Any advice about dealing with dirty home changing cat litter?
The apartment I am doing drop ins at for two sweet kitties is VERY messy (garbage everywhere, stains and mold all over the floor, etc.) I’m not here to judge my client for the way they are obviously struggling to maintain their home, but there are parts of the space where I don’t feel comfortable spending more time than absolutely necessary for sanitary reasons. Like the bathroom where the litter boxes happen to be. When I arrived for the first visit, the auto litter box looked like it hadn’t been changed out recently, which is something I typically expect pet owners to do before their trip. There was also a wide open bag of scooped cat poop next to the litter box, which I of course took out on the first day. I’ve been doing my best to scoop it thoroughly for the last couple days and they do have another box that is a lot cleaner in the same bathroom, but today the client messaged me asking how the auto litter was doing and if it had needed to be changed yet. My first reaction was “YES it needed to be changed before I even got here!!!” but didn’t actually say that to the client lol. Changing out litter isn’t something I’ve been expected to do for any of my clients so far, and I wasn’t explicitly asked to do it at the meet and greet. I’m not completely opposed to changing out the litter and was kind of hyping myself up to do it anyway, but this client has already been presumptive about a few other things and the way they asked just made me feel even less valued. So, what would you do? Am I wrong in thinking this is abnormal? Should I just suck it up and do it, or charge extra, etc.?? Thanks!!