Cat sitter

[KingsburyED]

Hello,

We are off on holiday 7-17th Aug and need someone to come and feed our cat and let him out each morning and then let him in and feed him again at night plus making sure he is ok, has water and change of litter tray as necessary etc.

Does anyone have a recommendation- we are in ED.

Thanks!

[kaz@263]

Lisa at Bow Wow Miaow is fab - she has lots of recommendations here and our cats adore her. http://bowwowmiaow.com/

[charliebubs]

I second Lisa at Bowwowmiaow - she's amazing & my cats love her!!

[klove]

We always use Tina, 07732 978020, highly recommended on the forum.

[LiveLoveLocal]

Rosie the cat sitter 07952 992 865

Join Live Love Local www.livelovelocal.net (free) and she will give you 10% off if you mention when you call.

Best wishes :)

[Dapacouly]

Hi

We have been using Tina Welsh for over three years and we also travel often. We also trusted her until we recently installed CCTV in our house since our alarm is now connected to the police. We discovered that Tina only bothered to come once a day, leaving the catflap open all the time for the entire duration of our xmas holidays (two weeks). To top it up, she also did her laundry at our place using our machines (!!!!) on a number of occasions.

In summary: we no longer can trust such a fraud with your cats and house.

Videos and pictures available.

Thanks.

[sdrs]

F

[nesrin]

We used Linda last year when we were away she is local and great 07460076901

[lucy123]

My Name is Louisa and I do cat sitting, Please feel free to call me, I am local to Silvester Road, so my number is 0786 377 1199

Regards

P.S There is recommendations for me on the forum too!!! Thanks

[Fly]

We use Tina Welsch and have been using her for many years. The cats are always very happy when we've returned from holiday and have obviously been well looked after

[Dapacouly]

See my above post re: Tina. Had used her for over three years until i realised thanks to cctv she was a cheat. My recommendation is therefore to avoid Tina Welsch.

Fly Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> We use Tina Welsch and have been using her for

> many years. The cats are always very happy when

> we've returned from holiday and have obviously

> been well looked after

[Fly]

I know Tina came twice a day here though as we would forget to tell her we were back from holiday. It might be a different Tina

[Dapacouly]

I can tell you its the very same Tina mentioned on a number of threads on this forum. I personally do not think there is more than one Tina Welsch in East Dulwich doing cat sitting, i could be wrong tho (ahem...!).

Nevertheless, I am glad for you that she came twice (at least on that occasion) when you came back early from hols. Good for you indeed. However, you can never be sure she did the same during all the duration of your hols and you do not know whether or not she did her washing at your place either. That's my problem really: thanks to cctv, i know she didnt come twice a day for the entire duration of my holidays (apart from once when she had to come and pick up her laundry!!!) and i know she did her washing at our place on a number of occasions. I also know she disapeared in the upper floors on a number of occasions for at least 30mns (although you will probably argue that she was playing with my cats during that time, i'd probably lean towards the napping in my bed scenario while waiting for washing to finish).

What i found particularly distressing was to witness that on my computer for 15 whole days and not being able to say or do anything knowing that this woman was 2000 miles away with the keys to my house. Merry Christmass indeed.

BUT, as you have pointed out, it might be a different Tina Welsch, i.e a different Tina out of the 3227438 Tina Welsch doing cat sitting in East Dulwich.

Anyways, as you can imagine, my recommendation remains to avoid ALL the cat sitters called Tina Welsch in East Dulwich coz you never know, it might be the 'bad' one.

[Dapacouly]

Interestingly, Fly, i just checked and this is the second time you try and imply this is not the same Tina (c.f. Thread Re: Cat sitting or cattery). Do you really believe there are more than two Tina Welsh doing cat sitting in East Dulwich?! That'd be funny, VERY unlikely, but funny.

[Fly]

It's just we have been happy with her for years and this seems very odd as she is totally trustworthy

[Dapacouly]

Believe me, I can understand that: i was surprised and shocked as well because we had been using her for three years before that. Like you, We liked her! I even think i gave a recommendation on this forum! It's just that we never could see what she was really doing untill this Xmas, and our cats looked fine. However, for what i know, she's been cheating me for three years. Technically, that means that she 'stole' half the money i have ever given her, which is not a pleasant thought. Anyways, as i said, i am definitely not giving Tina my keys again but please feel free to continue to use her. At least, you can set your expectations straight!

[Fly]

What did she say when you confronted her?

[Dapacouly]

We confronted her on 25/01. She came around to bring back the keys and collect payment for the xmas job.

My wife did the talking (she's more relaxed than me for those things) and started by asking Tina questions about manipulating the cat flap, whether or not she had seen one of our two cats (one of them is a loner) in the mornings or evenings when opening and closing the flap,etc. Tina replied positively to all questions, thereby basically lying in our face, again. Then my wife proceeded to explain calmly that since late last year we had cctv installed, incl driveway, lounge, kitchen and back. Tina froze a bit at that point. My wife then explained that we knew she didnt come twice,that when she came she didnt stay very long, and that the only times she stayed a bit longer, well, it was to use our washing machine.

Tina blushed, looked down, back down towards the door, apologised profusely, tried to come up with excuses etc. clearly wasn't proud. My wife then explained that what she was doing was fraudulent and that we thought she was probably doing it with all her customers, she tried to deny that but didn't sound convincing if you want my opinion (particularly given previous excuses). My wife told her that we would never use her services again, that we would never leave her in our house ever again. We had agreed to still pay her (half the cash) because she still fed our cats but Tina refused the cash and left precipitedly.

Thats pretty much it. It was all civilised and polite (it's Tina so you can probably picture the above), and quite brief. It didn't feel good, it wasn't nice. End of story really.

[Pickle]

We have used Tina for 7 years, and I was pretty shocked to read your posts when you first raised the issue.

I do wonder whether she found it hard to say no to clients over the Xmas period, leaving herself over stretched? In previous years I've said we are perfectly happy for her to come just once a day (and still pay the normal amount, as it's basically half of what other businesses charge).

Certainly in the past we know she has been twice a day, as we have an elderly neighbour who keeps an eye on the world and always fills us in when we get back! A couple of neighbours have commented on how good it is that our curtains are closed at night and opened in the morning, which is something Tina has done for us.

While I'm not condoning what she's done, we have talked about it and will continue to use her while we are away. At the end of the day, if she uses our washing machine I'm not really that bothered. After 7 years I'm happy that she is a genuine person, with a genuine love of animals.

[Dapacouly]

Free will :-) but sorry, she is NOT a genuine person. Genuine love of cats, i'll give her that. Her appearance is really good, sweet/kind/calm etc, which makes it even more deceptive, and is the reason why we never hesitated to give her our keys and trust her in the past.

Just to clarify, it's not about coming just once per day for 15 days (note: we came back on Jan 12th at a time when most people were back from the xmas break - so i am quite dismissive about the being over-stretsched argument tbh), or just about using my washing machine or disappearing in my house for long periods of time while the machine is running. it is about being completely and utterly dishonest about it all. If she had said she could only come once, that her washing machine had broken and requested to use mine, etc i would have agreed and would have kept the usual pricing. Its not about the money, i don't really care about the 50-60 quids she tried to steal from me. its essentially the lying i cant cope with, pure and simple.

Anyways, the aim of my posts about Tina was to make sure everyone had the right factual information. I do not expect everyone to stop using her as a result but stuff like "this could be another Tina", or "Tina is a genuine person" is not helpful to this community as the former is misleading (and false) and the latter is completely subjective (and false given the factual evidence i have).

[kellstar30]

Hi,

After reading this post we are absolutely appalled by your messages. I run a pet sitting service in the local area and would never dream of doing anything like this. If anyone needs an honest pet sitter, please give us a call, we are also recommended via local vets in the area.

We are an experienced pet sitting company serving Dulwich and the local area. Kellys Pet Care is run by two girls, we are professional, reliable and honest and have been operating in the local area for the past 6 years.

Our rates are ?13.00 per day inclusive for two visits morning and evening.

We have excellent references available, and have a number of customers who have been using us for years :-)

Please check out our website: kellyspetcare.co.uk and feel free to contact us if you are interested or have any questions.

Looking forward to hearing from you :-)

Kelly - 07857 053714/ [email protected]