5 Star Housesitters

Tag: cat care

Three’s company! (and great companionship, too)

Three beautiful little ones to enjoy, how does it get better than that! This mixed trio of two cats and a dog (the smallest of which was the dog) came to us when their wonderful parents looked for some “live-in” pet care while they vacationed. Dogsitting for this fox terrier mix and providing cat care for her two feline housemates, kept us busy, in a fun way!

Sprocket at 11 months was all of about six pounds, and just a handful of puppy spunk and love. Although she was much smaller than either of the cats, she worked tirelessly at establishing her alpha position with them. (Not that cats care about who’s the leader — they tend to be rather libertarian and prefer everyone just go about their own lives and leave them alone 🙂 ). All the dust-ups between Sprocket and the cats needed some attention — occasionally a cat would get very annoyed and claw back, but they generally just gave her the “whatever” look cats have and moved on.

Caring for a six-pound dog can be a lot of fun because they are so transportable, you can take them with on any excursion! (Not saying we hid her in pack-along bags and took her places dogs aren’t technically allowed, but hypothetically, if we did, she’d be hard to notice!) Sprocket is an excellent traveler, up for any experience, very well-behaved for a puppy, and oh so affectionate.

And of course, as a fox terrier, chasing and retrieving “prey” is her favorite game, which can be pretty hilarious when most of her toys are almost as big as she is! Terriers, however, are tenacious, and size doesn’t matter when it comes to getting the “job” done!

The two cats were unique personalities, too. Sedona is a beautiful silver bengal, very confident, curious and affectionate. She enjoys being brushed, and just luxuriates in the feeling of the bristles along her skin. People are very interesting for her, she often hangs around to see what’s up and pick up some loving, too. She is an indoor only cat — you do have to watch as she would LOVE to sneak outside — but she does have a second story deck she can use to enjoy the world.

The bed gets a little crowded at night — “princess” Sprocket, of course, takes the center, and Sedona has to find a nook or bent leg somewhere to get that contact she enjoys at night. Oh, and did I mention this cat likes belly rubs in the morning, too?

And then, there’s Marley, the “ghost.” 🙂 I’m not sure if it’s a tuxedo cat specific thing, but it seems that all the tuxedo cats we’ve watched are, well, scaredy-cats. It can take days for their curiosity to overcome their aversion to new people. Finding a hiding, black “ghost” can sometimes be a bit problematic, so we’ve learned to check with owners about favorite hiding places before they leave (Marley’s favorite was under their bed.)
Good thing Marley enjoyed being brushed, too, or we might never have gotten to enjoy him. Banging the brush vigorously next to the bed eventually got him to poke his head out and enjoy some brushing — that is, until the little terror, Sprocket, would figure out what was going on and come in to assert her “leadership!” And then Marley would dash for cover, Sedona would come in to see what the ruckus was, Sprocket would start with her and…a wonderful, raucous time was had by all! 🙂
Although it was a relatively short dogsitting and cat care engagement, we thoroughly enjoyed, and absolutely fell in love with, all three. Wish we had some video of the cats, but, we do at least have a clip at the beach with Sprocket, at “work!” (Click here, or on the picture.)

May 19, 2016
Crazy for Coco and Loco for Lulu!

We had the opportunity to do some dogsitting and cat care in the Monterey area for two wonderful pet parents. They entrusted us with their little Coco, an adorable two year old girl of mixed breed, and Lulu, the male orange tabby. “Mixed” households can be interesting — sometimes dogs and cats don’t play together well, but there two were fun to be around, individually and together (although Coco gets very jealous when Lulu’s getting the attention!).

Dogs have a wonderful gift of making an open heart sing — their innocence and openness to experience really connects with that memory of being a child in love with life. Little Coco girl has the special gift of giving that momentary connection to virtually everyone she meets — watching people who caught eye of her brighten with joy became a wonderful add-on to the fun of being out with her.

Coco is an intriguing breed mix (Tibetan spaniel?) that just turned out to be practically perfect in every way :). At about 15 to 20 lbs., she’s sturdy, athletic, endlessly cuddle-able, and very transportable, besides being highly intelligent, social, and eager to please, with a sunny disposition to boot.

Coco has a housemate, Lulu, an affectionate, yet independent, and very curious orange tabby. Lulu will keep to himself as the situation requires (he has a doggy door for indoor/outdoor access as he chooses), but he certainly seems to prefer engaging with people — we moved one of his toys into the room where we watched movies, and it was so much fun watching him discover ways to play with it when we were there! Like many cats, he also enjoyed being in physical contact with us at night, sleeping in the crook of a bent leg until his internal alarm clock rang his “I’m hungry, right now!” bell (usually pre-dawn, of course).

When people hear we watch cats, too, we often get the question about cats and “gifts,” a particular hazard with indoor/outdoor pets. It’s not a regular occurrence, but, yes, Lulu was very demonstrative about his affection. How thoughtful, in cat world, to forego a tasty mouse you’ve killed to offer it as tribute, you would think “they” would be more appreciative! Although we understand the nature of the compliment, we could have done without Lulu’s rodent cuisine!

Coco’s beach video

The Monterey area has a terrific amenity — in addition to dog parks and off-leash open space, they have a beautiful and spacious beach where off-leash dogs are welcome! Coco’s enthusiasm for beach play is infectious — that ecstatic smile and uninhibited romping made many beach goers’ faces light up. This is a link to a video we shot of her (or you can just click the picture!)

Leaving these two after our dogsitting and cat care duties were complete wasn’t easy (even when the owners came back, both Coco and Lulu spent one more night cuddling with us in bed!), but they have such wonderful, loving parents, we’re just happy we have the opportunity to spend time with them!

May 16, 2016
The beauties and the beasts 🙂 in Durango

On our dog sitting and cat care ventures, we had the opportunity to visit an 80 acre ranch in Durango and care for some “beauties” and some “beasts” — Willow, a black lab, Abbie, an English lab, Kiki, a silver bengal cat and Sammy, a shy tuxedo cat, plus feed around 20 feral cats being housed in a stable adjacent to the guest house where we stayed (well, the feral kittens were cute, but some of the older ferals were a little “beastly!”)

Willow and Abbie exemplify what everyone loves about labs – affectionate, playful, well-behaved (because they’re eager to please), athletic, and great companions. What a great environment for them – 80 fenced acres to run, roam and explore, interesting other characters to interact with, such as the 9 cows on the pasture land, the cats, particularly the young ones that sleep in the stables and wander the property, the deer that amble around close to the house, even a skunk (that one occurred before we got there — predicatable ending to the story, hope there isn’t a repeat).

Haven’t had many experiences with feral cats before — these were being quartered because of the generous good nature of the homeowner, who inherited the first few when they first purchased the property and then had to deal with a couple of wild litters before all the original cats were able to be neutered. The last batch of kittens were about 5 or 6 months old when we arrived, and were very used to human contact, having been extensively handled by the property owner throughout their kitten-hood. Extremely endearing — love to play, love hanging around people, hanging around for walks with the dog, even jumping (unexpectedly) in your lap, always wanting to check out the inside where the people go. In terms of pet sitting, particularly cat care, a little bit of a challenge (especially keeping track of them), but a very unique experience.

What was most special for us was the simple majesty of the environment, and being able to share it with the other non-human occupants!

April 4, 2016
Two ways to say adorable – Frankie and Teddy!

Although our core business is medium- to long-term housesitting, dog sitting, (and cat care, too!), it’s often fun when it works out for us to help with shorter term needs, too. We were so fortunate to have the opportunity to care for two cockapoo brothers (litter mates) in Boulder — it’s a good thing it was for just a long weekend, the two were so enchanting, we could hardly stop ourselves from taking picture after picture after picture!

Frankie and Teddy are adorable, and it’s not just our biased perspective — just look at the pictures! 🙂 We loved being out with them — not only were they fun, well-mannered and easy to be with, the happiness they sparked in people was so wonderful to see! And such personality, too — Frankie act the “big brother,” pretty cautious, independent, watches out for “little brother”, Teddy, who is a little more open, accepting and generally good-natured.(However, Teddy can also be a little stubborn — f, for instance, you’re actually trying to get somewhere on a walk with him and he’s enjoying the smell of every plant, tree or pole along the way, you might have a bit of a challenge!)

Happily for us, Frankie’s and Teddy’s owners were part of a small dog meet-up group in the area, which had scheduled some morning meet-ups the dates we were there. It was just the perfect group for our little guys — we had expected them, particularly Teddy, to be a little reserved, but they were so excited to go romping, chasing and playing with their friends, the one morning we we weren’t able to take them, you could just feel their disappointment. (The day wasn’t a total bust for them though, because they got to go on a CAR RIDE!, another favorite past time).

It’s always a little sentimental to leave some of our favorites (actually, all of them steal our hearts in their own special way), and it was particularly tough to leave these little two, but knowing how loved and well-cared for they are makes it easier. We are so looking forward to the next time it works out for us to be housesitting and dog sitting for this great family!

September 19, 2015