With thanks to Marc for sharing this story, we also had a negative, albeit less dramatic, experience with Michelle.
The first time that she looked after our dog, Ginny, and house (for 10 days in summer 2023) there were a couple of small issues, but nothing serious. However, the second time (nine days, last summer), we lost trust in her. The most serious issue was that Ginny was clearly left unattended outside - contrary to promises Michelle made - as evidenced by very extensive scratches we found on the door into the house and its frame on our return. We'd asked Michelle to exercise Ginny several times a day - playing with her etc - in our relatively small fenced side yard. As Ginny is leash reactive and Michelle struggled to put the harness on her, we decided with Michelle that this was the only feasible option for exercise. We had emphasized, orally and in writing, the importance of always watching Ginny when she is outside as, on the rare occasions she has started to dig under the fence in pursuit of a small animal, she's very fast and could escape quickly. We expressed that Ginny escaping and getting lost was our greatest fear in leaving her with a dog-sitter. We'd also emphasized, again orally and in writing, the importance of picking up Ginny's poop (bags obviously provided) as soon as she did her business; Ginny grew up on the streets and has an unfortunate habit of sometimes eating poop - her own and other animals' - and we had been working hard to train her out of this habit. When we returned, in addition to the scratches on the door, we found nothing in the poop bin and 23 individual poops throughout the side yard. In other words, Michelle didn't pick up a single poop in nine days. This fact made us doubt whether she'd spent much or any time outside with Ginny, given that you basically couldn't walk across the grass without stepping on poop. Michelle also broke a cereal bowl - not a big deal at all, just a basic bowl from ikea - but rather than mention this fact, we found out about it when my husband stepped on a shard in our living room and then discovered a bunch of large shards under a bookshelf. For context, Ginny is a five-year-old hound-terrier (ish) mix, weighs 35 pounds, has no medical issues, and is - apart from leash reactivity (which wasn't an issue here as Michelle wasn't expected to walk her) - a low-maintenance dog who adapts pretty quickly to new people. Letting her out into the side yard and playing with her a few times a day, picking up her poop, and feeding her kibble + a spoonful of wet food morning and evening was all Michelle had to do. On the scale of things that could go wrong, our issues were minor, especially compared to Marc's experience, but enough that Michelle lost our trust. As this list is a place people look to for recommendations about companies or individuals who provide paid services, it's important that we're able to share negative as well as positive experiences. We're not talking about dishwasher repair here - people have relied on uniformly positive reviews about Michelle to entrust beloved pets into her care; it's only fair that they hear about other experiences as well. I make no judgment of her as a person, but I would not use or recommend her dog/house sitting services. Anna Crowe 131 Lincoln Road > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: urch...@comcast.net > To: Marc Bazin <marcjba...@gmail.com>, Lincoln Talk < > lincoln@lincolntalk.org> > Cc: > Bcc: > Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2025 06:03:10 -0500 (EST) > Subject: Re: [LincolnTalk] Please read if you have a pet > Neighbors really ? Publicly shaming someone is who we are? Why not give > more context like the age and special needs of your dog? Perhaps expressing > your grievances directly with the pet sitter would be kinder. > > We had an excellent experience with Michelle Rowland as a pet/house > sitter. That said ,she was not under surveillance at our home. > > Best, Carolyn Ryan > > On 02/07/2025 6:59 PM EST Marc Bazin <marcjba...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Dear Lincoln, > > I’m writing this email to share a very bad experience with a pet sitter, > Michelle Rowland. My wife and I left our dog Pilou with this person because > she had a very “good” review on Lincoln Talk. When we left, Pilou was in > perfect health and very active. > > From what we can tell from Pilou's GPS, he was not walked regularly - > never before 1130a when I'd specifically asked for morning (between 7-8a) > and afternoon for walks (at least 25min and I left maps as examples of > where we usually go) then quick pees at dinner and before bed. The GPS > shows one day that he didn't even leave the "home zone". Another day, it > appears he was left outside on his own in the cold for up to 5 hours. > > Pilou resorted to going to the bathroom in the house, which is incredibly > stressful for a dog. After we'd been gone a week, our house cleaner > contacted us because she found pee in numerous places in our house (at > least 7 and they were very obvious). Our dog was literally in distress. > Michelle never mentioned anything about this to us, and when asked, said > she didn't see the pee (the locations were in the main room and very > obvious). We immediately asked Michelle to leave and had friends come get > him. He was in a condition where they felt they had to bring him to the > vet that night. He had developed a head tilt and was unstable on his > feel/"wobbly". Michelle hadn't mentioned anything to us about his change > in condition (after we'd asked her to leave she mentioned he was having > hindlimb weakness). We can't say definitively that his condition was > stress-induced, but vestibular disease can be aggravated in stressful > situations. Regardless, Michelle not realizing there were issues and > letting us know is unacceptable. > > When we came home, there was pee and poop everywhere and Pilou had vomited > in our bed. > > I strongly believe Michelle Rowland should not be involved with pets. > > Thanks, > > Marc > > We have pictures, GPS tracking data, vet reports and witnesses. > -- > The LincolnTalk mailing list. > To post, send mail to Lincoln@lincolntalk.org. > Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. > > Change your subscription settings at > https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. > > >
-- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to Lincoln@lincolntalk.org. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
