It’s hard when you take a vacation and your pups can’t come! Why? Because they are going to miss out on all the FUN! 

But that’s not the only reason! What’s even more challenging is what to do with your pups?! Do you have a trusted boarding facility? Perhaps your pet has special needs and therefore boards at the vet? Do you hire a service?

Well in our case we are having a friend come and stay with our pups (oh yeah and the fish and snails) while we are at the beach! Lucky friend right?

So, we wanted to share with your our Dear Pet Sitter note. We’ve omitted their names in case this endeavor goes horribly wrong at least there won’t be evidence they were here!
Dear Pet Sitter,

Thank you for staying at our home with our dogs, fish and two snails! We know they will be much more comfortable here then in boarding and we really appreciate it!

So we have a few tips for you to make it through the next few days that we hope will help. 

Feeding: 

The fish is easy. He has an automatic portioned dinner and just gets fed once a day. The snails get fed every 2-3 days. They have these weird little circles you throw in there. The reason the last snails died was we didn’t know they needed to be fed. We thought the abundant algae from our messy fish was enough but, apparently not.

The dogs – well here we go. 

Lu dog is on the diet dog food. I promise you can tell which one is which. It looks gross. It is these flat circle chunks. Bleh. She gets a cup morning and night and she probably won’t eat it all. If she doesn’t eat it all, she wants you to dump her left overs back in the tub and then refill her food from the tub. She will watch to make sure you complete this task. Or you can leave it there and she can eat it like a real dog. 
Pippin likes his bowl full. He never wants to see the silver at the bottom. This is true. You will know because he will start barking at his bowl. Trust me, he will tell you when it’s time to eat too. When he wants breakfast and dinner he will hound you until you figure it out. He eats the food that actually looks like food. 

If they are being sour pusses and don’t want to eat, there’s some wet dog food on their shelf. They each can have a can for a meal – Pip likes red meat and Lu dog likes chicken – in human bowls though otherwise their bowls will be gross. (Note the gross bowl sitting next to the clean bowl. We all make mistakes and I make lots!) 

Daytime:

Pippin will ring his bells to go outside. He will probably make you do this more than enough time. You can eventually tell him leave it and he might stop. You don’t always have to listen to him but he will try and tell you otherwise.

If it rains, Lu dog will refuse to go outside. Just give her a push on the butt and make her.

If Pippin doesn’t want to come in, pick a treat any treat. He will come running. 

The dogs know pretty much two tricks. Sit and Lay. Those aren’t really tricks but ya know. Sit is sit and Lay means laying all the way down with legs kicked out. If they don’t do that – tell them all the way.

We give our dogs treats, but not too many. Too many and you’ll be going out the door 100 times. So really, your call. 

Night:

Good luck. That’s all I have to say here. They should sleep downstairs in the master BUT you’re welcome to invite them in the guest room with you. If so, make sure Pippin has a bedroom water dish and his bones. If you don’t, he will let you know by digging in your bed and barking at you like a mad man until you remember these things.

Well pretty much just listen to Pippin! Lu dog is easy. Feel free to eat what you want, watch what you want and we recommend you drink while your here. It makes living in a house run by a 37lb dog from hell a little bit easier!

All our love!

So there you have it. That’s what we leave our pet sitter with. Our bags are packed and we wish them luck!

(Now if you’re leaving without contact via phone leave all your vets numbers and other emergency contact numbers for your sitter. In this case, it’s my best friend so she knows to just give me a call and I’ll make an appt if needed.)

So, wish us luck while we are gone and we will be back soon!

Happy Tails!