Before MFH (My Favorite Husband), #1 Son and I left for vacation yesterday, I made a few phone calls.  I tried to find a babysitter for the chickens, cats and bunny.  Paxton (the dog) went to play at Reggie’s House. I’ve told you about Reggie’s House in a previous post.

I had a lead on a lady who does housesitting and animal care.  She would have been perfect, however, she just got married the week before and would be on her honeymoon while we were away.  That was a bust.  So…

The next place I called was Reggie’s House.  I asked if they knew of people who took care of animals while people were away.  He recommended this lady.  She also works at a Vet’s office in my town.  Reggie’s House said that she was great.  I made the call.

This lady was more than happy to take care of the animals!  She already had a housesitting job lined up for the week but would do “whatever I asked” as far as taking care of my “livestock.”  She came over to meet the animals, we got along well, so I hired her.

Yesterday was supposed to be her first day.

This morning, my sister brought my nephew over to cut my grass.  They pulled into the drive and my sister noticed that my chickens were still inside of their coop.  Hmmmm….that was not supposed to be!

They went into the house.  The rabbit had not been fed and he couldn’t get his water because the bottle was clogged.

She checked the chickens.  They were out of food and water.

She called me.

I was (understandably) upset.  My sister took care of all the animals and then left my nephew to do the mowing while she went into town.

While she was in town, I called the lady who was supposed to be taking care of my animals.

“How are the chickens?”  I asked.

“Oh!  They are just fine!”  She replied.

“Well, I am happy to hear that.”  I said.

That was pretty much the extent of the conversation.  I was conveying to her that I knew she was not doing her job.  Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, I got a call from my sister.

“Guess who’s here.”  She said.

“Gee, I can’t imagine.”  I deadpanned.

“Yup.”  She replied.  “The lady who is supposed to be taking care of the animals is here.  You must’ve called her.”

“I did, at that.”  I said.  “She has had just enough time to hang up from me and drive over there.  I think I delivered my message.”

“I think you did, too.  She said she will come back around 6:00 this evening to put the chickens to bed.  I will drove over around 7:00 to double check.  If she does not come, I will take care of the animals for you and you can call her and fire her.”  Said my sister.

I thanked her a whole bunch.  See, it is a 30-35 minute drive for anybody in my family to get to my house.  That is why I tried to find somebody to do this.  It is not right to lean that hard on relatives just because you are a bit eclectic and have bizarre pets.

So, my sister and my parents are being roped into taking care of 10 chickens, 2 cats and one bunny while I am off playing for 10 days in Iowa.   I’ll have to remember to bring them home some treats.