Guest Blog Thursday - Pet Sitter Extraordinaire

Hi! It's Guest Blog Thursday again and I decided to interview the bestest pet sitter ever Miss Trina, of Orphan Annie's Pet Sitting. Gus and I really like it when Trina comes over - she plays with us and gives us lovins. When Momma & Daddy aren't here and she comes over she not only plays with us & gives us lovins but also sometimes feeds us. It sure is nice when she visits. Plus, she's the Momma to my bestest bud Phillip & the girl I have a crush on, Bella.
As usual the questions are in black, answers are in blue and my comments are in red. Enjoy!

So, how long have you been a pet sitter?

10 Years in August

Why did you decide to become a professional pet sitter?

I have always loved animals, especially dogs. So when I heard about

pet sitting I thought it was a perfect fit. I always wanted to be a vet,

but couldn't handle doing the surgeries etc. So now I get to do all

of the fun stuff with pets. (doing the fun stuff with us pets is pretty cool)

Can you tell us the story behind the name "Orphan Annie's Pet sitting"?

Little Orphan Annie was the name we gave our Cocker

Spaniel when we found her running the streets and

starving in 1981. She passed away one year before I started

my business and wanted to remember her this way (I don't like to hear that any pets don't have a home it's nice that you gave her a good home)

What do you do as a pet sitter? (I know you play with us LOTS but what
about all the others)

I walk dogs, change litterboxes (yuck), I give medicine if they need it. And

mostly I just make sure they are happy and comfortable while mom and

dad are gone. I also walk dogs while mom & dad have to work. (sounds like you have to do more than just the fun stuff. I don't know what a litterbox is but I'll take your word this it's yucky)

What advice can you give humans on hiring a pet sitter? What questions
should they ask of a potential pet sitter?

They should always make sure they have insurance and that they are bonded.

They should always see how they interact with their pets, to make sure they

are all a good fit. I would ask for references, and call their vet to make sure

they are good to their own pets. (I think your the bestest pet sitter - why would anyone hire someone else?)

What can humans do to make your pet sitting job easier?

Leave detailed instructions, which by the way, your mommy does a

great job at that. I always try and get as much info as I can when I

meet, but there are always things that are left out. If anything changes

with the schedule they can let me know, preferably before I show up

and find out that you are home early. (I bet Momma does leave a long list - we have a lot of rules and you seem to know them. We can't get away with anything when you're here!)

How many visits do you have in a typical day?

I usually have anywhere from 5 - 8 jobs, and more than that of course on

Holidays and heavy vacation times. (I bet you're in the car a lot - Gus likes car rides - I like the getting to the fun place - not so much the ride itself)

What's your mostest favorite thing about pet sitting?

Getting to be around so many different kinds of pets. I love all the

personalities that I get to experience. Then I don't have to bring

anymore dogs home, I can play with my customer's. (us pets are pretty fun - who can blame you for wanting to be around us? )

Your leastest favorite?

Picking up Poo, yuck! But it's got to be done. (that's no fun)

What should people really think about if they want to become a pet sitter?

Pet sitters works very long days. We start early in the morning and we

sometimes work until late at night, with a few breaks in between. You will

work lots of week-ends, and of course you may not ever have another Holiday

to yourself. (that sounds like a lot of work and crazy days)

Who is the prettiest pet you've ever pet sitted for? Mostest fun? (momma
says I have to disqualify myself from this answer and that you don't have to
give names - just descriptions if that works bestest for you)

Momma knows I think you are very handsome! But that is a hard questions

because I think all my furry pet friends are pretty. Some look pretty silly,

but I love them all. I have to say Arthur, who was my very first daily dog walk

really captured my heart. I petsit him for 8 years before we lost him and it

was very hard. (It is pretty hard to pick just one prettiest - us dogs are all pretty pretty. It's like trying to pick one favorite of anything - just not easy. I bet that Arthur was pretty cool - I'm sure he liked your visits a lot!)

What's a really funny story/experience you've had while being a pet sitter?
or several :)

Wow in 10 years I have so many, let's see:

Well, I learned quickly while trying to play soccer with a 220 lb Mastiff

that you cannot wear flip flops. Ouch. (I step on Momma's feet sometimes & She says it hurts - but I'm no Mastiff size - wow!)

I love this one..last winter I was walking a dog named Duke. It had snowed

tons the night before and we are walking along and he pulled off into a yard. I

thought he needed to potty so I turned around only to see him making a

doggy snow angel in the neighbors yard. (who could blame him - that white stuff is awesome!)

I love the simple fun stuff, that is what makes me smile about dogs. It's the

little things.

What are some of the more interesting or unusual & fun names for pets that you've encountered?

Hoppe

Mugzi

Minka

Zippy

Starbucks

To name a few.

personal stuff about you

How many pets do you have? names? breeds? ( i know the answer but the
readers don't)

Heidi is almost 10 years old...Dachshund

Chloe is almost 6 years old...Mutly Aussie/Golden

Bella is about 4 years old...Dachshund

Phillip is 2 years old.....Dachshund/Chihuahua mix (me & Phillip are the same age - you sure do like the little ones)

What kinds of things do you like to do with your pets?

I love playing with Chase It, teaching them new tricks, playing

ball and in general spoiling them. (that's pretty cool,those are all good things - especially the chase-it and the new tricks, learning new tricks is fun and the spoiling part is super fantastic!)

What human thing do you do that probably annoys your pets?

Make them work hard for treats. (yeah, that can be pretty annoying)

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

Garfield (I don't know that one - but Gus told me that's a cat? A cat?)

What is your favorite food?

Ice Cream, and french fries (those are pretty good favorites)

What is your favorite toy?

The Wii, love it. (not the chase-it?)

If you could be any type of animal - what would that be & why?

A dog of course, because depending on who they live with, they don't have a care in the world. (well, I can't blame ya here - it is pretty great being a dog!)

Thanks Miss Trina for doing the interview. Say Hi to Mr. Jared, Miss Kayla, Heidi, Chloe, Bella & Phillip for me!
I hope you all learned a little something about how great it is to have a pet sitter. It's pretty awesome to have someone come by when Momma & Daddy are away. Miss Trina is always a lot of fun. Life is fun!

HI

Hi!
Good morning! I just got back from the country and it was so much fun! Gus & I didn't expect to go there this morning but we did. Momma got up nice & early & took us there & I got to run & chase my ball. The grass had just been cut and I kept having to spit it out - but I didn't care, I was running & chasing my ball and having so much fun! Then a car came & Gus barked at it - but not for very long. Me & Momma were amazed at how quickly Gus stopped barking - he's doing lots better with that. Me - I don't bother with the barking at cars 'cus I get treats or chase my ball when Gus is making all that racket - but not today - he did really good! And we both got lots & lots of treats!
Now I've just had breakfast and it's nap time. Tummy is full. Life is fun!

Friday Favorites!

HI everyone! Sorry about the lack of posts lately - things have been crazy around here!

So - as you can see we now have a new category for Fridays! Yes, it's new but it's not like it's replacing anything as we really didn't have a category for Fridays before - only for Thursdays - and that's Guest Blog Thursday and you'll really like next weeks interview! I hope you liked Rebels and have joined his Facebook page. OK back to Favorite Fridays. Momma said maybe we should call it Favorite Furdays - but I wasn't so sure - so let us know what you think & which it should be.

For this weeks Favorites I decided to talk about toys! I LOVE my toys! But Momma said since I have so many that I needed to narrow it down to a certain category. After she explained what that meant - I decided on stuffies!

I like all kinds of stuffies. There are big ones and small ones and hard ones and soft ones and easy to tear apart ones and hard to chew ones, tug ones, snuggle ones, different textures and things to chew on and sooo much fun to tear out the insides! Not to mention the SQUEAKERS! Oh boy I almost forgot about the squeakers! I love to tear apart a stuffy until I can get that squeaker out - it's just so much fun. Then, when I do get the squeaker Momma or Daddy offers up a trade and if I give them the squeaker then I get a yummylicious treat - it's a great trade, I really like it.
Momma said I couldn't post pictures of all my stuffies so here are a few (luckily since Momma likes to take pictures we have plenty and her version of a few is plenty).

This is one of my toy boxes. I have three. One is on the closet though and I can't get to it, that's for special toys. The other one is downstairs for playing downstairs but those toys can come up just like the upstairs ones can go downstairs. And then there are the outside toys which I haven't talked about yet. Me & Gus actually share all the toys but Gus plays with 'em funny.

This is me when I was little. I've always liked stuffies. This stuffy is special though because it came with Gus when Momma & Daddy got him. Gus let me play with it and I never chewed it up because I new it was special - we still have it - totally intact!

This is little me too. Sometimes I take my stuffies outside even though I'm not supposed to.

This is me hard at work on getting to the squeaker!

This one didn't have a squeaker. Apparently it wasn't really a stuffy - sometimes it's hard for me to tell.

Sometimes me & Gus play tug with the stuffies! It's so much fun!

I do like my toy box! Sometimes it's hard to decide which toy to play with.

I hope you share my enthusiasm for toys - I believe that toys are an essential part of enjoying life! Such fun! What is your favorite toy? or your pets favorite toy? I like to hear about new toys as I'm always ready to try something new!
Life is fun!