Pet Sitting

I'm pet sitting for my neighbors for the next couple of days - 1 boxer, 1 indoor/outdoor cat, and one VERY rambunctious kitten. I was over there this morning at 6 AM, wrestling with cans of wet food and scooping dry kibble into dishes.

It's an intricate dance. For example, the boxer gets 1/2 a can of wet food, you wait 5 minutes, then give him the other half. He won't eat it if you give it to him all at once. The cat gets 6-8 slices of chopped up tomato and cantaloupe with her wet/dry breakfast food, and the kitten gets fed off a tiny china plate.  There is an order to the feeding, which I messed up this morning. It should go cat, dog, kitten. But I did dog, cat, kitten, and made the mistake of giving the cat the kitten's wet food instead of her own. Now I have one p---ed off cat who refused to eat this a.m.

The cat stays out all day, which now concerns me as she didn't eat. The dog stays out as well, unless it gets really hot. It's supposed to be humid and in the 90's this week, so I've cancelled plans to go into GSO tomorrow so I can stick around here and let him inside if it gets too awful.

As the final kick, the cat has been having eye issues and is supposed to receive 1 eyedrop of medicine per night. My friends insisted I didn't have to do this, but I hate to see the cat miss her medicine, so I'm dragging Blair over there tonight to catch this spitfire of a cat and hold her while I pry her eye open and drop medicine in it. (If she didn't hate me for messing up her breakfast, this ought to seal the deal.)

It's a big deal, caring for others pets. These are their babies. I'm terribly concerned I do everything right and the pets are happy. I remember once years ago, Blair and I kept a friends 1 year old baby for about 48 hours and we never left the house. We were too paranoid to get in the car and go anywhere, even with the carseat. This was someone's child.  What if something happened? We'd never forgive ourselves. So we barricaded ourselves inside the house and shot mace at anyone who approached the front door, just to be safe.

It's kind of the same with the pets. I have a feeling I'll be walking up the street quite often this week, "just to check in."  I probably ought to just take my laptop and work down there--that way the pets have company and I get something done. I'll most likely do that at lunch, when I mosey over to let the boxer into the air-conditioning for a couple of hours.

And maybe the cat will come inside and eat then, too. Fingers crossed.