Importance of Confirming Your Return Home

Story time…

Several years ago, I was caring for a couple of dogs (I won’t share details here for privacy purposes), for several days in a row. The owner did not tell me where they were going, they just booked a few days of visits for their dogs. I was sending regular updates, but never heard back from them, and one day I asked a question in my update, which they never responded to. I followed up, and still nothing.

The last day of my scheduled visits with their dogs came around, and I still hadn’t heard anything. I decided to trust my instincts and come back for the evening visit to make sure they had made it home, and there was no one home. The dogs seemed anxious to see me and it was clear they had not been cared for since I saw them that morning.

My next step was to call their emergency contact, who ended up being a neighbor, and they didn’t know where they had gone. So I continued caring for the pups until I heard from their owner. I did end up receiving a text from the client the next day letting me know that they were in the hospital recovering from a surgery. There were complications so they weren’t able to communicate on their phone and had to stay in the hospital for longer than expected.

I let them know that I was going to be around, and could continue care until they were well enough to return home. That ended up being two weeks later…

I’m glad that I trusted my instincts that day. If I hadn’t, I can only imagine what would have happened to their dogs. Luckily their neighbors were close by, and maybe would have noticed they weren’t home for an extended period of time. If they were in a more private setting, that would not have been the case.

Back when this happened, Auntie M Pet Care was much smaller, and was mainly myself and a couple of friends helping back me up for anything I wasn’t available for. We were all lucky that I was able to continue care until they were well enough to return home. Now that we have a team of 30 professional pet sitters and dog walkers serving Asheville and the surrounding areas, if you’re delayed getting home, it’s no problem for us to continue care. Whether one of your primary pet sitters is the one to continue care, or another pet sitter on our team, we will make sure your pets get the care you need until you make it home.

As the owner of Auntie M Pet Care, I worry about the pets in our care if we don’t receive a confirmation of your return home. This is why we enacted the “Return Home Confirmation” (previously called the confirmation visit), that we tag on to the end of every trip. If you see this on your invoice or schedule, know that it is free of charge, unless we do indeed need to continue care. Then we will resume with your pets normal pet care schedule until you confirm you’ve made it home.

We are dedicated to ensuring the well being of the pets in our care, even when the unexpected happens.

If you’re in need of pet sitting in the next few months, we encourage you to book with us today so we can reserve a spot for your pets on our schedule.

You deserve to not worry about your pets while you’re away.

-MaryBeth & The Auntie M Pet Care Team