Toby

We watched Barbara and Tim's dog Toby in Happy Valley, OR from May 3, 2023 to May 29, 2023.  Our original commitment was from May 5 but they had to move up the start date by a couple days.  While we had a prior sit in the Portland area, we are usually able to accomodate unforseen changes to sitting plans by splitting up and co-sitting temporarily.  This has happened a few times in our sits, where flights have been delayed for people coming home and we have been able to ensure their pets were still taken care of without them having to resort to some last minute coverage.

Toby was a Springer Spaniel and Poodle mix and was just coming out of his puppy phase when we watched him.  He was a very good boy to care for.  He had very good manners but as a puppy with puppy energy, we had to keep him active.  Fortunately, the weather was magnificent during our four week stay and we did a lot of hiking with him.

We did a lot of hiking at Powell Butte, a local park only 10 minutes drive away that had many proper forest trails with a meadow at the top and 360 degree views.  Although Toby was still very nervous on neighborhood walks, he was a natural at hiking.  We used a retractable leash and he would go ahead until the leash ran out and then wait for us to catch up and do it again.  He just loved hiking.

All of our hikes were relatively short day hikes.  He was good in our SUV.  We have a special hammock like dog cover for the back seat and we can even latch him to his harness for safety while riding in the back.  We also did manage to get in one proper 7 mile hike with some old growth forest hiking in it.  Jeanne showed him how to go over or under various trees that were over the trail.  He loved it!

Even inside Toby was active.  He had a couple of inside balls that he would chase across the floor or wrestle with.  He loved his company too though.  Toby was pretty straightforward with his care and routine.  He slept in a kennel at the foot of their bed while we slept in the guest bedroom upstairs.  Each arrangement is a bit different when we sit.  When we went out without him, they wished to kennel him.  We adapted our schedule so that he wasn't in the kennel for very long as we didn't like to leave him like that.  But he never minded it.

We will surely miss caring for Toby and am sure we will have future opportunities to watch him since we all got along so well. This was a formal Trustedhousesitter sit and our review can be found on the site but we have also added it to our reference page linked from the top post on the blog.  (contact info provided by request).

Blanch and Rufus

We watched Kana and Ray's two pups in the neighborhood of St. John's in Portland, OR from April 29 to May 6, 2023 as part of an official TrustedHouseSitters sit.  They lived in a 3-level condo type home and were very organized with instructions and routines.

Rufus was a 9-year old American Staffordshire

Blanch was a small-sized 2-year old Boxer mix

While we actively commnicate updates with all of our sits, they were especially wanting a lot of communication because Blanch, the 2-year-old boxer mix, has developed a hot spot on her nose just before their trip and our arrival.  This meant that she was on steroids and medications and needed us to help monitor and care for her through that.  We arrived and she was still in a cone so she wouldn't scratch it more.  We were able to remove the cone fairly quick and keep an eye on her to prevent scratching.  But the steroids caused her to lose control of her bladder and she had several accidents.  It was the first time we have had to use a doggy-diaper but it was an effective solution for the nighttimes in bed.  The other times we were able to wash the throw they had over the sofa when she had an incident.  Later, she also had an issue keeping food down and ultimately we had to take her into their vet to get diagnosed.  They opted to give her some anti-nausea medication and that ultimately cleared it up along with a special diet of food they carried.  We were able to clean up and deal with the vomiting incidents and glad that the treatment worked.

Blanch was a sweet character and she loved to snuggle

Rufus also liked his snuggling

Rufus was a 9-year-old American Staffordshire.  At that age for his size, his hips weren't what they used to be.  With a 3-level apartment, the stairway could be a challenge.  Sometimes he was up to going up or down them but other times we had to assist him.  They had a nice hammock like assit harness that we could put around his waist and then hold with handles and help assist him either up or down.  Sometimes it was a challenge knowing if he wanted that or not be we worked it out each time.

They would play well together

When the sun was out, Rufus loved sitting on the terrace

Rufus also had a special diet and Jeanne would have to literally feed him.  They said he would sometimes not want to eat but we found that with an assist, we were able to get him to do so every time.  Blanch would be waiting until he was done as she was the clean up crew!

An assist eating helped Rufus always eat, and Blanch waited to clean up all the spillage

They both loved their treat time after dinner.  Each of them had a special sized kong filled with a few treats and the were very good at getting them out.  Of course, Blanch was so much faster and we had to make sure she didn't steal any from Rufus during that time.

Walks were fun but could also be challenging.  They walked a couple times per day but could also go to the bathroom out back if needed.  Some days were especially wet during our stay.  Because Rufus was so much older and had a different speed and duration for his walk, they also had a riding cart that we could take along and when it got too far for Rufus, he would sit in that and look out and enjoy the rest of the walk.  They both could be reactive to dogs and Blanch was much more so we had to play the game of avoiding as much other dog contact as possible.  This can be fairly common when walking dogs we have found.  Walking both of them required both of us to do so. Otherwise, sometimes they just had to be taken on their own separate walk.

We had a back-to-back sit for the next one after this.  Prior to starting though, our followup sit added 3 days extra to the front of their planned duration.  Rather than say no and put them on the spot to figure out what to do, we split up for a couple of days and took care of both sits.  As we only have one car, that meant driving over to the new sit, getting that all set up, driving Jeanne back to this sit and dropping her off and then me driving back to the new sit until the evening when they came back.  We like to ensure that we can offer up coverage at the end of the sits just in case there are flight delays.  And the majority of our sits so far have had those delay issues.

All-in-all, while we had a lot of challenging responsibilities to deal with, we just loved Blanch and Rufus.  Rufus in particular had really bonded with me and he was so happy when I came back for a few hours the final night before Kana and Roy got back.  We didn't leave until they were home, which was after midnight and meant a 40 minute drive back to our next sit at nearly 1am.  But they were so thankful that everything was made ready and they could just settle back in after a long travel day.

We really miss Blanch and Rufus.  This was a formal Trustedhousesitter sit and our review can be found on the site but we have also added it to our reference page linked from the top post on the blog.  (contact info provided by request).