Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this house sitter was bloody cheeky?

818 replies

Littlefluffyclouds81 · 18/06/2016 23:38

My DM recently got a house sitter for 10 days whilst we all went on holiday. She had used her once before and all seemed fine. She seemed very professional - took detailed information about all the animals, signed contracts, she is fully insured etc.

She was supposed to sleep at my DM's house each night, although my DM was aware that she would need to pop back here and there to exercise her own dogs (she lives with her parents).

She was paid over £600, and for that she had to look after 2 dogs and feed a cat. There are also 2 horses at my mum's, my mum's horse who is a big cob, and my daughter's pony. She wasn't expected to do anything with the horses.

While we were away the house sitter emailed to ask if it would be ok if her partner's kids came to meet the horses. My DM said that was fine. When we got back, my mum had a good chat with her and the house sitter said that the kids had come over and groomed my mum's horse, but not my daughter's pony because she was grumpy (she is grumpy).

I was the first to go into the tack room, and noticed that the bridles weren't in the right place. I didn't really think anything of it. But today my DM said that there is grease on the bottom of her saddle, from where the saddle pad hasn't been put on properly and it has rubbed the horse, which she wouldn't do. Also her bridle had been done up all wrong. The stirrups on both saddles were at different lengths to how they'd been left by Us. She suspected that the house sitter had taken the kids riding on our horses. This was confirmed when she went for a ride around the village today and a neighbour (who has booked the same house sitter) said that the house sitter had emailed a picture with the kid sat on her horse!

Not only is riding someone's horses without their permission incredibly rude, it is also a really stupid thing to do. She knew nothing about our horses, they could have had any kind of quirks, and putting 2 kids on them (when she doesn't appear to know much about horses herself) was just bloody dangerous.

Not only that, but my DM said there's no way that the bed was slept in for 10 nights, so she suspects that the house sitter had left the dogs overnight which she wasn't supposed to do.

WWYD? I absolutely think that something should be said to the house sitter, but my DM is veering towards leaving it, and just locking the tack room if she uses her again! She was paid a lot of money, and in my opinion, took the piss.

OP posts:
Gabilan · 19/06/2016 22:16

Thinking about the horses on the yard where I keep mine, two are off work with injuries. They could be seriously hurt if ridden. Two are coming back into work after injury. Both of them could seriously injure anyone trying to ride them. A couple of the others need very experienced riders. One would bite you before you got the saddle on him. My horse would probably do one of his shoulder shrugs that leave you sitting on the floor.

But god help anyone who ever rode him without my express permission. A bad review on facebook would be the least of their worries. An enormous amount of love and care goes into keeping him. And he deserves respect, not numpties who don't know what the fuck they're doing swinging around like he's some kind of toy.

CuntingDMjournos · 19/06/2016 22:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Littlefluffyclouds81 · 19/06/2016 22:23

Exactly - she knew NOTHING about the horses' routines when ridden - for all she knew, they could have been cold backed, or off work recovering from an injury, recovering from laminitis...whatever, there's so many reasons why she shouldn't have done it.

OP posts:
Shyposter · 19/06/2016 22:24

Slander is verbal, libel is written

clam · 19/06/2016 22:27

Was also wondering about the "urination" bit.

Peridotisinvalid · 19/06/2016 22:27

Littlefluffyclouds81
"Fucking hell! I just looked her up on Facebook, and there, clear as day, is a photo of both of our horses, with the house sitter leading the pony, in our ménage."

OP, surely it's a manège. Confused

Original poster
Littlefluffyclouds81 · 19/06/2016 22:31

Ah yes I didn't put that in my OP as I was too raging about the horse aspect. Sorry. Basically, my mum has 2 dogs, and one of them pees in a certain area of the kitchen if she is not let out regularly. When my mum came back, although there was no actual piss on the floor, there were several places in that area where there clearly had been accidents, which adds fuel to the theory that she didn't actually stay there much overnight, if at all.

Also, my mum had a cat who to be fair was very unwell, he'd been having funny turns for a while, and was on his last legs. He tended to mostly live in my mum's bedroom, he had his own water bowl up there. He did need some prompting or help to go outside and have a wee. While we were away, the house sitter mentioned the cat had a lump on his head, but didn't say any more than that. When we got back, my mum straightaway noticed a horrible smell upstairs, and it turns out that the bath mat (which was a brand new, thick one) was absolutely sodden with cat wee. He had a massive abscess on his head, and had lost half his body weight. He'd obviously been too weak to get down the stairs and go out himself, and the house sitter probably wasn't going upstairs often enough to notice (as she wasn't staying there). My mum asked her if she had noticed the smell, and she said 'oh yeah, I could smell something but didn't know where it was coming from'.

My mum's cat was PTS the day we got back from holiday as he was so ill.

OP posts:
MariaSklodowska · 19/06/2016 22:31

is it a manege a trois?

Original poster
Littlefluffyclouds81 · 19/06/2016 22:32

Nope, it's definitely a menage.

OP posts:
MariaSklodowska · 19/06/2016 22:35

Menage means household, manege means riding arena. Sorry to be pedantic but the lady who trained me had a bee in her bonnet about it.

scaryteacher · 19/06/2016 22:39

I'd have been raging about the horses but I would have been incandescent with fury about the cat, as the smell of an abscess is distinctive, let alone the whiff of cat pee. Poor cat. How could she have not noticed and got the vet in? Did she not notice that the cat wasn't eating, or what was going on when she topped up the water bowl?

Original poster
Littlefluffyclouds81 · 19/06/2016 22:40

Oh OK, I stand corrected on that one! Should have tried harder in French!

OP posts:
Original poster
Littlefluffyclouds81 · 19/06/2016 22:42

Obviously not scaryteacher, probably because I don't think she was there much.

OP posts:
clam · 19/06/2016 22:42

Oh Lordie, this gets worse! Animals, get ill, of course they do, but isn't it part of what you pay a house-sitter to do, to look out for such symptoms?

scaryteacher · 19/06/2016 22:44

She's a class A bitch then. Can't you tell I am in thrall to the feline overlords who grace my house with their presence?

clam · 19/06/2016 22:44

"No neglect of duties was present." Hmm

scaryteacher · 19/06/2016 22:46

I'd ensure the state of the cat and the fact it had to be PTS on your Mum's return is flagged well and truly in any other review.

Original poster
Littlefluffyclouds81 · 19/06/2016 22:48

You would have thought so. It was a difficult situation because cat was really not very well to begin with, and was very skinny. He'd recently been rehydrated by the vet (he'd had a few trips to the vet over the last year), and my mum had started giving him kitten food which he would actually eat and he got a bit of a lease of life back, and was out catching mice before we left. My mum had decided that the next time he went downhill she couldn't put him through any more treatment, and that would be that. When she took him in the day we got back the vet said he was too weak to put him under, so he'd basically have to pin the cat down to deal with the abscess, so my mum had to go for having him PTS. I think that would have been the outcome even if the house sitter had taken him to the vets, but it's horrible that he was left to suffer like he was.

OP posts:
Masketti · 19/06/2016 22:49

The cat thing has brought a whole new awful angle.

Yes it's bad she rode the horses without permission but by luck rather than judgement no actual harm was done to the horses. I'm not minimising the potential harm I'm just juxtaposing it with the probable real harm she did to that poor cat in its last few miserable days. It must have been distressed beyond belief, in pain, disorientated and outside its usual routine. That that woman made its last few days miserable through what amounts to neglect is IMHO far worse than the horse misuse.

millimat · 19/06/2016 22:49

Op my friend has house sitter regularly as she works abroad. I'm not expecting you to name her on here but can you tell me the region that you are in, in case she may think of using her in the future.

Original poster
Littlefluffyclouds81 · 19/06/2016 22:51

South west, millimat

OP posts:
millimat · 19/06/2016 22:53

Phew (for her) - different area. Thank you.

EveryoneElsie · 19/06/2016 22:53

The whole manege/menage argument has been raging for decades

www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?437289-Stop-calling-it-a-menage!

clam · 19/06/2016 22:54

It looks as though it's the horse aspect that is the only part of your dissatisfaction that you can prove, as you have photographic evidence of it. Not that you need proof really - you won't be using her again, and nor, presumably will anyone you know.

Original poster
Littlefluffyclouds81 · 19/06/2016 22:55

It is horrible about the cat. He was the most loved, pampered cat. He wouldn't drink tap water so his bedroom water bowl was filled with bottled water! Mum called it his unicorn tears. They also bought a super kingsize bed as the cat liked sleeping on the bed with them and there wasn't enough room in the old one. So to be left like he was, when he was basically dying, is just horrible.

OP posts: