VERY weird situation. What do you do when owner routinely leaves the door wide open with a jerry-rigged "fence"?
Hi guys. Today I ran into a really weird situation and I would like to know how you would handle it. I should preface by saying that this took place in a rather busy suburb. This is kind of a long story but please bare with me!
Last night and this morning I did drop in visits for these three dogs. When I went to the meet & greet, I arrived a few minutes early saw that the owner wasn't home yet but left the back door wide open so the three dogs could go in and out. This would already be pretty weird if they had a fence but they don't even have a fence. They had wooden board leaning against garbage cans that served as a "fence", which is even more strange especially since the dogs are medium-large and could easily knock it over and escape if they really wanted to.
Anyway, during the meet & greet, the owners told me that instead of giving me a key or something, they would just be leaving the door wide open for me. They left their house at 3pm and told me to be there at 9pm, so they left their door open for HOURS. They instructed me to close the door at night but didn't tell me what to when I left in the morning. I know I should have asked during the meet & greet but I didn't think of it because it's such a weird situation!
When I go on my first visit, I discovered that they have an indoor-outdoor cat who is not listed on the booking nor their profile, which is normally fine. However, when I left in the morning, I wasn't sure if the owners wanted me to leave the door open or closed. They only instructed me to close it at night so I wasn't sure what they wanted me to do in the daytime, though obviously they leave it open all the time. Additionally, the cat was out and would run away every time I would try to get him inside!
I tried calling and texting the owners with no answer. I didn't want to chase down the cat because he kept running away and I didn't want to risk him getting lost. So I ended up closing the door with the dogs in the house and letting the cat just stay outside. I figured he would still make his way back since he is an indoor-outdoor cat. I also contacted Rover's emergency hotline just so they would be aware of the situation if the owner reported the cat as missing.
Has anyone been through anything similar? What would you have done? Is there anything else I should do? Please let me know!