Wow this was a lot of work but here's a day in the life of a 36 year old professional pet sitter living in a suburb of Denver. This is how yesterday June 9th, 2006 went for me.

I woke up to this. That's my baby boy Vigo, Bridget is in the background and Willow is there too but she's a black mini daschund so she's hard to see.


I do a time check but it doesn't turn out so well. It's about 6:14am.


Immediately it's play time. That's how it is with Jack Russells in the house. That hairy thing is my husband's leg. It was actually very difficult to take any pictures in bed because he sleeps nekkid and pretended he was either asleep or dead when I told him he needed to get under the covers.



I get up and find that Molly is hanging out on the floor. I should warn you now that because we stupidly bought a house with white carpet, we have a lot of mismatched rugs thrown all over the place to try and protect it from pet messes. They shed, barf and track crap all over the place, not to mention the spouse.



Fine, I play along and take a picture of myself brushing my teeth.



I love seeing what everyone else's showers look like. Here's mine. There are only 2 of us but I like a lot of variety in the shower thus all the many products.



Vigo and I adore each other completely and it's very difficult to be apart....even for a few minutes. He waits as patiently as a little white dog can wait until I get out of the shower. He's named after Viggo Mortensen but I think he's a little handsomer.



I check my email and El Jay. I think it's around 6:45am now.



I get dressed and put on sunscreen. Take it from someone who lives in the sun, you gotta wear your sunscreen all the time kiddies. It's not safe anymore without it even just walking to your car. I put on a work shirt - this is what I do all day.



And this is me...I hate my red cheeks. I'm seeing a dermatologist next month to see about laser treatments.



I grab my necessities for the morning. A multivitamin, fish oil, 3 calcium and I read you should take fiber and magnesium with calcium so those are there too. The time is 7:11am and I gotta boogie.



But first i feed my triops. You hatch them like sea monkeys and they're prehistoric animals that apparently get to be about 2 inches long. Coolest but freakiest things. I'm a little afraid they'll get out one day and eat little Willow doxie.



They float upside down while they eat. And they have 3 eyes.



Now I'm on the road. It's a beautiful day and I have a beautiful view!



First stop is Marlow (aka Mars) and Jasmine (aka Jaz the Spaz). I give everyone lots of nicknames. My own dogs have a good dozen each and they know them all.



Next stop is Percepponi...



And Amador. These people have a gorgeous, gorgeous house.



Mostly what I do while I'm here is water all their many flowers of which I could only capture a small portion here. You can see their pond through the deck railing. I want to come back as their cat in my next life.



Then it's on to Abby's house. I call her Pukey Cat because she gets this huge buffet of food not once but twice a day and then she pukes all over the house. I didn't take any pictures of that although I know you feel left out not having to see it. This is actually 5 cans of food you see here. Her owner is a bit of a nut but it makes her happy and she pays me so who am I to say anything?



Back in the car I do another time check on my Sirius satellite receiver. I listen to the Coffee House a lot because they play acoustic and live versions of a lot of stuff and it's the type of stuff I like. Right now Keane is playing (at the House of Blues) and it's 8:43am.



I head home but stop at the bank on the way. Unfortunately our bank doesn't have a drive thru nearby so I have to go to the grocery store. Can anyone explain to me why we need 20,000 handicap parking spaces? Oh, because I need some exercise!



I need to cash a bunch of rebate checks. I'm a coupon and rebate whore and I gotta tell ya I pay very little for most everything as a result. I rock, I know.



I'm home! This is a view of the corner of my house. My husband moved here from Edinburgh, Scotland 5 years ago thus the flag of Scotland is waving proudly.



Mommy's home! There was much rejoicing and dancing around...but I couldn't get a decent picture so I made them pretend that they're behaved creatures. Ha!



I sit down with a protein bar and call some clients to confirm next week's schedule but can't find any way to take an interesting picture so you don't get anything until it's time to go out for my mid-day work. The morning and evening work is for clients who are travelling. The mid-day work is for clients who want their dogs to be visited while they're at work. Anyway it's 10:05am and I grab everything I need. I had forgotten to show my bottle of water from the morning so here it is empty. Gotta drink lots of agua.



First stop is Sammie (aka Salmon) and Hannah (aka Hantzel). Sammie barely wanted to have anything to do with my hat so I knew trying to get my sunglasses and MP3 player on her was a no go. There was dancing and rejoicing until the hat got strapped on as you can see. Their owners make the big bucks and pay me to stop by twice a day to see the girls. On the first visit we take a long walk in a gorgeous park nearby but I didn't have a way to walk 2 dogs and take my camera so you'll just have to believe me.



Next daily stop is Beanie (aka My Little Beans). She's 151 lbs and all that weird stuff on the wall behind her is slobber that she flings around when she shakes off. I usually have to wash my hands several times while I'm here hehe. Oh and we don't walk, I just feed her lunch, let her out for a pee and then we sit and watch 20 minutes of soaps.



On Fridays I go see Tabo (aka Tabity) and we go for a walk. He's a Rhodesian Ridgeback and such a sweetheart.



Now I get to go home again! I do some laundry...



Time check but I can't see it thanks to the flash. I think it's about 12:30pm now.



And it's hot. The thing on the wall says it's almost 83 degrees outside and 81 inside. Like my drawings of my pets? I didn't draw the colorful bit just the white board crap.



The mailwoman rings the bell and delivers my pilates DVDs I ordered last weekend! I'm so excited and immediately run upstairs so I can try it out on the bed. I'm too old to be on the hard floor. Aha here's Lucy hanging out in the bedroom. Lucy is oh so cute and oh such a nutcase. I call her Lucifer and I'm fairly certain she wants me dead. Yeah look at those eyes, she does. She wants me dead even though as you can see I've piled up blankets and towels on the bench there for her to use as a bed. And that other bed on the floor is hers too.



My pilates loot! I liked the workout but we'll see if I get some results. I've heard good things about pilates so I have high expectations.




Workout done I decide to spend some quality time being lazy and fire up the Xbox 360 to play Hearts with friends. I've met so many cool people playing Hearts. Normally I would go see Sammie and Hannah again (around 2pm) but their owners are taking a weekend trip so they are now home to pack and leave. I will be spending the night with the girls.



The spouse comes home and orders pizza. Back off girls, he's mine. But seriously, this is what happens when you take someone from a country where they walk everywhere and move him to a country where you drive everywhere. And then give him an Xbox. Also as you can see, the dogs are spoiled rotten little beggars.



Sadly it's about 5pm and I have to go do my evening rounds. First stop is Monty and Coleman. Coleman is very happy to see me and we dance.



Then we go outside and play. Coleman is like a hummingbird. He never holds still. Monty is like a little doe. He's got these big doe eyes and a gentle soul.



I go back to Pukey Cat's house where I find ants all along my client's driveway. Eeeew!



Then it's back to Marlow and Jasmine's house. There are treats on that thar counter and Marsy knows what's comin'. Jaz stays a safe distance back because even after spending 3-4 weeks with me over the past 2 years, she's convinced I'm a dog serial killer.



Now it's about 6:30pm and time to head to Sammie and Hannah's for the night. Suddenly we get rain! We're in a draught so rain is always exciting.



By the time I get to Sammie and Hannah's, the rain is done and we're back to our regularly scheduled lovely evening. That's my Pet Sitting Mobile. They live in this gorgeous little quiet neighborhood but their neighbors are having a party so there are cars all over the place.



I curl up on the couch to see what's on TV. Someone hasn't updated their Dish satellite stuff in awhile so I wait a few minutes for that.



And pull out my cross stitch. it looks like it's about 7:11pm now.



I watch Dateline and then watch Windfall about 20 people who win the lottery together. I thought it would be silly but it actually looked pretty good. Maybe I'll watch something other than Big Brother and The 4400 this summer after all. At about 10pm I finish my cross stitch piece (it'll be a needle pouch once I put it together).



It's more fun to be home with my babies but I charge a lot for the priviledge of my evenings so I just remind myself of the money I'm making while bored out of my mind. Anyway at 10pm I let the girls out and head upstairs to bed. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera and was too tired to go back downstairs to get it. Hope you enjoyed my day! I love seeing everyone else's :-)