I just read a post about a neighbor's dog being left outside with someone coming by a couple of times a day to check on it---and it made think about planning for dog care. I have had two experiences with friends helping dog sit---one good and one a nightmare.
Before I tell you my stories,
please ask yourself:
What would happen to my dogs if I had to go into the hospital for a few days? What about a month or more? Are my dogs' shots up to date and the paperwork easy to find? or is the vet's information easy to find? What about the kennel cough vaccine which has be given at least 4 days before kenneling?
What if I were in an accident and couldn't communicate--would anyone know to take care of my dogs?
Are there people outside my immediate family who could go into my house? Who has keys to my house?
What if there were a disaster and you had to evacuate?
Go here for some information to help prepare for this: [link
http://www.nhspca.org/training/DisasterPrep.htm]http://www.nhspca.org/training/DisasterPrep.htm[/link]
And the worst question of all: What if I die?
Now some of us have had to answer these questions in an emergency and found out who our real friends are. Here is a good story and a bad story about asking someone to care for your dog.
First, I'll tell you the good story to remind me of how wonderful
eople can be.
I had a friend who watched my dog short-term while I was in labor with my first child. Unfortunately, my son was born with a unexpected, life-threatening
roblem and was immediately sent to a pediatric cardiac ICU in another state. (May God bless the people there every day. My son is fine now.) So DH and I moved into a hotel near the hospital. What about my dog? Two other friends [sm=angel.gif] moved into my house and took care of my dog so I wouldn't have to worry about him. God bless them too. The dog was fine, hubby moved home in a week when my son moved into intermediate care, and I stayed until my son could come home. I was fortunate to have friends who could care for my dog so he was less stressed and and I didn't have to scramble to find a kennel while wondering if my newborn was going to live or lose his legs.
Yes, there are good people in this world.[sm=clapping%20hands%20smiley.gif]
[sm=soap%20box.gif]Now the bad story
A close relative who now lives far away (+1,000 miles) came back for a family celebration. This was her only chance to see all of her large family together for perhaps years and might have been her last chance to see some older relatives. She didn't want to kennel her dogs because both were rescues with bad pasts (abused and abandoned) and she was concerned that they would freak out at a kennel. So when two friends agreed to move into her house she was thrilled. The girl went to work around noon and the boyfriend came home at 5 or 6, so someone would be with the dogs most of the time. Hooray! Or so she thought.
After one night the BF decided he missed his cable too much[sm=angry.gif]---and the dogs should be sleeping at night, anyways, so why sleep there? Of course, GF followed his lead. For a couple of days they let the dogs out once in the a.m. and once at night and made sure they had dry food and bowls of water. My relative called
every day to check on the dogs and the GF said they were doing fine. Then the GF/BF had the opportunity to go someplace overnight so they shut the dogs in the kitchen, poured out a pile of food and filled a big bucket with water. I guess they figured they would be back and clean up any mess and my relative would never know.
An elderly neighbor called my relative on her cell phone---the neighbor could hear the dogs barking, no one had been to the house in an least a day and when she peeked in the windows she could see the dogs locked in the kitchen which was an unholy mess.
My relative called the GF on the phone to see what was going on---giving the GF the benefit of the doubt---and surprise! They were just going back to take care of the dogs. The GF finally admitted that they had only stayed one night and after that visited twice a day. [sm=flamethrower.gif]They had gone and left the dogs from the morning of day 1 until the night of day 2.
So my relative cut her trip short, we all helped her pack her car and she drove home in record time, only stopping to pee or get food when she ran out of gas. And yes, she only ate while driving.
When she got home the GF/BF had cleaned the floor of the kitchen, but the condition of the dogs, the woodwork, and the rest of the house
retty much prevented them from any more lying about how they took care of the dogs. BTW The house was about 2 years old.
She had known this couple for almost 5 years and they had always been good to her dogs---they were just people with an "its okay, they're just dogs" attitude.
So, I didn't tell these stories to bore you [sm=crazy.gif] I was just trying to encourage folks to think and plan.
As for me, if my family can't stay with my dog, my breeder will take my boy in an emergency and if I can't reach her I can call the other breeder for the litter who will find a place for him to stay. If all else fails, he has his kennel cough vaccination and there are a couple of very reputable kennels close by.
Hope this was helpful and NONE of us will ever need to fall back on our emergency plans.
Peace.
PS And yes, if my whole family is tragically killed the breeder will take my dog.