Because I’d rather not gross anyone out this Monday morning, I’ll spare you the details of what happened the time I left Johan Kugelberg in charge of my apartment. However, I can say that after reading about what happened when Kiki Vandeweghe (above) and wife Peggy hired a pair of CSU students to watch his home and animals, Johan is no longer the Worst Pet Sitter In The World. From the Denver Post’s William Porter (link swiped from True Hoop) :
What all parties agree on is that Kiki and Peggy Vandeweghe hired twins Amy and Jenny Eskola to house sit their Cheesman Park manse.
Keeping Jenny company was the Vandeweghes’ schnauzer, Meister, and the bird, a variety of parrot called a conure. The birds are renowned for their beauty and sociability, although these virtues were apparently lost on the dog.
So it was curtains for Sweet Cheeks.
“It was horrible,” Jenny told me. “The cage was broken beforehand and the door was fastened with a twist-tie, and the bird somehow undid the tie.”
The conure enjoyed its brief freedom. Then the dog decided it was supper time.
“Meister bolted out of the room,” Jenny said. “I went in and there were little feathers all over the place.”
The Vandeweghes have refused to pay the young women for their housesitting. The sisters say they’re owed about $700, which is the $50-a-day fee they had earned up until the fur flew. So it’s off to small-claims court.
“I don’t know if we’re ever going to see anything, but it’s a shame,” mother Debbie Eskola said. “The girls have to earn their spending money so it’s a big deal for them. For Peggy Vandeweghe, it’s a pair of shoes.”
I feel for the family who lost their bird, but from the information above, it sounds like the cage was broken before the twin pet sitters arrived so how are they to be held liable? It is the resp. of the pet owner to do all they can to ensure that their pets are safe and healthy before leaving them in the care of others. It’s unfortunate that the bird died, but, from the limited info. it’s not the pet sitters fault.