Help! Our sitter isn’t showing up while we are gone and don’t know what to do?
All, I’m besides myself right now and am not sure what to do. I’m now 5 days into a 10 day vacation. I hired a rover sitter to house sit my dog and cats. We did the meet and greet and had her do 4 drop ins before our trip. Everything looked fine. We hired her for the sitting and asked her to stay the night. I have an elderly dog with medical issues and I don’t want her being alone - exactly why I didn’t send her to the kennel. Once the trip started, I got a rover card within a couple of hours of us leaving. I left thinking everything was fine. I got no updates for two days. I checked in and was told everything was fine. Then nothing again for two days, until I asked again. Fast forward to today. I saw a picture my neighbor posted on Facebook of her front yard (and you could see my house). There was a big snow storm on Sunday, and there were no tire marks in my driveway, and no foot prints coming and going. Something isn’t right - either someone is stuck inside, or nobody has been there. I called a neighbor and sent her over. The cats and dog had no food, no water, and were clearly distressed. There was poop and pee all over the house. I texted the sitter again and asked how things were. She told me everything was fine and she was at the house (lie).
Now I’m completely unsure what to do. My first priority is making sure my cats and dog don’t die while I’m gone. My neighbor agreed to come by and make sure they have food and water. But I don’t want to call out this sitter because she has complete access to my home and knows nobody is there. What do I do to make sure my babies are OK AND my home is safe?
Thoughts?
Deleted. I hate rover.
It's not Rover's fault. They are only the platform for a network of independent contractors (sitters). It sounds like you did all the right things before the stay. For any problems with a stay call Rover. Coming to a Q&A forum is not the place for something as serious as this. I'm sorry.
I hate Rover because their lack of action after the fact. I get it - bad individuals sneak through. But they need to hold them to a level of care and they failed to do so after I called and filed a concern. The Q&A was a last resort.
Leave the sitter a lengthy, HONEST review. Sitters value their reviews b/c of the business that comes with (or can be lost by) them. It's gotta sound extremely reasonable, tho, hold back the 'evil' remarks and such or you've wasted your time. Make each word count.
I would contact the authorities for animal neglect. I too agree this is serious and the sitter needs to understand that. I am sorry to hear what your pets had to go through.
I agree rover has the sitters info and that sitter should be charged with animal neglect
It IS Rover’s fault. When the sitter cancels at the last minute, the owner does not get to review. Which is total bullshit!! What is more important than someone not showing up? My sitter just did this and I am now out very expensive concert tickets and a hotel stay. And they won’t let me review
This same thing happened to me. The sitter had lied about feeding my dogs - weirdly on the day I came home - which was so stupid because I could obviously check. I had an elderly dog who needed medication and was underweight and HAD to be fed more frequently and with special food.