Last week Rose and I took a short vacation. We stayed one night in Cocoa Beach, where we met up with Rose’s Dad and his wife, then we boarded the Disney Dream for a three night cruise to the Bahamas. It was a much-needed vacation but unfortunately we couldn’t bring Chris and Puck with us. That meant we had to find a reliable cat-sitter.

I am sure people who think of their pets as animals would be comfortable with googling pet-sitters and choosing the one with the best price, or better yet, finding someone they know that will do it for free. We think of our pets as children so the process for us was more like looking for a baby-sitter.

The last place we lived, the next-door neighbor had a seventeen year old daughter who would watch our cats. She was very responsible and loved cats, especially Chris. She would not only take care of their food and litter but she would also stay and spend time with them. Since moving, she was no longer an option so we had to look elsewhere.

By pure luck, we happened to live next door to a young mother who also happens to love cats. She agreed to take care of our “children” while we were away and we were sure she would do a good job but we still planned for the worst.

My biggest worry was that Chris or Puck would get out and she would have trouble catching them. I wanted to take the cats to get micro-chipped but we just never had the time. Another worry was that something bad might happen that would cause her to not be able to come, so we bought large food and water dispensers that would hold enough food and water for at least a week. It may have sent the wrong message to the sitter that we didn’t trust her, which was not the case, but even the most responsible person can be victimized by circumstances.

Rose called her the first evening we were gone to see how the cats were doing. She then told her we would be on the cruise so she would not be able to call the next day. After the call ended, I mentioned to Rose we would still have cell coverage for another day but she didn’t want the sitter to think we were checking up on her. I said nothing but I was thinking that checking up on a sitter is perfectly normal. I don’t think any parent would not call to see if their kids are okay and having cats is just like being a parent.

In the end everything worked out very well. The cats were fine and the sitter survived. Shockingly, she even offered to watch them again if needed.