Tessa’s care for my pet has led me to act out of character. Three hours after dropping Milo off in her apartment, she messages me that she doesn’t own a litter box. That’s 11:30 in the evening. I woke up around 5:30, immediately frazzled and messaged her that I’m willing to cashapp her for a litter box to be sent to her house and also offered to personally drop Milo’s personal litter box off. Of course that’s an insane time to expect another person to be awake, so I drove back to her apartment at 6 in the morning and dropped off my cat’s litter box on her front porch with a very small amount of litter as well. Just enough for a couple of days. I’ve never had a pet sitter ask for a litter box before. The price of litter has always been factored in to their costs when booking. But Tessa only had pictures of dogs on her profile, so I assume she’s not as parsed in cat care/ doesn’t have room for a litter box. Which was very annoying, because I booked with her in May, then asked a little before 24 hours ahead of schedule in August if she was still free to watch my cat. She responded yes, but never sent me a list of supplies she needed. Of course I brought a toy/food/water bowl/food bowl/pet carrier/enclosed cat scratcher, but not litter and a litter box. Now, I will say that Tessa is a very sweet person. She promised to send lots of pictures at drop off. I have nothing against her personally. I noticed her home was… not very clean at drop off. She has a child under 6 according to her profile and watches animals, so I still dropped my cat off. It was after sunset as well. So according to our messages, she woke up at 8:32 Thursday and responded to me dropping off Milo’s litter “Thank you!!!! No worries, we are up.” 0905 Thursday from me “Good morning! Did he do okay overnight? Did you see the litter box on your porch?” 1637 from me “I’d love a picture update when possible :)” Friday, 0735 “Can I see a picture of Milo to make sure he’s okay?” Friday, 1332 “Has something happened?” Friday, 1336 from Tessa “Hello, everything is ok, I apologize my notifications have been off somehow and I am just now seeing your messages I left Milo this morning, had a doctors appointment I’m heading back now and will send you a picture update ASAP” 1337 “He found a cozy spot in my closet and was asleep in there when I left this morning” 1337 from me “That’s okay! I’m just a really clingy pet parent!” 1339 “No of course!!! I apologize for the confusion” Around 6pm, I asked when she would be home. Around 9pm, I told her I hoped she was okay and reminded her it had been two days since I had seen a picture of my cat. The only reason I use Rover is for picture updates of my cat over a boarding service at my vet’s office for $20 cheaper a night. My vacation was completely ruined over worry, so around 9:45 pm Friday, I sent a message that my friend would be getting Milo at 10 am on Saturday. I sent another message at 0930 Saturday that my friend would be picking him up, which was not answered as well. My friends (she brought one more girl with her, who is another person who Milo knows) called me and they tried for about half an hour to get Milo into his carrier to bring him home. I was several states away, listening to them be unable to put him in his carrier. One got scratched, which is EXTREMELY unlike my cat to do, and they aren’t cat people, and ultimately gave up. My friend updated me that Tessa lost her phone and that’s why she wasn’t responding to my messages. She reminded Tessa that I would be there between 4-6pm on Sunday, the next day, to pick up Milo. I cried and almost canceled meeting my in-laws because I was so distraught. On Sunday, my husband and I arrived about 1630 to get Milo. We saw our cat on the second story window, next to the open panel against the screen. He started meowing loudly for us. That extremely obnoxious cat yodeling that wakes up the whole block sort of meowing. We knocked on the door. Five minutes later we knocked again. Two minutes later I knocked as loud as my knuckles could bear against the metal. My cat continued to meow and cry for us and rub against the window screen. I contacted Rover support at 1653, who was extraordinarily unhelpful and said they would email and call Tessa. I told them she didn’t have her phone, and he still hung up on me. At this point, I was so upset that I walked to the leasing office hoping they would unlock the door long enough for my cat to leave, screw all of the stuff I brought. I could hear my cat meowing all the way to the leasing office. They were closed, so I sat in my car and cried again. Why wasn’t Tessa home? Why was my cat next to an open window? My husband remembered Tessa mentioning she left her phone in her Uber, so he starting knocking the door non-stop and ended up kicking the door for more noise. 40 minutes of being eaten by mosquitos later, turns out Tessa was just asleep during pickup time. I paid $200 to her for her to be sleeping with my cat next to an open window. Thank goodness he’s not the type to tear up window screens. Now my husband is 5’2’’, but I’m still sure that was alarming to Tessa, since she was watching Milo at her home, so I do feel bad that he probably frightened her awake. My husband got our cat into the carrier that was covered in pee. I went in and got his litter box, COMPLETELY CLEAN LITTER BOX, no litter, and his scratch pad and water bowl. The water bowl was filled with gnats and flies. There was a roach in his litter box. I gave just enough litter to line the bottom of his box, and there was still plenty of litter leftover, so I can only assume she either magically cleaned it before falling asleep or just let him use his carrier to use the bathroom. I grabbed his food as well and we left. My cat had a film on him that didn’t seem like sweat, and my husband stated that the home reeked of “incense”. I held my breath going in, because at 5 in the afternoon, I could see all the dead bugs in her windowsill. I will not be using Rover in the future. I especially will not be trusting Tessa with pet care again. I cannot have children, so I’m one of those “my pet is my child” people, and I saved for four years to go to the beach and meet my in-laws just to be extremely worried about my cat the whole time. I just wanted picture updates and to make sure he was eating. Apparently that was too much to ask.

Tessa was absolutely amazing with my dog Parker! From the moment we connected, I felt completely at ease leaving him in her care. She was attentive, responsible, and clearly has a genuine love for animals. She sent regular updates with photos, which I really appreciated—it was so comforting to see Parker happy and relaxed. When I picked him up, he was calm, clean, and clearly well cared for. I highly recommend Tessa to anyone looking for a trustworthy and loving sitter. She truly treated Parker like her own!