Last Minute Requests

This is a tough nut to crack. I'm usually booked far in advance for my available times, but if it happens that I'm not booked, I am frequently deluged with extremely last-minute requests. Case-in-point, I wasn't booked for this weekend (I only sit on weekends), so I went ahead and planned to attend a party tonight LAST NIGHT. That's right, I didn't make any plans until less than 24 hours out. This morning, I woke up to two last-minute sitting requests (came in between 6:30 and 7:30 AM). Yes, I probably should have gone in and marked myself as unavailable last night, but, if you're requesting a sitter with less than 12 hours' notice, there's literally no time for a meet and greet and you're asking me to take your dog on faith that he/she will get along with mine and is generally well-behaved.

I want to be available for the person who has a serious emergency and needs a last-minute sitter, but I'm uncomfortable taking a dog in non-emergency situations without a chance to meet them. If those who contacted me this morning said something like "I just had a family emergency and have to go away unexpectedly, can you help me out?" I would understand and help. However, that was clearly not the case (both clearly stated that they wanted a sitter for a last-minute fun weekend getaway). I know if I got a call that, say, a family member was on their death bed or had a bad accident, I'd like the option to find a last-minute sitter, and I'd like to BE that last refuge for someone (and would totally have called in lame for the party to help someone in that situation out), but I'm not going to rearrange last-minute plans for someone else's last-minute fun. While I'd say an emergency-only last-minute request option would be a good idea, I'm sure people would just say it's an emergency when they get an invite to the no-pets beach house for the weekend on Friday morning. There's really no good solution other than being very polite while saying you can't do it on such short notice.