Cat Sitters in Southend On Sea

denise

Helen and Nick are exactly what you would hope for! Amazing communication, very friendly, considerate and looked after our cats and house just brilliantly. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend and I hope they come back here again! Thank you!

Jena

I am struggling to write this review because I can't stand writing unfavorable ones, but after the experience that I had with Abi and her partner, I am feeling very upset and want to inform others of my experience so that I can hopefully prevent them from running into a similar issue.

I had a different sitter (who has stayed with Cocoa and Nouille before) booked through zeewoi for this stay, but due to unforeseen circumstances, they had to cancel last minute so I was in a scramble to find someone else while I went away for a ten day backpacking trip. I was doubly worried and under pressure to find good care, because my youngest dachshund, Nouille, was coming off strict crate rest right as my trip started due to a back injury. This meant she was only allowed to walk - not run, not play, not jump on or off furniture. She was only allowed to walk up to ten minutes a day outside, on a controlled leash. Any agitation to her back could cause her to re-injure her spine.  I stressed the importance of this to Abi, because Nouille is scheduled for surgery in Oklahoma on August 9th and if she shows any neurological deficits, they will not be able to perform the surgery until she is fully healed. Abi assured me that they would be able to follow this.

Upon returning home this morning, Nouille was not acting herself AT ALL. She stood in place and wagged her tail at me, hanging it low to the ground. She is hesitant to walk around the house, has her tail between her legs, and when she tries to stand up, she struggles to lift herself with her back legs. I have scheduled her for an emergency vet appointment but it is pretty clear that she is in pain. Abi made no mention of this to me upon my return home, and she and Troy left almost immediately after I got back so I didn't feel like I could inquire about how the stay went because they were half out the door as I was coming in.

In addition to this, which was my biggest fear in leaving my dog with a stranger, other issues I had were:

- Felt mildly uncomfortable after our initial phone call together, because they were driving down the road so I didn't even get to speak with Troy; we kept losing reception and had to switch to phone, then text. It didn't feel like they were very invested in making a good impression when they couldn't even dedicate the time to sitting down for a call. I brushed that off because I was desperate for a sitter, which I shouldn't have. 
- My upstairs neighbor (whom I share the back yard with) told me that she saw Nouille, Cocoa, and Abi's dog, Rikko, running around the yard chasing each other on at least one occasion and that Abi didn't do much to stop her from it.
- My upstairs neighbor also texted me several days into the stay that Abi and Troy left the dogs home alone and that they were howling while they were gone, and that they had left them alone for more than four hours at a time. I had given Abi and Troy  access to my indoor security camera and specifically asked them to keep an eye on the dogs if they left them home because the floors are very thin, so it is an annoyance to my upstairs neighbors if the dogs bark. I also said that I would prefer that they just take them with them and leave them in the car if they were going somewhere, provided that it wasn't too hot to do so, because it had been so long (due to Covid and also the fact that I work remotely so am home all the time) since I'd left them home alone that I was worried that they would bark or cry while they were gone. 
- In addition to the dogs barking, my neighbor also stepped in dog poop in the yard once and messaged me about it. I had also stressed to Abi and Troy that it was a top priority to clean up all the dog poop in the yard, AND that I generally had Cocoa and Nouille go poo in the mulched area outside of my front door as my neighbors don't have pets and they have a young child, so keeping the yard clean is a must.
- I did not receive many updates without my prompting them. I would have appreciated more of those without me having to initiate contact. 

I have used zeewoi five or six times now and have always had such wonderful experiences. I should have trusted my instincts and made alternate plans rather than brush off my concerns. The biggest issue by far for me was the lack of care in ensuring that Nouille did not run or play. I stressed this REPEATEDLY to Abi, both in our initial phone call, and once they arrived. Nouille had completed nine weeks of crate rest and was one week out of it when they arrived, and she was completely neurologically stable when I left. Whatever happened, something negative happened that has caused her to regress or further injure herself. I won't know the extent of her injury until her vet appointment but I am not optimistic that she will now be cleared for her surgery, which will require me to cancel and reschedule my flights, hotel, and car, along with the surgery itself, along with putting Nouille on another minimum of eight weeks of crate rest.

To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. 

That said, I will mention that when I came home, my place was spotless and they had taken the sheets off the bed and washed them (along with the other linens/towels) for me.