Christine was great with Frida! She was a very good communicator and took lots of pics and sent updates. She was understanding when our plane was delayed and we were later picking up Frida. Frida enjoyed her time with Christine and we are excited to see her again!

I didn’t have the best experience with Christine, but I believe that is mainly because my cat is not compatible with her sitting style. This was my first time using a cat sitter since I adopted my (adult) cat a few months ago. My cat Cheese and I have a very strong bond/relationship so for the most part, he is extremely tolerant of me doing things that he doesn’t necessarily like, such as putting him into his carrier and touching his neck when I apply his monthly flea medication. However, because I have never hired a cat sitter before nor have I really had other people have to do similar things for Cheese, I was unaware that he only lets me, as his owner/cat mom, do those. At the end of our booking, when Christine tried to put Cheese back into his carrier, he hid under the bed and refused to come out. I was unaware this would happen because as I stated earlier, he has never done this with me before. I assume this happened because he was in a pretty new and unfamiliar environment and was scared. The times that he did come out from under the bed, he would run very fast and be extremely difficult to catch, from Christine’s description. However, Christine does not allow clients into her apartment, so I was unable to help her put Cheese inside his carrier. Unfortunately, trying to take Cheese home became a stressful ordeal for everybody involved until Christine and I had no choice but to try trapping my cat using a cat trapper. Luckily, this worked and I was able to take Cheese back home. As stressful as the situation was, the actual booking (I booked the stay from November 23-26) went smoothly. She was communicative (she sent me pictures of Cheese multiple times a day without me even having to ask and would let me know every time she fed him, usually sending a picture of him eating, which I’m sure any pet owner would appreciate) and Cheese seemed pretty comfortable during the stay. When it was time to trap my cat, she did a good job setting it up and keeping me updated almost hourly as to whether or not he had gone into the cage yet. As soon as he had, she let me know and I was able to get him home very quickly after that. While Christine overall did a good job taking care of my cat during the booking, the main issue was compatibility, which was not her fault. I think that in order to have a successful booking with her, you MUST be well aware of and extremely familiar with how your cat feels about other people handling them. I did not know Cheese would be so scared and intolerant of being handled by people that are not his owner. I made this mistake and I do not want anybody to go through what I did. If your cat is especially timid and tends to hide when he feels scared/threatened, I recommend looking for another sitter. Or, if like me, you’ve only had your cat for a few months and are unsure of how your cat would react to being handled by a new person, look for another sitter. Because she is not comfortable allowing clients into her apartment under any circumstance, you will not be able to help her handle your cat if necessary, and the situation would be much more stressful than necessary for everybody involved.