Adventures in animal-sitting!

We all know someone who had adopted their animals to be a part of their families. Heck, I’m one of those people. I consider my cats to be my children with the added benefit that I only have to give them attention limited hours a day. Please don’t confuse the previous sentence with me not liking children because that is not correct. I like children I just don’t have any at this time.

Many of you don’t know that I have a second job that involves added responsibility and physical labor. What is this job? Animal-sitting. Just breath, I know you didn’t think this could be considered a job, but let me tell you…it is! In my early experiences watching beloved pets, I didn’t think it was a complicated task taking care of a 4-legged friend. Get up, let outside, feed, walk, sleep, let outside, feed, play…etc. Is it obvious that I was watching dogs? I thought so. After my friends P&N moved, my animal-sitting basically disappeared even though at that time, it wasn’t a job because I love their dog.

Many people ask how I got into this line of work and it’s really simple. I told one couple I’d watch their dogs and horses for a weekend, the all of a sudden word got out. When word got out, I think Satan followed. Why? Keep reading…

Event #1:
Animal: guinea pig
Name: Moosy
Owner: my bosses 7 year-old-daughter
Situation: weekend long family vacation
Level of difficulty: 1
It was just a typical Friday at work. Moosy came to visit me at the office so I keep an eye on her over the weekend while the family was out of town. Moosy doesn’t require a lot of attention just check the water and food. I fed her some carrots every now that then because I liked how excited she got. There wasn’t any need for me to come back during the weekend to check on Moosy because I didn’t have to let her out to pee or take her for a walk. Plus, El Jefe said not to worry about it. Monday morning I came into the office and sat at my desk, started my day, the suddenly remember Moosy was in the other room. I ran in to check on her and to my horror, she was lifeless. I said her name many times hoping it was just a game. Oh no! I killed her! I triple checked to make sure she was really dead then hung my head and headed towards the phone. I broke the news to my boss’s wife and I started crying. I felt so bad and guilty that it was my fault that she died. If only I had check on her on Saturday, maybe I would have noticed something was wrong. Alas I was stuck with the guilt as I thought of the sadness that was going to come over the little girl. I took the time to give poor Moosy a proper burial in the back yard making sure there was a little grave stone marking where she was. To this day, I still feel bad that Moosy died on my watch.

Guinea pig dead (check)

Event #2
Animal: chickens
Name: none
Owner: My boss
Situation: family vacation
Difficulty level: 1
How hard is it to feed some chickens? Not hard at all. In fact, the most difficult part of this task was flipping the kid-sized swimming pool over and refilling it with water. I just needed to check on the chickens twice a day and because the office is less than a mile away from their house, it was no big deal to head over there before and after work. I thought everything went fine, I saw the rooster, ducks and chickens every day, collected the eggs and scooped some feed for them. After I had finished this job, I was informed by my friend who happened to be their nanny that TWO chickens had died on my watch. What the heck? I counted and I prayed that nothing would go wrong after the first experience. Obviously things didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to.

Guinea pig dead (check)
Chickens dead (check)

Event #3: (Are you scared to leave me with your animals yet?)
Animal: sheep
Name: totally forgot let’s call her “prize possession”
Owner: McBrides
Situation: Week after Christmas vacation
Level of difficulty: 2
By now I can say that feeding large animals is second nature. I’ve helped Shayne multiple times feed cows at the farm along with feeding horses throughout college. Not a big deal, cut the twine, throw the flakes, and walk away. How hard does that sound? Not that hard, the down side of this is I always manage to get hay down my shirt. I may have twenty plus layers on, but that stinking hay finds its way down my shirt. Anyways, this “farm” has some cats, chickens, roosters, and sheep. In fact this is the place where I got Charlie so I know they have good animals. My task was to feed twice a day. They had 12 ewes that were all impregnated but not due for another month. We had walked through the small flock before they left and I was told all their names and how this one produces twins and this one produces triplets. I was more excited that they all had names then how many babies they had. When we came across “prize possession” I learned that she always had triplets that were very strong and made good lamb chops down the road. Off they went and I started my duties. I had the pleasure of hauling the hay out by sled making me sweat and Lord knows I need the exercise. About mid-week I went to go feed one night and was standing around the sheep counting heads when everyone was accounted for, I fed them and went home. Little did I know that the wrath of Satan had come to visit the McBride sheep that. I showed up the following morning and saw the ewe laying on the ground with her rigamortis legs sticking out. Rushing into the gate I hoped she was playing a joke on me, that it was just taking a nap in a strange position. The little knowledge I retained from college during my sheep course, I knew that the ewe was not “sleeping” in the correct position to be alive. CRAP! Tongue sticking out, snot frozen to her nose I knew it was time to break the news to the family. I called and basically started crying feeling really bad about the situation. The dreaded question was asked, what ewe was it? Prize possession. The poor girl had gone into premature labor and though she showed no signs the previous night, it still happened and things didn’t go well. In this situation things were three times as bad, why? Because she had twins inside her! I fed the rest of the animals then tended to the one who is now in animal heaven. I rolled her onto the slead and lugged her away and put her by the barn where she was supposed to be picked up. Well for the duration of the week, I had to walk by her thinking “sheep killer!”

Guinea pig dead (check)
Chickens dead (check)
Ewe + 2 lambs dead (check)

Event #4 (really are you scared yet?)
Animal: roosters
Owner: McBrides
Situation: 24 hour getaway
Level of difficulty: 1
Yep folks, I’m back to the sheep farm. At this point, they don’t have all of the ewes back because they are having relations with the ram in hopes of producing some super cute lambs to join the world in January or February. How hard is this? Feed Saturday morning and night and Sunday morning. It had been a rough 10 days because of another adventure in animal watching so I was tired but glad to be feeding in a location that was safe and I knew the lay of the land. Saturday morning, I was in a hurry to get my hair done so I ran over, fed the cats, fed the sheep, looked at the chickens, and left. In my process of leaving I got stuck! Damn Clark! Made it to my appointment and had a good afternoon. I had no problems feeding Saturday night and everyone was still alive. Sunday morning I went and fed, this time getting the roosters fresh water and food because they don’t usually have to be checked on every day. After nearly being attacked by the rouge rooster (twice), I noticed the two roosters that looked as if they were nesting, weren’t really nesting, they were dead. I think these words came out of my mouth “You’ve got to be kidding me!?!” At this point, I knew my animal watching days at the McBrides were limited. I finished taking care of the hens was charged by the crazy rooster again then decided to give them a call. This time I was convinced it was one of the 20+ cats around their farm that killed them. Much to my relief it was not a big deal that they lost the two birds. It was blamed on the cold but they were disappointed that it wasn’t the mean rooster that died. She asked that next time I decide to kill something, make sure it’s that one. I don’t think there will be a next time.

Guinea pig dead (check)
Chickens dead (check)
Ewe + 2 lambs dead (check)
Roosters dead (check)

Knock on wood, in all my other house-sitting situations, no other animal has gone to meet their maker, but I promise you this, I have enough fear that something will happen that I’m probably the best animal watcher ever! Rain, hail, snow drifts the size of Texas, or sleet, I’m there to take care of the animal and treat it like royalty. I’m determined not to let this happen again. I know that death is a part of everything but why does it seem to happen when I’m around and not the owners? Here’s the situation that better not happen because if this happens, I quit! I’ll never watch animals again. I never want to deal with a dead horse. I will cry!

When you say your prayers at night, add a small one in for me and all the animals I come in contact with that are not my own. I don’t want to have the “animal killer” reputation. Idaho Falls is a small town!