After a long journey, we arrived Down Under to our home city of Sydney (via Kuala Lumpur for a family Christmas). As our own home is currently rented out, we decided to stay with friends for a couple of weeks over New Year. We would then look for House/Pet Sits, in and around, the area.
We were lucky to be offered a lovely sit in the Greenwich area of Sydney (not an area we were really familiar with). We were looking after two older dogs Baz and Bugsy, some tropical fish and stick insects (!!!)
The house was a large modern home with a good outdoor space. The two dog's were adorable characters who loved to "talk" in loud voices (especially first thing in the morning!) They LOVED their walks and were good on the lead, unless they spied any small furry creatures (cats, possums etc), when they turned into acrobatic lunatics, jumping and aerial spinning!! Bugsy, particularly, could be a bit of a grumpy old boy when out and not very social with other dogs. ***I mention this for a reason, which you will discover later!
We also had stick insects to look after (interesting but seriously creepy little critters!). Not sure that we did that well with them. They all looked green, creepy crawly and health when we arrived but by the time we left they had turned brown and crispy looking??? Apparently they do shred their skins (hope that was the reason) and not that fact that they were on their last legs!
The owner's arrived back and were very chuffed - dogs looking good, tropical fish all ok, stick insect well - were still stick insects! They were really pleased, the house was all clean, bedding changed and meal in fridge etc. As we left they asked us to consider returning for a month next year. All good and yes we'd love to if we are in the area!
***We then received a text from them later in the day. "Had Bugsy attacked a small poodle?" We rang the owner somewhat perplexed. She was upset (as were we at this point). Somebody was claiming that we had allowed Bugsy to attack their dog! The dog, in question, had to go to the vet, incurring a huge vets bil,l as the injuries were really bad. The Park Ranger was now involved.
We couldn't believe it??? It simply had not happen! A long story short, but it turns out there was a couple walking two large dogs. They walked past an old ladies house, who owns a the toy poodle and the two dogs attacked it. The walkers then ran off leaving the poor dog in a pool of blood. She was very tramautised by the attack, obviously, but seemed confused with the details. The dog was at the vets for four days and the bill was a massive $3000.
Unfortunately, as Bugsy and Baz are the only two large dogs locally, people began to gossip and wrongly accuse them (and us). Fortunately, the owner believed us and took our side. Our home-owner visited the old lady with Bugsy and Baz who confirmed that it was completely different dogs. It later transpired that it had actually happened two weeks before we'd even arrived!!!
Got to say for us we found the experience very upsetting too. We were adamant that this had not happened whilst on the house/pet sit. It did however, take a while for the full details to transpire, for our names and poor Bugsy's name to be cleared. The homeowner made us laugh though as she informed us she was driving around in her car with a picture of Bugsy with the words "Not Guilty" blazened across the top!
