2003-05-05 8:18 p.m.
Lost: One Petsitter
I called up my usual petsitter to see if she could come take care of TheCat when I go on vacation later this month, and her voice mail box was full. I tried the second number and got no answer. Tried her e-mail -- no answer. Tried her first number again, no answer.
The petsitter actually likes The Cat. More importantly, TheCat likes her. TheCat is choosy about who she counts among her friends. Besides me and TheBoy, a small handful of people she'll tolerate, and the one and only person she ever loved on sight (a locksmith who she met once), she doesn't have any use for people.
Plus the petsitter would write detailed, chatty notes about what she and TheCat had been up to:
Monday: TheCat hid under the bed until about 5 minutes before I needed to leave. I ended up late for my next appointment because she was being so lovey.
Tuesday: TheCat greeted me at the door. She loved the half-hour of petting!
Wednesday: After 10 minutes of petting, I clipped TheCat's claws. She cussed like a sailor but settled down for some more petting when I was done.
She clipped TheCat's claws. With TheBoy and me, that's a two-person job. Deciding to clip TheCat's claws just because is like volunteering for alligator wrestling. Having a petsitter who's not only brave enough to do that, but would actually repeat the experience -- worth her weight in gold.
But it's beginning to look like I may need to find another petsitter. If I sucked up to Sweetcheeks, he might feed her for a weekend, but there's no amount of sucking up I could do that would get me two weeks of TheCat care. He loves cats, just not my cat. He's catsat for Aunt Slappy, and he'll go over to the folks' place when they're on vacation to make sure their cats are getting enough attention. But TheCat -- and I believe he was trying to be tactful here -- is "psycho."
S. and A. can't do it because A. is deathly allergic to cats, and this is the time of year TheCat's a shedding machine. (Whether they'd even get along is also in question; whenever he's been by, she's stayed under the bed.) And none of my other friends live close enough.
Anyone know of a good petsitter in the East Bay? One who brings his or her own supply of Neosporin is a bonus, but anyone who won't leave her to stew in her own bile for two weeks will do.