Funny Pet Sitting Stories

#apetsitterslife: A good friend of mine, Lydia, owns Everything & The Dog, a dog walking and pet sitting company, and she often uses that tag when posting a funny, sweet or interesting story about her day. She has a lot of really great stories from her years in the business. These are are three of my favorites:

The Case of the Disappearing and Reappearing Labs

Lydia was caring for two chocolate Labs who live in a rural area of Loudoun County. For their evening visit, she let them out the doggie door in the basement, which went directly into a fenced-in area of their yard. A locked, fenced-in area of their yard. When she went upstairs, she was very surprised to see them waiting for her outside the front door. She went down to the basement to let them back in the yard, but they were already there, waiting for her. She double-checked to make sure the gate was locked, which it was. So back up she goes, and there they were again, outside the front door. Once again, she went to the basement, and once again, she found them waiting for her in the yard. Back up she goes, and sure enough, they’ve beat her up the stairs again. This time, however, she looked a little more closely at them (it was dark outside), then looked at their tags, and realized they were a neighbor’s chocolate Labs, not the ones she was pet sitting.

An African Grey Parrot’s Version of Fetch

African Grey Parrots are extremely smart; some can learn more than 1,500 words. Harpo, an African Grey for whom Lydia was caring, was no exception. She knows more than 350 words and phrases and how to use them appropriately, telling the three smaller parrots with whom she shares a house to “be quiet” when they squawk and saying, “Oops, sorry” when she flies too close to someone’s head. But the funniest thing Harpo did happened on one visit when, like usual, Lydia let her out of her cage. Harpo flew to the top of it and sat there with one of her toys, which she promptly dropped on the ground. Lydia picked it up, handed it back to her, and Harpo dropped it again. Lydia picked it up again, gave it back to her, and Harpo dropped it again. After this happened a few more times, Lydia realized that she was playing “fetch” with Harpo. And that Lydia was doing the fetching.

An Iguana’s Tail

Lydia went to a consultation with a woman who had a pet iguana, Cleopatra. When Lydia got to the townhouse for the consult, the owner described Cleopatra and then took Lydia to meet her. As they started to walk upstairs, Lydia saw a tail lying on the stairs, the tip of it almost on the landing where the stairs curved around. Lydia looked up the stairs and saw that the tail kept getting thicker, but she didn’t see the rest of Cleopatra until she saw the hallway. Cleopatra’s body was in the hallway, outside her bedroom, but she was so long—6 feet—that her tail went a good bit of the way down the steps. And not only did she have her own bedroom, but she also got room service: a giant salad.

#apetsitterslife indeed.

Ellen Zangla Photography—Specializing in pets and the people who love them.

2015 Silver Medal Photographer of the Year: Professional Photographers of America