People ask us what the difference is, and the honest answer is that most of it happens in the hours nobody is scheduling.
A pet sitter comes over. They do a good job while they are there, they feed everyone, they take the dog out, they lock up and they leave. That is a real service and plenty of animals are fine with it.
A caretaker stays. We sleep in your home. Which sounds like a small distinction until you think about what your animals actually notice.
What your animals notice
They do not notice the thirty minutes someone was there. They notice the twenty-three and a half hours nobody was.
A dog who is used to someone moving around the house at six in the morning notices when nobody does. A cat who sleeps against the back of your knees notices an empty bed. An older dog who needs to go out at two in the morning notices that the house stays quiet when she asks.
None of that shows up on a schedule. It shows up in how they eat, whether they sleep, and what state you find them in when you get back.
What it means for the house
Staying changes the house too, without anyone doing anything clever.
The lights go on and off at the hours they always do. Curtains open in the morning. The bins go out on the right night and come back in the next day. Mail does not pile up on the porch announcing that nobody is home. A car sits in the driveway.
We also see things. A tap that has started dripping, a window that did not quite latch, a patch of ceiling that looks darker than it did yesterday. None of that is the reason you hired us, but you would rather know on the Tuesday than on the Sunday you get home.
What it does not mean
It does not mean we are running a hotel in your living room. We are not having people over, and we are not treating a stay as a free weekend somewhere nice.
It also does not mean we can do everything. We are not vets. We give medication by mouth, ear, eye, skin and food, and we are careful about timing, but anything that belongs in a clinic belongs in a clinic. If your animal needs more than we can honestly give, we will tell you that before you book, not after.
Whether it is worth it
Not always, and we will say so.
If you have a healthy adult cat and you are gone for two nights, drop-in visits are probably plenty, and they cost less. We would rather tell you that than sell you something bigger than you need.
Where staying earns its keep is the animal who does not cope well with change. The senior. The one on medication. The anxious one who stops eating when the routine breaks. The reactive one who needs a person who already knows how to read her. And any stay long enough that the house itself starts to look empty.
That is the whole idea. Your animals stay in the one place that already smells like you, doing the things they always do, at the hours they always do them. The trip is yours. As far as they are concerned, not much happened.
