Cat-sitting drama!

[tabbycatcuddles]

Long story short - we have a usual cat sitter who had to cancel at a short notice this year due to unforeseen circumstances. We were going away for 16 days, and I got into a bit of a panic - so when I casually mentioned being desperate for a catsitter at a work meeting, I was happy when a colleague mentioned her daughter could maybe help.

We live quite centrally in London, and the daughter had been coming to London for job interviews, staying in hotels. She had found a job but was finding it hard to find a flat share without being in the city, so she was keen to come down earlier to get herself settled before her new job started.

I met her on zoom, she seemed fine so we agreed she'd stay here and look after our cat. She would be welcome to use the house as her own for the 16 days. Few days before we travelled, she asked how much I would pay her. I was a bit taken aback as we hadn't discussed money, and she suggested £50 a day! I said that wasn't doable, and I could really only do it for room and board, but I'd be sure to leave lots of food, few bottles of wine, some treats etc. She agreed. Cat is an outdoor cat so very little work overall.

holiday was great, cat seemed happy over whatsapp, but when we got home, the house was a mess. We'd left it spotless. There were sticky,set stains on tables and counters, toothpaste and soap globs in the sink, dirty dishes, ALL our towels used up and shoved in, damp, to the laundry basket, stinking. I wasn't expecting her to clean but I did expect her to tidy up after herself.

But she had also taken (or drunk!) a box of 6 bottles of wine. I had left her 3 in the fridge, and the 6 were for a dinner party later this month. They were boxed up and put in in the coat closet.

DH thinks just leave it, as the cat was happy and looked after, but I want my wine back! Forget about it or message her?

So you think it's OK to call people you don't know twats? Seems highly immature. I've been extremely consistent that the agreement was mutually beneficial and she was keen to stay. She asked for money, quite late on, I said no, so she could have just cancelled. No one forced her.

I certainly don't enjstramgers in my house so if course both parties had to benefit from it.

I didnt read all of them.

But if your original cat sitter is actually a friend you trade off with. Cat sitter is a misleading term it was just a favour from a friend, which also does carry more risk of cancellation/changes of plans. At work you told people your cat sitter had let you down not that your friend couldnt help you out. Pet sitting is a big business now.

I know youve said you thought having this girl would be mutually beneficial. But she thought she was getting paid, and did say in advance. And you said well i thought saving you money would be worth it, ill leave food treats and wine.

So she drank the wine. I get that 9 bottles is A LOT, but unless you specifically said dont touch that wine I think you inadvertently told her it was fine. And 9 bottles of wine, if they are £20 each. Is still cheaper than any actual cat sitter or cattery would have charged.

You saved her money in accommodation. (Although we dont know how many days accommodation she would have needed if she wasnt at yours, she was looking to move for a job not a 2 week London holiday, if she hadnt been at yours she may have only wanted 1 or 2 nights in a premier inn) but she saved you money in cat sitting fees because unless you had another friend you would have had to pay.

Would you leave the house in a mess then?
would you go searching in the back of a coat/ hoover cupboard, find a unopened box of wine , and woof the lot?
would you leave damp towels in a washing machine going mouldy ????
Also op’s original cat sitter was free because op looks after their cat when the cat sitter is away

There is no way I'd let a stranger stay in my house like this. You are lucky it was only 6 bottles of wine and a mess. It could have been your expensive possessions.

You said you'd leave wine and only left 3 bottles. For 16 days. Mean. My parents came for 6 days to look after my dc and I left 8 beers 6 mini prosecco and 3 bottles of wine . She probably wondered where the wine you promised was and looked in the cupboard. Also you'd need to say :drink this don't drink that "

It seems you think you have done her a big favour but I think she had it under control. Lots of my colleagues moved long distances and it was no drama to get a rental. No one needs 16 days to get a place. She probably thought you'd pay her for cat and house sitting so again you come across as tight.

it.might be worth reading before commenting. There's lots of assumptions here. We arranged it, very clearly, on mutually benefit basis. She was very keen to come down. This was 12 days before we travelled. She messaged me 2 days before we left asking for money, despite having no experience in cats, so yeah, I think totally chancing it.

Edit typo

Totally agree.
Just looked at flats in London in air b and b.
At least £100 a day.
so 16 days =2.286 weeks £1600 minimum.
And some people expect op to pay her as well.
If the cf was travelling from Leeds to London looking at house shares then she’d be paying that or travelling costs and all the hassle which comes with that.
And absolutely no excuse for leaving the house as a s**t tip , leaving wet towels to go mouldy and stealing boxed up wine - which was obviously not intended for cs.
This is an intelligent(masters degree) 24 year old person.
None if this was clever or respectful….

That's nice for your colleagues, but London flatshare market is nothing like that. You can't just hop odd at Kings cross, go see place, take it and move in the next day. Someone said about zoom - literally why would housemates do that when they have 15 people queuing outside?

DP's niece sometimes does this for us (early 20s) - we don't pay her, she gets a 3 bed house for free near where a lot of her mates live, usually picks up some extra bar shifts while she's here (has had to move out of London for a bit but used to live here). I think housesitters are often not paid, that's how sites like Trusted Housesitters work, isnt it? Definitely we also do it for friends elsewhere on the same basis. A 'professional' sitter would be insured, pay for their own food and presumably you could ask things of them regarding basic garden and plant maintenance as well.

Niece also not very housetrained and doesn't leave it disgusting but doesn't really clean anything. That's ok, we don't mind. In your position I'd forget about the wine and hide it better next time! Catsitter who pops in 2x a day will be £25 at least.

There was also a massive risk she
would have a party and trash the house. I would never have let a stranger cat sit in my house. Even our trusted cat feeder when we are away comes in once a day but I lock internal doors so she can only access the kitchen.

This was a mutually beneficial arrangement - no cash needed to be involved. All she had to do was feed the cat twice a day. Plus she was a friend's daughter.

chalk it up to experience. There are facebook groups which arrange cat sitting - a friend uses one for the 3 dogs, cat and a couple of guinea pigs. Exchange of house for free in return they look after the furry beasts. All seems to work out OK for her.

Completely free accommodation in London in exchange for feeding a cat is a very lucky deal for the sitter. I think people don't seem to realise that this a fairly common exchange. Has no one heard of Trusted House Sitters? The whole point is that you get free accommodation, and, costs-wise, it definitley works more in favour of the sitter. However, you should probably have made this clear to the sitter beforehand, and she definitely shouldn't have left your house in a mess and drank all the wine. I'd also just chalk it up to experience though.

I really don’t get the posters on here talking about how much wine people should leave. Who decided that you must leave alcohol for house sitters, and what the appropriate quantity is?

The problem with asking a stranger to stay in your house is that you have no idea how they are going to behave. The fact that she assumed you were going to pay her suggests that there may have been some miscommunication along the way, otherwise she wouldn’t have asked.
It was a mutual arrangement but I would have offered to help her out with cost of travel. Maybe fund an Oyster card. If she’s not working, two weeks in London can work out very expensive even if you provided food while she was in your home. She may have secured accommodation in the first couple of days then been bored out of her mind because she couldn’t afford to take advantage of the location.

Sounds like you went for the cheap option and got what you (didn't) pay for.

I'm sorry but I think you constructing a hypothetical narrative on her situation. The facts are these:
She needed to be in London
She needed to be London a decent time before her job started to secure a flatshare which you can't do overnight
Local travel is cheaper here than Leeds, plus we live within a short walking distance of a bustling high street and areas with lots going on
She got free food, which she would have had to purchase if she'd stayed in Leeds herself
Her job was to feed a cat twice a day in exchange for free house, and some days she barely even saw the cat (though food bowl was empty)
This arrangement benefited us both, wine aside which was more of a curtesy.

Would you not take fully free rent in an expensive city for that?

Some people are just batshit OP. Of course she got a very good deal out of it.

Doesn’t explain why she left the place a tip ..

She’s raked through your cupboards like a burglar and stolen wine that clearly wasn’t for her!!!! THAT needs addressing!!! She is a thief and needs to be reminded that yes she had to feed the cat every day but she had free accommodation for 16 days and left the house in a tip and STOLE after looking through cupboards!! What else has she helped herself to? Have you checked your jewellery/makeup etc?

She’s not a professional cat sitter , so can’t expect to charge the same rates. On the TrustedHousesitters model she’d get free accommodation and utilities paid in exchange for car care, and leave the house as she found it. But you needed someone and short notice and the cats happy, so put it down to experience and forget the wine.