The Dog Days of Summer

After shedding our van, apartment, and plans to restart our overseas adventures, https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2022/05/15/van-gone/ we decided the least we could do was go visit (bother?) our children and grandchild (she is not bothered).

Travel required digging up some housing. Continued pandemic concerns combined with everyone else’s revenge travel made housing options limited. Without the option of our van, we looked for what we had used in the past for longer term stays;  AirBnb and sublets https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2022/02/24/musical-chairs/ . In Amherst, gateway to the Berkshires and home to five colleges, the AirBnB places were either not available or were excessively expensive.   We found a few sublets but they required a three month stay or wanted students who would continue into the fall. The only viable sublet came equipped with Play Station 4 and beer pong, but that life style may have killed us (or just made us stronger ?).

Five years ago, we had used Trusted Housesitters for Doe, our labrador when we went to Tel Aviv for our granddaughter’s birth.  Our introductory phone conversation with our dogsitter was great, her daughter lived near by, she had many good dog sit reviews.  All seemed good until she showed up and was 15 years older than her pictures and had a rather unstable gait due to her pronounced limp.  This did not bode well.  Six weeks later when we returned, Doe had lost most of her fur from anxiety and lost significant weight despite lack of exercise. The house, though, was very clean as was the garden since she cleaned out a lot of plants thinking they were weeds (they were not).

But we were determined to be great dog/house sitters  First we went to Mendocino to Patricia’s sister’s house to visit and practice house sitting.  

Next we went to LA to practice dog sitting with our grand-dog Osito.

It felt a little like European travel again, although this time it was with double masks as we took a bus, plane and then Uber (with an interesting driver monologue about a childhood in Cuba), to East Hollywood. 

Osito was a great dog sit start. As at previous visits, Osito began by constantly barking at us nipping (okay biting)  Nick twice.  To add to the level of difficulty Osito had diarrhea the night before Marika and Trevor left (smart dog, did it in the shower).  After we took him to the vet, we bonded and Osito decided to tolerate us without barking.

A soft diet, that didn’t include Nick’s ankles, and frequent walks resolved both the diarrhea and Osito’s fear/hatred of us.  By the time Marika and Trevor came home he was jumping on the couch to sit with us, but once Marika and Trevor walked in the door, Osito made clear where his loyalties were, and began barking at us again, although with a little less ferocity.  Okay, we figured, we had this down. 

Red eye to Hartford, CT  followed by an Uber ride (this driver’s TED talk was about his childhood in Turkey as related to US politics) to our next sit; a 12 year old border collie mix named Scout in rural Belchertown, MA just outside Amherst, MA.

We got into the routine fairly quickly; pills in the pill pocket twice a day (an experimental use of Tagamet for ocular melanoma) and playing dog chase around the coffee table 20 times a day.

Scout’s initial enthusiasm gradually transformed into almost rabid protectionism. By the end of the stay, she was leaping at  delivery trucks, delivery people and friendly joggers.

Hearing of our new found pet sitting skills, a few others stopped by to inquire. There are limits, though, to our pet-sittings, we generally do not sit bears.

Scout’s high energy required frequent walks; bear-aware, mosquito-swatting and tick-avoiding. Anxiety producing, multiple times, during the day but especially at night when the fireflies kinda looked like animal eyes.  Obviously, we were West coast amateurs.  

Our next dog-sit was to be more urban, Brookline, MA on the edge of Boston. Scout’s owner tested positive for Covid before her flight home, so Nick graciously stayed on while Patricia was welcomed to Brookline by free Gin and Tonics on the boulevard.  

Nick was able to eventually make it to Boston by driving  to the airport with Scout in her owner’s car. Nick said his goodbyes to Scout but she already changed her alliances back to her owner and bit Nick goodbye.

 

After these three sits, we probably need to change our Trusted Housesitter profile to reflect our specialization in 12 year old  dogs requiring medication with a sub-specialty in diarrhea. 

We were kind of surprised by the intimacy of dog/house sitting.  It is like living in a (mostly) enjoyable short story that you become absorbed in, with it’s own surprises and mysteries and now, you are part of the story.  While we don’t snoop (really), just being in someone’s space for a number of days, surrounded by their knick-knacks, books, furniture, pictures, kitchen equipment (or as we have learned lack of) you feel an understanding and knowledge of a person that you are not entitled to have. 

It is also a nice feeling to be able to be trusted, to feel, briefly part of a community and  to be there for someone at a stressful time.  The people we sat for were all on pilgrimages; religious (to an ancient Abby) or emotional (trip before cancer treatment), saying goodbye to an elderly parent (before moving overseas).  After being tainted by the bad in people when our possessions were stolen from our van, it feels right to be the good.  It’s nice.  The world could be good, vote.