Rip and Rosie

We did a Trustedhousesitter sit for Rip and Rosie, two black kitties, in the Multnomah Village area of Portland, OR from Dec 2-12, 2023 for Barbara and Mike while they enjoyed the Christmas markets in Europe.

They had a beautiful home that was just recently fully remodeled.  Rip and Rosie were a bit shy and cautious the first two days we were there.  Rip liked to hiss and even bat at us at first but it was all just his way of dealing with change and soon we were just fine.  They both had very different personalities.  Rosie was more shy and ate on her own schedule whereas Rip wanted his food right away and like to be part of and get into whatever he could.  As with many cats, the Christmas tree was a particular inviting target to play with and we would sometimes have to resort to the water bottle to warn him off.  We probably did that less than their owners might, but that is the way with sitters versus owners.

Their meal instructions were a bit complex but Barbara left very detailed instructions and because we are local to the Portland area 9 months of the year, we were able to go over ahead of time and go through the process.  Both cats had allergies and so their food was specific only to each of them.  Rip loved to try and eat Rosie's food so to solve that, she had chip activated food dishes that would seal and then only open when the right chipped cat went to eat. It was a great high tech solution except that the unit for Rosie stopped working.  We downloaded the manual, tried everything, called the company, tried resetting it, all to no avail.  But after working with Barbara, I suggested we take Rips working unit and reprogram it for Rosie because Rip was the only cat trying to get into the other's food.  That worked, and so Barbara ordered a new unit but it wasn't coming until after we were done sitting.  Problem solved in the temporary.

We got a lot of play time with both kitties, but mostly Rip, who liked to be around more than Rosie.  Other than manage the cats, we just had a few house plants to water and the usual mail and garbage duties.  It was an enjoyable sit and we would be very happy to repeat a sit with them should an opportunity arise.

Review:  "Jeanne & Ed were fantastic! One of our automated pet feeders broke while we were gone. They tried everything to fix it including contacting the manufacturer. They texted to let me know the situation and we came up with a temporary solution. They sent pics of the cats and let us know what they were up to. They stayed until we got home late at night and gave us a rundown of everything. We would happily have them back again!" (you can see review on Trustedhousesitters and contact reference available on request).