New Skills Acquired

Summer is here and the demand for pet sitting is high. While I enjoy hanging out with pets, I must admit I was unprepared for some of the skills that are needed for this particular line of work.

These are the boys - Cruze, Duffie & Baxter - they are all rescues and not related. Their people are pilots and both deployed at the same time - quite the challenge. They have Dad living in the house to do daily things, but he can't walk them - so I come two times a week and give them a jaunt.

All I can say is - it is a good thing they are small!

Walking three dogs at once is interesting at any time, but these three have perfected what I call "the weave". By the end of the walk their leashes are braided perfectly. I'm not sure how they do it - but it's a work of art. Being boy dogs, they must tinkle on E V E R Y T H I N G! All of them. So while we don't make good time on our walk - they are all fully and completely relieved.

For myself, I have found my rhythm walking them so they all stay together and in front of me by raising and lowering my handful of leashes. At first we had issues of one being behind and two in front and then wrapping around my legs. As I said - good thing they are small or there could have been big trouble!

Another new skill - giving a cat an inhaler. I was concerned for my safety and exposed skin for this task. I had images of being flayed alive while trying to hold a squirming cat with one hand while figuring out how to get the little mask on their face AND press the cartridge. Turns out - at least for this cat Briar - not an issue at all. He was an experience patient and let me do all that without harm to either of us. And he had to breathe 10 times! I was pretty impressed with us both!