Dog Sitters in Delran, NJ

Mary

Hands down the total package. Thelma is an incredible person and responsible, tidy, flexible and wonderful with animals

Alexander

Luna did an amazing job taking care of my home.  Through our communication and getting to briefly meet her I could tell that she was going to be a perfect fit.  My animals and plants were well cared for and I came home to find my place so neat and tidy. She was resourceful and able to roll with the peculiarities of my property. Would love to have Luna sit again anytime!

Terasa

Kiera was great. She’s such a positive, helpful person who clearly enjoyed taking care of my pups. She was diligent about checking in on details and stayed in touch while I was gone.

Theresa Mnich

Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!

My experience with Theresa Mnich Collins was awful across all categories. She lacks the empathy, compassion and self-awareness that is necessary to host Housesitters, and own animals. Her pets are not well-loved. Everything I am writing here is documented in my formal complaint on how Theresa violated our community code of conduct by not providing a safe and clean home environment for me, nor properly caring for her dogs. She should be prevented from the privilege of hosting any sitters in this community.

Both dogs were filthy and suffering from fleas. The house was therefore infested with fleas as well. It was miserable. When I asked Theresa when the dogs were last bathed, she told me that they have never been washed. Sensing my shock, she followed this statement with, “They’re allergic to water.” How ridiculous and careless!? During my walks with the dogs, they would stop walking every few feet, to contort themselves to gnaw at an itch or paw at their bodies. I could see one dog in particular was loosing fur on their back, from all the untreated irritation!  

Volcán, Panamá in July and August is beautiful; this sit was a nightmare and so I cancelled after a week in the house. Prior to arriving, I requested a welcome guide twice. Once while I was still in my home country, and again while I was pet sitting abroad in Guatemala. Theresa told me that they had a physical welcome booklet and that I could take a look at it once I arrive to her home in Panamá. I should have insisted on reviewing an electronic welcome guide, because there were deal-breaking surprises hidden within the printed pages.

Theresa spoke negatively about Guatemala and the Guatemalan people during the ride from the airport to her home, and for the next several days that we shared her home. Speaking negatively about people who are experiencing financial difficulties is unfair and unkind - no matter what, talking shit about poor people just isn’t cool. 

There were several miscommunications and withholdings and as a result, I did not feel welcomed or comfortable in the home. I did not have all the information that I needed for a smooth sit, which made the circumstances awful. Also, she failed to communicate prior to our ride from the airport, that she and her husband Curtis would not be leaving until five days into the sit. 

In her welcome book was a statement about sitters needing to pay $25 USD every Friday for a weekly maid service. My sit was scheduled for 2.5 months, neither of the dogs were aloud inside — I would never have agreed to taking on $300 worth of cleaning services had this cost been revealed or discussed earlier. Why not the electric bill? Why not the water bill? I’m still curious on how that expense was chosen to be the one she wants Sitters to absorb. Theresa raised hell when the maid and I came to an agreement for house cleaning once a month. She harassed me for two days about this.

I arrived fatigued and went to bed very early on my first day. It turns out I was coming down with C19. While I ran a fever and stayed in bed recovering from the flu-like symptoms, I was being eaten alive by fleas. Bug bites covered my entire body. I took photographs and submitted them to THS who encouraged me to cancel the sit because my health and wellbeing was at risk. In my literal sick bed, Theresa invited her housekeeper over to meet me. This meeting was not necessary and it happened while I was still running a fever and while I was in bed. I had to ask that they give me a moment to put my mask on and sit up. Theresa was pushing the woman to enter and I had to put my arms up and ask that they stay near the doorway to avoid exposure. As if these issues were not enough, she gossiped about me to her peers within the expat community… and I was told what she said about me from another witness. When I listed all of the harm that she caused, she ignored every example and refused to apologize. 

The house was not at all as clean or tidy as expected. In addition to the flea infestation, there were ants on every surface, spiderwebs in every corner, moldy plant leaves in the main areas of the house and the bed linen was not freshly washed. The guest bathroom was clean enough. The trash bin in the kitchen was overflowing and the recycling bin was also full. Again, I took photos of everything that fell below the line of expectation.

With the support of two THS representatives, I have filed a formal complaint with evidence and screenshots of her nasty and harassing treatment once I communicated my decisions to 1) not pay for weekly house cleaning and 2) decided to cancel this sit because it was causing me physical and psychological harm. I asked Theresa to collaborate with me in making arrangements with an alternative caregiver and she crashed-out. Her nasty, spiteful nature came to the forefront when she lied twice about our interactions and then fell silent once I reminded her that I have access to the CCTV cameras surrounding the home, and that her untruths were inconsistent with the recordings. A Karen by any other name, is still a dangerous person- especially to a Black woman traveling the world alone. Avoid this listing, if you love yourself.