Elia cared for our three dogs for 16 nights while we were away. She offered to pick them up and then return them to us, and I now know why: she doesn’t want the client to see her home or yard. After she returned our dogs to us- while letting us know they were fine throughout the trip, we discovered they were all three absolutely covered in ticks. Of course the dogs had already ran through the house excitedly so we ended up with ticks on our bed and our children’s beds in addition to the couch and other places. That being said, I understand ticks can happen. We don’t have ticks in our area and the vet has always informed us preventative meds weren’t necessary. Anyways, when I confronted Alia about this and asked if she - 1. KNEW they had ticks but didn’t feel the need to mention it to us, or 2. Didn’t care for them closely enough to even realize, she admitted she did know. She had been giving them oatmeal baths during their stay, yet never mentioned this to us while we were away, or when she dropped them back to us. Our dogs all had red rashes covering most of their visible skin and the vet- who they sat the next morning in order to start oral meds for treatment- stated it indicated they’ve had a severe tick infestation. We found massive ticks between their toes- approaching dime-sized that had been there for at least several days. On of our dogs had an ear infection from a tick inside of it as well and is now being treated for that as well. Our dogs had to suffer while we used tweezers to pick ticks off of them for HOURS each. Also, when confronted, Elia stated her neighbor’s yard is infested with ticks and fleas and there’s not really anything she can do about it. While I empathize with that, it means she shouldn’t be running a dog boarding business from her yard since she knows the risks. At a minimum, she needs to disclose it so all in her care can be on a preventative before her arrival to pickup their dogs. Had she told us when she noticed they had ticks, or even told us when she returned them to us, I wouldn’t be all that upset. Instead, she let them suffer for the better part of two weeks and then left us to discover the infestation on our own rather than alerting us. I have reached out to her multiple times since the initial text messages and she will not respond. However, her initial responses- of which I have screenshots, are where she admits to knowing they got ticks while there, and the issue with her yes/the neighbor’s yard. RUN FAR from boarding here.

Great communication!