We don’t like to think about the worst case scenario – but as pet sitters we carry the responsibility of caring for the pets of our clients who are many times out of town. What would happen to those pets if we are in an accident and wind up in the hospital – or even worse case we die at the scene. It’s a horrible thought right – be we really do need to be prepared for the sake of the pets.
One safety measure that I put into place in my business last December is to have all of our pet sitters carry a small emergency card in their wallet behind their drivers license that instructs first responders to contact our office number if anything should happen to the sitter. But what if something happens to me as the business owner?
In our first APSE virtual magazine pet sitter Jan Brown gives some great tips that will help you put a back up plan in place. She shares a sad first hand experience:
“Several years ago I heard a sad story about a pet sitter who died suddenly. It was at the height of the Christmas rush no less. The daughter had no knowledge of what jobs the mother had booked, where the keys were or where her mother had kept her schedule. The daughter of the deceased sitter contacted a sitter who was in her mother’s local networking group for help. Other pet sitters, who were already booked to the max (this was the Christmas holiday, remember!), stepped in to help cover the deceased sitter’s clients who were out of town. They did this despite the fact they were already fully booked with their own jobs.
Eventually most of the clients were contacted, informed of the unfortunate death of their pet sitter and told they needed to return home as soon as possible. As unfortunate as this situation was, thank goodness the daughter was able to call another sitter for help!
But, how prepared are you if you suddenly had a situation such as described above? What if you are in a serious car accident, suddenly taken ill and rushed to surgery or otherwise become incapacitated? Would your spouse, best friend, or significant other know where to find things, much less know what jobs you have scheduled? And, even if you have someone trustworthy who can step in, chances are in the middle of an emergency, they will not remember everything!
If you are a pet sitter and there are no other humans living with you, it is even more imperative you have a plan in place. And, I recommend you let more than one trusted person know where to find things.”
To see the rest of Jan’s article and learn what she recommends us to do to make sure we have every possibility covered – download a free copy of our virtual magazine.
To get your copy visit our homepage – http://www.petsittingexcellence.com – and put your name and email into the subscription box on the bottom left of the page. We’ll immediately email you the magazine.