Long Time No See

I've been adjusting to life in the city over the last (how many months has it been now?) few months. Mostly, I've been focusing on dog walking which has gradually taken over my life. It's busy, but I love it. The holiday season was absolutely crazy and basically everything that could go wrong for the company did. I'm really glad I'm not in the office having to deal with the stress of running things. Between walking dogs and writing, I've got enough on my plate.

I think I've turned into a go-to person for the company. It helps that I have a car. A lot of the other walkers use bikes to get to the clients' houses, even during the winter months. I can't imagine how it is when it gets snowy! I used my bike a couple of times during the summer, but back then my route was a lot further north. They've moved me to a route a lot closer to Uptown and it's a lot more manageable. 

I've picked up a lot of small dogs since my route's moved. I had a lot of big dogs up north. Maybe it's because I'm closer to downtown and it's easier to have a small dog so close to the city? One thing I've observed is that people with huge apartments will have the smallest dogs. There's a rat terrier I walk who lives in an apartment with high-vaulted ceilings! Contrast that to the huge lab mix that lives in a studio apartment. What are these people thinking?!

If you are wondering how I'm doing with this freezing weather, my answer is: a lot of layers. I've got long johns under my jeans and I usually wear two sweaters under my parka. Mom has knitted me a couple cowls that I've fallen in love with. Being outside for 5-6 hours a day gets you used to the cold really fast. I hear people complain when they have to brave the cold to go to their cars! Buncha weenies.

How Being Late Saved the Day

So, I was at a client’s house to walk her dog earlier today and I was running way late (about 30 minutes behind the schedule I had submitted that morning. Thank goodness I only had four clients today). I prepped the dog (a Cavapoo) to go on our walk when I hear this sizzling coming from the other side of the kitchen, like bacon cooking on the stove. I look over curiously, but the only thing I saw was the pilot light of the stove (or so I thought). A bag of popcorn had been left on top.

I later figured out that what I was actually looking at was an indoor grill, which I had never seen before, that the family who lived in the house had left on. At the time, I figured that they must have left something like bread or casserole baking in the oven, or that the oven was self-cleaning like the one in my parents’ house. I didn’t think anything of it until we were just about to leave and I look over and find that 

the popcorn bag was on fire.

I rushed over, found the dial to the grill, and turned it off before blowing out the flames on the bag and taking that off as well. A handful of popcorn had fallen out of the bag and pieces were burning up in between the coals of the grill. I plucked out as many as I could without burning my hand. 

By then, quite a bit of smoke had spread throughout the kitchen and living room and the smoke alarm went off. This made the poor Cavapoo cower in the corner. Seeing as the flames had died down and nothing was in immediate danger, I lead the Cavapoo out onto their back porch so that her ears could be spared from the fire alarm. I called my company and explained the situation to them (they were horrified) and asked if they could let the home owners know. The owners didn’t respond. Even an hour later, they hadn’t responded. It’s almost 6 pm now and I’m wondering if I should contact the company if they reached the owners. 

That poor doggie. She didn’t deserve the terror! But after that, I cleaned everything up as well as I could. I just know that, had I been on schedule and not been at that house at that exact moment in time, who knows what could have happened. O_O

Edit: I just got a call back from my company and they said they were finally able to get a hold of the home owners. The lady thanked me profusely for putting out the fire and apologized for the stressful situation. I assured them that I was just grateful that I had been there when I was. 

I am NEVER putting anything on my stove except for pots again.

Hoo Boy it's been a while

I can't even begin to describe all that's been going on. What you definitely need to know now is that Dog-Walking can be very miserable in muggy, hot weather (although frequent lakeside trips make it manageable) and that Tina and I have moved into our new apartment with natural air conditioning because it is a garden apartment.


I will be giving more specific stories as the days go by now that things have settled. For the 4th of July, I didn't have to work, so I spent the day sleeping and staying inside because of the heat. I have a series of housesitting nights ahead of me at one house, so I was also prepping for that. I didn't want to go anywhere alone to watch the fireworks (Tina was at her job at the Navy Pier long into the night), so I went up to the roof to see if any were visible from there.


Our neighbors were having the remainder of a birthday party on the roof, so I climbed up a rickety ladder to join them (they were happy to help). They were pretty tipsy by then, but very nice. We ddin't stay up there long because the humidity was terrible all through the day and I felt like I was walking through a sponge. I stayed with the party for a while, but I didn't know a whole lot of people and I wasn't able to drink any of the alcohol, so I wound up excusing myself early. I tried to do it discreetly but I wound up being a bit awkward anyway. Oh well, my hope is that they were too drunk to notice.


Time for a Work Story!


One of my clients owns three very large, very rambunctious dogs. I will refer to them by their breed names, which are: Chocolate Lab, Golden Retriever, and Vizsla, which I had never heard of before coming to this house. The Chocolate Lab is a rescue pooch whom will tear up my clothes if I don't defend against her with a pillow as a shield when I let her out of her crate. The Vizsla is also crated in the play area along with the Chocolate Lab just so the Lab doesn't feel entirely isolated. The Golden Retriever has full run of the house.


One of my duties when visiting this house is to brush the dogs' teeth. I have never had to do this before, but the person training me assured me that it wasn't that hard. Both the Retriever and the Vizsla have had their teeth brushed since they were puppies, so they take to it easier than the Lab, who will try to eat the brush. In case you were wondering, they use special beef-flavored Enzymatic toothpaste. Very fancy.


Well, one day, I was just finishing up brushing the teeth of the Retriever and the Lab and was prepping to brush the Vizsla's teeth, when I realized that the dog was no where to be found. I put the toothpaste on the brush and started walking around with it, calling out the Vizsla's name to bring him out of hiding. The Vizsla can often be very shy until he has had some time to play and break out of his shell a little bit.


I checked the living room and playroom areas and was about to check upstairs when I noticed that the bathroom door was a little bit ajar. I approached and opened the crack a little wider when one of the saddest sights I have ever witnessed met my eyes. I tried to recapture the moment with this crappy MS Paint drawing:

For the record, I have never seen a dog sulk before. I haven't really seen humans sulk in the full definition of the word, but there it was, right in front of me. You would have thought I was going to chop the poor dog's paw off.


Nevertheless, I did get into the bathroom and brush his teeth. Afterwards, I gave him a couple of jerky treats to make him feel better, but the sight of him sulking will be forever imprinted on my memory.

Throwing Me to the Dogs

I recently finished off one of my notebooks/journals and went to by a couple new, gorgeous ones. I put story ideas, random notes and diary-type stuff in each one I've ever had. Every time I finish one off, it makes me feel like I've accomplished something, so I like them a lot!

Right now, I need all the happy happy joy joy feelings I can get. This last week has left a lot to be desired. In order to accurately describe everything, here's a point system. For every event, I'll give it Insanity Points (IP). If the number hits 50 before I describe the end of the week, it means I've gone insane.


1) Parking Ticket because it was the first day of street cleaning and I didn't realize what this meant. Also, the only way they communicate is through freakin' orange signs that they tie to the trees. You know they totally do it to trick people so they can get money. +10 IP


2) First three days of work shadowing people during the house/pet-sitting job. Lots of stuff to remember during each visit. By the end of every day, my head feels full to bursting. +5


3) Lose phone on Wednesday. It's a Samsung Mesmerize and it was also functioning as my GPS. Now I am lost in Chicago without means of communication. +15 IP


4) Go to USCellular store and get a loner phone. At least I talk to people at work and my roommate, Tina (name changed). -5 IP


5) Try to use Google Maps to get around from visit to visit. Chicago streets are confusing at their best and traffic shaves ten years off my life every time I drive around. Must call people who have a GPS just to get around. +10 IP


6) Driving through graduation traffic. +5 IP


7) Thursday am cut lose to try pet sitting on my own. Can barely remember whose dog belongs to who and what clients' addresses are. +10 IP


8) Set off one client's alarm, alerting ADT and making their neurotic dogs even more neurotic for the duration of that appointment. +5 IP


9) Friday - Lose keys to a brand-new client's apartment. Am forced to root through every nook and cranny of my apartment and my car. Walk up and down my street and client's street. No keys. Client may not be a client now. Business has to pay to get locks change. +20 IP


10) Saturday - Dad comes to bring new dishes and medication (Tylenol PM and heart burn medicine) as well as fanny packs for dog walking. We get a new Garmin (newer model) and he gives me my old Android so I can have a smart phone again. Quality of life instantly better. -15 IP


11) Forget medication in his car after he leaves. +5 IP


What number are we at now? 65?


Uggghhhhh...

A New Life

Hey everybody. So, I've moved to Chicago in the last month after pretty much a split-second decision. I've accepted a job as a dog walker and an English tutor. I would go into details with all this, and I probably will at a later time, but I'm also under a bit of stress right now. I think my cell phone was stolen this evening and I'm so glad that I'm not panicking (if you believe in God, you could probably back my belief that the Holy Ghost has been helping me not panic). I called up USCellular and told them to suspend my number.

All this was after a comprehensive search so I'm not just jumping to conclusions. I am, however, trying to be realistic. My parents will be able to bring me my old Android phone, so I can have all the stuff I used to, just with a smaller screen. Even if somebody picked it up intending not to use it, it would be very difficult getting it back to me.

As for the pet/house sitting job, I'm an independent contractor with a business called Pawlosophy (very cute name!) I take appointments that are approved by the administration and set my own schedule every day within the time frame that the clients supply. I've been shadowing other sitters thus far during my training days as they've gone on their routes, particularly the woman I will be replacing. I've met most of the dogs in my area. Next week, I have an appointment with a cat, but I'll be training for that later. 

Among the dogs in my area, I have a number of Golden Retrievers and Chocolate Labs, a pit-bull mix, a darling (albeit huge) puppy who gets very shy during the rain, a deaf dog, a huge Pointer, and 3 VERY rambunctious dogs that don't even go on a walk, but rather race around their huge basement area. I'm allowed inside all the clients' homes, except for a few people who want to meet me before I go and pet-sit for them. 

Most of the homes I visit are in very high-class neighborhoods (probably since the people living in them are the ones who can afford it) and the houses are big and amazing. Quite a few of the clients have property near Lake Michigan, so I can take their dogs on walks by the beach. I'll take pics of some of the more beautiful sights when I can. If I can take pictures of the dogs, I'll post those too.