Happy family! Healthy for a dog.

I waited a few days to leave a review so I could think about my words before hastily leaving a review. Michael boarded my dog Frankie over the Christmas Holiday. We dropped him off Christmas Eve and picked up on Dec. 26th. Communication before stay was good and we did do a meet and greet where I was told that as of then he had no other dogs scheduled but would let me know if he booked others. We met in his yard and his dog came out and the two dogs seemed to get along fine. We spoke about bringing Frankie's crate and I explained that we no longer crate Frankie. Michael asked us to please bring it as a comfort to Frankie and he would leave the door open to the crate unless there was an issue of some sort. Michael did not invite us into his house to see where Frankie would be staying . I thought that was odd but wrote it off to the time of year and the fact that he works from home and needed to get back to work. I not sure what the policy is but I would highly recommend to anyone to ask to see the space your pet will be kept in. The first text I get from Michael was about 8:30 pm. It was a picture of Frankie in his crate with the door closed and his food bowl in the crate. Frank didn't have any of his belongings in the crate with him. I sent a shirt of mine and his blanket and many toys.Frankie had the saddest look on his face and his head was down like he had been scolded . I immediately asked Michael what was wrong with Frankie. Why did he look so sad? Michael said that Frank was laying down and had just gotten up for the picture. And he said Frank is a good boy. As a dog sitter , that is not a picture I would have sent to the owner of a dog I was sitting. I then asked Michael why the crate door was shut and if he could please leave it open. I mentioned the fact that he said Frankie would have free roam of a few rooms in the house that were gated. I asked him to please put some of Frank's belongings in there with him. Franks crate was clearly in a basement , that was clear in the picture. I could t stop thinking that he must feel scared and abandoned . I checked my phone many times looking for an update but received nothing until Christmas morning at about 9am. Again Michael said Frank is a good boy and he did send pics of Frank outside in his yard and he said he told me Frank would be crated at night and I have to understand that he has young kids and they were getting ready for Christmas. His last text was at 9:30 in the morning. I text Michael several times during the day asking how Frank was doing. I received no response until 10:30 at night. Michael did then say Frank was roaming free and he did send pics of Frank interacting with his family and out of the basement. Michael did apologize that the communication was bad but that it was Christmas and he had lots of family stopping over. Again he said Frank was a good boy. We picked up Frank the next day when we arrived home from our trip. Michael had his belongings outside waiting for us and he was in the yard with Frankie . Michale again apologized and said he had to keep We sent Frank there with his coat but Michael never put it on him even after telling me he didn't keep Frank outside long because it was so cold. Michael again apologized to me for the lack of communication and again . He also mentioned that he had to keep Frank separated from the other dogs because those dogs were not as friendly. This was the first mention that there were other dogs there. Again he said Frank is a good boy. I don't like to leave bad reviews for people or places in general so I thought long and hard about this review. Frank seemed fine when we picked him up. He was very happy to see us and was fairly quiet. He drank two bowls of water when we got home and slept on and off for hours making me believe he didn't sleep very well. His food bowl was dirty so it was clearly not cleaned between feedings. I am sure the fact that this visit was over the Christmas holiday and Michael has small children did play into the lack of care that Frank received. My general thought is that if you are just looking for a place to bring your pets, this might be fine, I would definitely ask to see the space where your pet will be sleeping . I do not believe, however, that Michael does this because of his love of animals. I just didn't see any sign of that from him. So my Frank will not be going back here again. We have used Rover before and had sitters that treated Frank like their own. Sadly this was not our experience this time.