What To Do With a Pet While You're On a Long Trip (1 of 3)

As for suggestions on finding someone to care for your pet while you’re traveling, here’s what we can offer.

Check with your veterinarian. He or she may have other clients who do pet sitting or will know of reliable companies that will provide in-home care. (We happen to be lucky. Our vet has teenage daughters who, when we’re away, love earning money by coming to our house every day to feed, pamper and clean up after our cat.)

If you have a neighborhood watch group or actually know your neighbors, ask them for recommendations on pet sitters. We’ve found ads posted on neighborhood light posts from young people looking for baby-sitting or pet-sitting jobs, but you need to check out their references. 

If you are a member of a church or civic organization, you can also look to other members as a source of information. (We learned that another church member was doing pet care as a secondary job.) At the least, you might feel more secure with people you know.

If you buy pet food from Petco (www.petco.com) or PetSmart (www.petsmart.com), those stores often have listings of businesses or individuals who do pet care. Another source of such info might be a pet groomer.

We hope these ideas help those who have nonhuman dependents left at home when they travel.

Marion & Jim Durham
Tempe, AZ

As someone who travels frequently and has a plethora of animals, I highly recommend an in-home pet sitter. Pet-sitting is a service where someone comes into your home and cares for your pets in their own environment. 

Pet sitters can come once a day or multiple times a day, and you may even be able to find one who will stay overnight (however, that is usually a friend). You can find pet sitters on numerous websites. The serious ones are licensed and bonded. 

Another good resource for finding pet sitters is a veterinarian’s office. Often they have trained veterinary technicians who do pet-sitting jobs on the side for extra income. 

Personally, I have had good luck with licensed veterinary technicians. If something goes wrong with an animal while you are away, or you have a special-needs animal that needs medication, they are able to handle the issue. 

Each time my husband and I leave, I make an explicit set of instructions detailing the care for our animals (we have cats, a dog and a horse). I provide details about what they all eat, which animals need medication, the let-out schedules, and contact information of my veterinarians and not only myself but my best friend (who thinks just like I do when it comes to animals and could make decisions for me if I were unavailable).

When it comes to being gone for an extended period of time, I make sure my veterinarians know that I will be away and for them to help my animals if my sitter needs to bring them in.

Also, we have a combination-lock box that attaches to our garage door, and I leave the house key in that. That way, I don’t have to worry about the pet sitter picking up our key from us or dropping it off.

Earlier this year, when we left for two weeks, I split the pet-sitting up between two different sitters. My regular pet sitter came twice a day, Monday through Friday, and did all of her regular duties. She charged a very reasonable fee and charged per visit, so I didn’t feel it was right to ask her to do extra things for the same rate.

I then had my good friend, who is starting a pet-sitting service, come out on Saturdays and Sundays. She got the “extra” chores that I would normally do during the week: cleaning all of the litter boxes with bleach water and making sure each cat got fed their probiotics in wet food once a week, plus some light housekeeping duties. That friend charged per visit but also charged for each half hour that she was there, so her pricing structure made the extra work fair for her. 

Overall, having a pet sitter come into your home reduces the anxiety of your animal. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about your animal picking up some illness while it is at a kennel. I highly recommend looking for one for your extended trip. 

Charli Ann Stevens
Dittmer, MO

I usually travel two or three times a year to remote destinations, and I am gone a couple of weeks each time. Once the place and dates are established, I make sure arrangements are firm for someone to take care of my precious, 5½-pound female chihuahua, Chi Chi, who is about seven years old. 

Finding someone caring and reliable is not easy. The last lady I used moved away, so I had to find a replacement. I could not even consider boarding Chi Chi in a kennel where she would be housed in a cage. Sometimes a vet can provide references. 

Recently, I was lucky and found a wonderful lady by accident. Since I live in Florida, there are a number of senior communities, many of which are gated. Getting ready for a trip and at my wits’ end, I took my dog to a homeowners’ association in a community I knew well and asked if they knew of anyone who was a dog sitter. 

A lady took one look at adorable Chi Chi and said, “I think I know someone. I can take you there.” 

It was love at first sight, but the catch was she is a very busy woman and her calendar fills quickly, so when I know I might travel, I make reservations as early as possible. My sitter ($15 per day) is so dedicated, she even lets Chi Chi sleep on her bed. 

The community also has a monthly newspaper where people in need of pet sitters sometimes place ads.

I hope pet lovers looking for a sitter are as fortunate as I.

Joyce Bruck, Ocean Ridge FL

I arranged to have a neighbor, whose business is dog sitting, care for our two dogs, Callie and TinTin, while my husband, John, and I went to Switzerland for two weeks. 

Callie is not a large dog, but she is very strong and aggressive toward other dogs. I told the dog sitter not to take Callie for walks because I thought the sitter would not be able to control her. I also warned her that both dogs were likely to bolt out the door if given the opportunity.

Originally, I thought the dog sitter would stay at our house, where the dogs would have access to our ¹⁄³-acre lot, where they could run and get lots of exercise. However, just before we were to leave, the sitter informed me she wanted to keep the dogs at her house because it would be more convenient for her. 

I asked her to bring the dogs to our house once a day for some exercise. I gave her the garage door opener so she could drive the dogs into the garage, close the garage door and release them into the yard through the side door, with no danger of them escaping.

John and I were on our way to the airport, a 2-hour drive by shuttle bus, when we received a call from another neighbor, who said she had TinTin tied up safely in her backyard but had been unable to catch “the other one.” 

At that point, John wanted to forgo the trip and go home to find Callie. We tried to reach the dog sitter, but, no doubt, she was out trying to catch Callie. We called our next-door neighbor and asked her to find out what was going on. Meanwhile, we reached the airport and checked in. 

The neighbor called back shortly to reassure us that both dogs were back with the dog sitter. Apparently, someone had come to the door, and when the dog sitter opened the door to speak to this person, the dogs bolted.

The next day we got an email from the dog sitter saying TinTin had dug out of her yard under the gate, so he would be allowed in the yard only on a leash.

I had arranged to have a mobile groomer go to the dog sitter’s house to groom Callie. The day after her visit, the dog sitter emailed us to say the mobile groomer had found cactus spines in Callie’s coat and had forbidden the sitter from letting the dogs into her backyard, where there were cholla cacti. 

The sitter then stated that she could no longer care for the dogs and wanted to put them in a kennel. She had found one that had space for two more dogs. I had heard good things about the kennel, so I gave her the OK.

The following day our other neighbor emailed us to say she had gone to the kennel to check on the dogs. She said the facility was clean and spacious, the dogs had an indoor room and an outdoor yard and they seemed happy. I really appreciated her reassurance that the dogs were being well cared for. 

We have boarded the dogs at the same kennel twice since then, and they always seem delighted to see the woman who runs the place.

By the way, friends later told me that they saw the dog sitter walking Callie with other dogs, and Callie was lunging and barking at them and was obviously very difficult to control. So much for following instructions!

I will use the kennel in the future, even though I would prefer that the dogs stay at home. After that experience, I don’t trust dog sitters to do what I ask them to do or to care for the dogs adequately.

When choosing a kennel, getting favorable recommendations from other dog owners is important. Visit the kennel to see if it is clean and what kind of space and access to the outdoors your pet will have. 

Will the pet have a chance to interact with people during its stay? Will the kennel feed your pet the food you supply or do they insist on feeding it their food? 

Some kennels have webcams, allowing you to see what’s going on at the kennel on your laptop or tablet. 

Before you go off on a month-long trip, consider boarding your pet at the kennel of your choice for a few days to introduce him/her to the boarding facility and see how he/she copes with boarding.

Christine Nelson, Tucson, AZ

Here is my 5-point plan for extended pet care using a sitter.

First, ask around. I had four different family members lined up to care for my cat during my 2-month stay in New Zealand in early 2014. As the departure date approached, all four bowed out for various valid reasons. My niece then mentioned a friend of hers, who turned out to be perfect as a house and cat sitter, so persistence counts. 

Second, ask for references and verify them. Run a background check on the pet sitter, if possible. 

Third, meet the sitter ahead of time at a neutral location (say, a nearby café). Then, if it feels wrong, you haven’t given someone you don’t trust entry to your house. If it does feel right, though, bring the person home and introduce him or her to your pet. See how they interact. 

Fourth, have a written agreement. Both parties should know what is expected. (My agreement included departure and return dates, how and when payment would be made, emergency contacts, whether or not overnight visitors or days away from the house were acceptable, and who covered the cost of Internet overages.) 

Fifth, and most important, keep in contact. Use email and Skype calls to check on things while you are away. If you board your pet, ask someone to visit the facility while you are gone. That reassures you that your pet is okay, and your sitter or kennel knows that you care about what’s happening at home. 

I was very fortunate to find a completely reliable pet and house sitter. I paid more than I expected to, but it was worth every penny to know that the home front was fine while I enjoyed a glorious time in New Zealand. 

Brigid Duffy, Kansas City, MO

Regarding what to do with a pet when you are going on a long trip, my husband and I have found the perfect solution, TrustedHouse sitters.com. There is a large global community of people who love animals and who will come to your home at their expense and care for your animals, plants and home in return for the opportunity to “live” in your home and experience your community while you are gone. 

The site has detailed profiles, and most of the sitters are bonded and have police clearances and lots of referrals. We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and recently we chose a retired couple from Reno to stay with our terrier while we were gone. They were mature, delightful and well-traveled people and they took wonderful care of our dog, Abbie, and our home.

We’ll be going away for six weeks soon and have already made arrangements for a couple from Pennsylvania to pet sit. There are other sites that offer this match, but I have found TrustedHousesitters to be the most user friendly. The only difficult part is choosing from an amazing number of fascinating people from all over the world who want to come and take care of your dog, cat, birds, donkey or whatever and experience living in your community.

We have taken Abbie with us on long trips to France, which, of course, is a very dog-friendly place. To make such a trip, just go to a vet that is used to completing the paperwork required and make sure your dog or cat is chipped with the right kind of chip (not all machines can read the chip). 

For our upcoming trip to Southeast Asia, though, Abbie will have a lovely couple pet sitting her in the comfort of her own home.

Barrie duBois, Campbell, CA

In recent years, I have relied on a pet sitter to care for my animals when I’m traveling. I have known this sitter, who is a certified vet tech, for many years and trust her to care for my animals as I would. 

She comes to the house twice a day, lets the dogs out (even though they have access to an outside relief area through dog doors), feeds them and cleans litter boxes. She also administers any medications and/or dietary supplements. For me, this is an ideal solution. 

If you decide to engage a pet sitter, it is very important for that person to provide references, to agree to a contract spelling out rights and responsibilities and to meet your animals prior to your departure. It is very important that the person be bonded, since he or she will have keys to your house. I feel a good pet sitter is the best option if you are away for any length of time.

I have also boarded my animals, and choosing the right facility is critical. First, look for an accreditation by the American Boarding Kennel Association, or ABKA (www.abka.com/abka). This will ensure that the facility has met health and safety requirements set by the ABKA. 

If outside runs are not available, dogs should be walked several times a day. It is very important that dogs have visual stimulation and not be shut in in a solitary-confinement cell. 

Preferably, the kennel operator will reside on the property for safety and security reasons. The kennel workers should dispense medications and/or supplements and maintain a record for each animal. 

If boarding more than one animal of the same species, ask if they can occupy the same space. Having a buddy will reduce each animal’s stress of being away from home.

Provide a special toy or a blanket that can be easily laundered and which reminds them of home. Provide your pet’s own brand of food, unless it is also the kennel’s brand.

Cats usually have fewer requirements, but they should have human contact as much as possible.

Anyone caring for your pets should love their job. If you get the feeling that they don’t, find another facility. 

Rosemary McDaniel

Trenton, F