Ash Thoreau

Well, the conversation went well with the dog sitter. For background, the 17 year old that was watching our dogs while we were out of town last week had multiple kids over, one of which stayed the night. Her boyfriend.

We have this one dog, he doesn’t like new people. He gets angry and aggressive. We had her over to meet him multiple times before we let her watch our dogs. He loves her. However, he was left in his kennel for extended periods of time while she watched the dogs this most recent trip. This was because he was freaking out over the new people in the house. I only saw this after checking the cameras to see what caused the wound on his neck. She had called me three days into our vacation to tell me he had dried blood on his neck. I have never checked the cameras before this trip. It made me wonder if she had done the same thing previously.

Ultimately, I really like how she treats our dogs, so I didn’t want to fire her completely. I just told her that we had more dates in mind, but that it would come with a stipulation that she would be the only one in the house.

She was super apologetic. She took responsibility, and didn’t make excuses. She said it would not be a problem in the future and I believe her.

That being said, my adrenaline was up so high before talking to her. I don’t like confrontation. I wasn’t necessarily mad at her, I just wanted her to understand that it was not OK in the future. After she left, I got back into my pajamas, scooped some ice cream and started chilling on the couch. I don’t like that kind of anxiety. It makes me feel sick.

I feel like making an emotional support trip to the craft store but can’t afford the guaranteed expense of the yarn I want to purchase.