there’s no way you can have a pool and a dog - if I had a pool, I would teach my dog how to get out of it in the off chance that he fell in. But my dog isn’t going to learn pool safety in one day, and until then I won’t allow him to be in a yard with a pool without being watched all the time.

Put it this way - would you allow a 5 year old child - even one who’d taken swimming lessons and who could swim - to be unsupervised in a backyard with a pool? Didn’t think so. I am NOT saying that dog = human child, but I would say the chances of either drowing would be equal. And I’d bet that a 5 year old’s chances of finding a way out of a pool is greater than my dog’s abilities to do so.

Same thing with the plants - haven’t you ever had hanging baskets of flowers? They really do die if they’re not watered every day. These aren’t houseplants which get watered once a week or so - they’re full blooming plants in small pots. They’re in the sun all day. They need water.

As far as him staying home alone for a night or two, I guess I’m the most flexible with this. If he had to, I suppose he’d be fine. But honestly, it’s probably easier for my Mom to just pick the dog up and keep him at home than it is to run him back and forth, let him in and out, etc.

As I said before, I have the situation covered. I’m just pissed that I even had to do it - we arranged months ago for a housesitter to stay at our house and we’re paying her a generous amount of money to do it. Hubby and I had made the assumption that she understood that housesitting meant she was her every night. I guess we just weren’t clear enough.

8

Fair enough, seems a lot more reasonable with the clarification.

Enjoy your trip!

9
  1. Get a cover for your pool.
  2. I have had hanging plants before and gone months without watering them. No, they weren’t flowering plants, but somehow I think 2 days won’t kill them. They bounce back easily. Or maybe you can drop the plants off at your brother’s house.
  3. Have your mail held at the post office.
  4. Call a kennel, or your vet might even have boarding services.
10

Oops, just saw that you solved everything. But the advice is still good for the future. :slight_smile:

11

OK, another question:

Am I the only @$#@ person in the world whose flowering baskets die if they don’t get watered every day? I’m talking those giant hanging baskets of petunias and such - I swear to God, if I let 'em go longer than 24 hours they start to wilt and get crinkly. Maybe they’d last a couple days, but I know from experience that they can die in an incredibly short period of time.

And pssst… Jean Grey, it’s not MY pool, it’s my brother’s pool. I don’t think it’s sporting of me to insist they spend the money on a pool cover just to take care of my dog for a day or two.

12

Athena, maybe you need to consider a new potting mix? I put petunias and geraniums in a fairly small 12" bowl style pot outside and the thing holds an enormous amount of water, probably at least a quart, maybe more. Contrast that to one of my indoor plants (similar sized pot, different soil) where I can’t put more than a cup into the pot at a time because it all runs out the bottom.

13

I water mine twice a week. They last all year.

Dogs swim waaaaay better than five-year-old kids.

But peace of mind is foremost when vacationing, so I’m glad you worked it out with your mom.

14

Have you got the potting mix with crystals? Makes all the difference. Last year mine were needing water every fecking day but this year they’re doing much better since I repotted with the expensive stuff.

15

I’m glad you got it worked out. I feel for you - I wake up in the middle of the night on vacations, worrying about the house and the pets and the plants. Nothing has ever gone seriously wrong when we were gone, but that doesn’t stop me. If I have a friend coming in, I worry about what might happen when s/he isn’t there; if I have someone at the house, I worry about that person’s reliability; if I have a paid professional coming in, I worry that they’ll forget or go out of business or something. I sometimes wonder whether vacations are more stressful than relaxing after all is said and done.

Oddly enough, when we leave the children behind with one or the other set of grandparents, I never worry about them. Maybe I should start sending the pets along with them.