We want to start this review by stating that Jessica made sure our dogs were fed, given medications and went out (if even briefly) 2-3 times per day. She gave them love and attention when she was present. However, we had many requests/agreements that were not upheld during her time as our sitter. This led to our overall disappointment in this experience. Considering our dogs’ ages (13 and 16 years old), we opted to have Jessica stay in our home while we were away for our wedding for 6 days. We were very clear about what our dogs needed, time frames, and tough situations to look out for. We explained all of this to Jessica at our meet-and-greet, sent her a detailed word-document that was broken down by time of the day and what to expect from each dog during these times, and hand wrote a detailed document and placed it on the fridge so that there was easy access to the information. We also placed sticky notes in the dog’s room for important reminders. Jessica informed us that, due to working from home, the only real time she would need to leave the house would be at dinner time to cook for her husband. She assured us that she could meet all the requests as asked. We fully recognize that our elderly dog (16 years old) is super sweet but, due to her age, her needs are very specific and require time and attention. As such, watching her can be a challenge if you are not use to working with older dogs with health conditions. She has kidney disease, epilepsy, and is rarely (if at all) able to get up on her own due to weak back leg muscles. We had 4 primary requests for our dogs that we communicated to Jessica: make sure our 16yo was let out every 3 hours (otherwise she could have an accident in the house), to help our 16yo up so that she has access to water every 2 hours (due to her kidneys), make sure our 16yo received her seizure meds twice a day, and to take our 13yo out for a 30 minute walk if it wasn’t too hot (>80F). Another key point we made in our notes was that our 16yo has insomnia and may require you to get up in the middle of the night as she likes to walk in circles, may need to change beds, or may have to use the bathroom. If she is not helped up she will toss her body around until she is helped up or have an accident in the house. She is also more likely to have a seizure at night so it is best to keep her close so that you can hear if it is happening. Jessica agreed that she could handle this due to her lengthy experience with senior dogs with special needs. She did not communicate any problem with the requests and we were very grateful for that. However, due to a family emergency on the 2nd day of sitting, she was out of the house more than anticipated. At some points she was out of the house for 4-5 hours at a time. This resulted in our 13yo receiving no walks during her time here while our 16yo went too long without water and had multiple poop accidents in the house. Additionally, there was an instance when our 16yo was stuck for over 30 minutes around 12-1am and began to bang her head against her dog bowl and the wall, setting off our dog cameras. We attempted to call Jessica multiple times with no answer. We had to resort to playing Alexa around the house get Jessica’s attention. We immediately spoke with her on the phone to check in and ensure that she was still able to care for our fur babies, with the understanding of the impact of her family situation. We asked her to be honest so that we could find an alternative option if necessary; she said she was still capable. Unfortunately, we returned from our wedding weekend to dog poop stains/residue in every room as well as on the couch, walls, and a door. When asked about accidents (of which we sent pictures) Jessica stated that she didn’t realize that they were everywhere despite how apparent they were and the smell that immediately hit us when we walked through the door. To us, this spoke to the lack of attention to our instructions that would have avoided so many accidents in the house (of which we were unaware). Overall, we recognize that Jessica was in a challenging situation between her family incident and our high needs fur baby. While we are not mad or angry, we are upset and disappointed in the overall lack of regard to our instructions which ultimately resulted in most outcomes that we did not want. Jessica’s care as a dog sitter would be perfect for young, healthy dogs getting drop in visits! However, as we requested a full time sitter for our older girls with special needs, it simply was not enough. ***Our biggest fear was that our 16 year old wouldn’t receive her meds on time and she have a seizure in the middle of the night, which Jessica made sure she did on time, which we are very happy about.***

Great communication and cares about my crazy boy!