OT-Pet Sitters

[4HppyCamprs]

I'm paying $10/day for a college girl to visit two cats at two separate house. Both houses are about a mile from campus. I had originally advertised on Care.com and all the sitters were asking for $5-$10/day. I plan on giving her $20 for gas when she comes over to meet the cats and show her around the house. She will be stopping by 9 days, I'll probably make it an even $100 when the job is through. $120 cash for less than 10 hrs worth of time is exceptionally good money where I live. I'm willing to toss in the little extra for gas because going out in the cold weather really stinks!

Gas is 3.13 a gallon and with 2 different houses the poor girl is actually losing money. I hope she learns to put more value in herself....

 

[danygirl]

Years ago I paid a friend's unemployed hubby to paint the living room and dogsit. Paint job wasn't perfect but the dog was happy and I was able to help out a friend

 

[nyrebecca]

Funny how many different cost of livings there are in one country. We pay our cat lady $250 for 8 days. She comes, she feeds, she cleans litter boxes and gives them some loving. Three cats I should mention. I thought I was under paying her and will be bumping up the payment this year.

 

[bedogged]

Gas is 3.13 a gallon and with 2 different houses the poor girl is actually losing money. I hope she learns to put more value in herself....[/QUOTE

Me too. Also, the attitude that the pet owner is doing the person taking care of their animals a big FAVOR by allowing them to come and house sit is very odd to me.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

Gas is 3.13 a gallon and with 2 different houses the poor girl is actually losing money. I hope she learns to put more value in herself....

Only if she's diving a tank. Even if she gets only 15 mpg, $20 will get her 90 miles worth of gas. Considering that the houses are only about 1 mile from campus, that $20 will be more than enough for 9 days. P.S. Gas is $3.13 where you are. Not everywhere.

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[jrmasm]

If both people are satisfied with the arrangement, I don't really see where it's anyone else's business to decide that the arrangement isn't good enough.

 

[smokeyblue]

Gas is 3.13 a gallon and with 2 different houses the poor girl is actually losing money. I hope she learns to put more value in herself....

I'd like to chalk it up to not reading the whole thread but what I really want to say is GET A GRIP! The $20 is a gesture of gratitude, not payment in full. I thought she might need some gas money to get her started. She'll drive 3-4 miles round-trip daily 9 days plus I'm counting the 10th day coming to meet the cats and get the keys. She was driving a small SUV and not a Hummer so I would think 2-3 gallons so $20 will more than get her where she needs to go.

 

[pigletto]

I'm quite lucky that my friend/neighbour has a cat, and we have two and we switch off cat sitting several times through the year. It's nothing to walk a few doors down and feed the kitty twice a day. We each use eachothers houses for a bit of a break too. She would bring presents down and wrap them here and watch tv and hang out with my cats when we went away before Christmas.
She and her husband take many weekend trips to go see family and I have no problem going up and snuggling the kitty . We used to pay each other to do it, but decided mutually to call it a wash and we just help the other out whenever needed. It works really well.

This year we got a puppy. He wasn't ready for boarding when we went away in December (7 months old) and my sister who also has a dog was laid off for the winter so I paid her the 30 a night that the boarding places around here charge. I did worry quite a bit while I was gone because a 7 month old lab puppy is WORK and though she assured me she was fine, I just felt it was too much.
It will be about a year before we go on another trip he can't come on. I plan to choose one of the boarding centres in the area for daycare and let him go once every week in the Fall to play for the day. So when the time comes he'll be comfortable, and hopefully I will be comfortable, leaving him there for a week and a bit. 10 days will cost us about $300.

 

[aprilgail2]

I am a pet sitter and I charge $60 for overnight per sitting. But considering that he is family and he will be happy to have his own place for a week, I would suggest at least $200.

I agree- at least 200!

You are paying someone $5.00 a day per cat/house? I understand why you didn't hear back from the first sitter. I've never paid a sitter less than $20.00 per visit and there is no way a licensed pet sitter would work for $5.00 per visit. This is way too cheap.

$5.00 a day is nuts, I wouldn't encourage my teen daughter to take a job like that for only 5.00 a day. I always go by "you get what you pay for"- and someone willing to do that job for 5.00 a day isn't someone I would trust to care for my pets.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

I am so glad I have my mom to watch all my animals when we go away. I think I would be a nervous wreck with having a stranger watch my pets. I would definitely move on to someone who "wants" the job. There is no excuse in not getting back to you.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

I'd like to chalk it up to not reading the whole thread but what I really want to say is GET A GRIP! The $20 is a gesture of gratitude, not payment in full. I thought she might need some gas money to get her started. She'll drive 3-4 miles round-trip daily 9 days plus I'm counting the 10th day coming to meet the cats and get the keys. She was driving a small SUV and not a Hummer so I would think 2-3 gallons so $20 will more than get her where she needs to go.

Actually I did read the whole thread and 5.00 to go to two houses (time) plus gas is barely breaking even. Your right some people are paying even more for gas and some slightly less but time is money and whoever accepts this deal is selling themselves short.


Get a grip? Not my problem. I have a pet sitter whom i pay well to care for my animals and i have been paid well to take very good care of others pets. Others have also said they would not do it for this amount. You do get what you pay for and if the op thinks they are being fair then so be it.

 

[ToddyLu]

Dh and I pay at least $100 for our Jack Russell to stay home. DH has a young adult unmarried cousin who we trust. Then I pay her another $100 for house sitting. She gets full access to our house, computers and cable--whatever she wants and I buy her the food she requests. I sometimes give her a souvenir.

If she keeps my parents dog too then they give her another $100.

So when she kept both dogs at our house for 8 nights she earned $300.

She lives with her Mom and her family is local. We love her and she takes excellent care of our four-legged daughter.

 

[smokeyblue]

Actually I did read the whole thread and 5.00 to go to two houses (time) plus gas is barely breaking even. Your right some people are paying even more for gas and some slightly less but time is money and whoever accepts this deal is selling themselves short.


Get a grip? Not my problem. I have a pet sitter whom i pay well to care for my animals and i have been paid well to take very good care of others pets. Others have also said they would not do it for this amount. You do get what you pay for and if the op thinks they are being fair then so be it.

I am the OP. I am paying this gal the advertised $10/day+tip plus the gas money I kicked in yesterday. I had 10 or 12 people apply for the job knowing full well this was the pay, the duties of the job and that they'd have to visit two homes. This was also the going rate on care.com in my area. Your have stated that I was only paying $20 in gas money and now you are stating that I am only paying $5/day. Please do not misrepresent what I have said.

 

[undertheradar]

I am the OP. I am paying this gal the advertised $10/day+tip plus the gas money I kicked in yesterday. I had 10 or 12 people apply for the job knowing full well this was the pay, the duties of the job and that they'd have to visit two homes. This was also the going rate on care.com in my area. Your have stated that I was only paying $20 in gas money and now you are stating that I am only paying $5/day. Please do not misrepresent what I have said.

Honestly, this must be a very poor area to have 10 or 12 people apply to earn $10.00 per day! You are trusting someone with your pets and access to 2 homes for this $10.00 per day, anybody else picture the insurance commercial where Mayhem is mowing the lawn? That is all I can picture from this thread.

 

[NikiM20]

I have a wonderful pet sitter. She comes daily to let the dogs out while we are at work ($15 per visit) and when we go away she spends the night ($50 a night) She is a local collage student who is pre-vet, my dogs love her and we trust her. She has become a member of the family. She gets Christmas and birthday gifts as well. We went away last summer and were so happy with her we gave her a raise. Money well spent.

 

[smokeyblue]

Honestly, this must be a very poor area to have 10 or 12 people apply to earn $10.00 per day! You are trusting someone with your pets and access to 2 homes for this $10.00 per day, anybody else picture the insurance commercial where Mayhem is mowing the lawn? That is all I can picture from this thread.

My double wide is the pride of the trailer park.

Really, why be so cynical? I've exhaustively explained where I came up with the figure. There is no reason to be insulting other than to be cruel. If that isn't the going rate in your area and you wish to chime in, why wouldn't you just say wow, that's low, in my area we pay $x.

I know that the nature of threads on this board quickly turn ugly; I should expect nothing less. Heck, I've jumped on the band wagon once and awhile. It still doesn't make me any less insulted.

 

[bedogged]

Isn't anyone afraid that if they hire a student, their house will be used as "party central." Watch Judge Judy for further information!

 

[kymom99]

People will go through all sorts of foolishness to save $5 on groceries or to make $7 on a survey that takes hours yet they can't understand why a student would feed someone's pet for $10 a day? Heck, I would do it for that myself!

 

[EPCOTatNight]

People will go through all sorts of foolishness to save $5 on groceries or to make $7 on a survey that takes hours yet they can't understand why a student would feed someone's pet for $10 a day? Heck, I would do it for that myself!

Great point.

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[abcboys]

I've taken care of my aunts cats for $10/day so I think your amount is fine. She had about 7-8 cats in a pole barn room with a cat door/fence on the outside (cats could run in and out) I had to fill up 3 bowls of dry cat food, open 1 or 2 cans of wet cat food and put clean water in bows. I had to take a milk jug and go outside to the hose to get the water. Also check the litter pans and add to or clean as needed. There was also a front porch kitty that I had to take food and water, too. Probably takes me about 15 minutes all together. I would guess going into a house to take care of only 1 or 2 cats would take about 5 minutes. At the end of the week that's $70 extra dollars. And I always did a good job even if I was ONLY getting paid $10/day. I agreed to that price. Just because people will work for a lower price doesn't mean they will give crappy service and vice versa.

I'm always amazed at what people pay babysitters on here, too.