Winter Garden Magazine September 2018 | Page 20

featuring Tails from the Alley

Allison Couture Otero

Confessions Of a Pet sitter

First off , I want to say that I take my job VERY seriously – my top priority is to make sure that the animals in my care are : 1 ) safe , 2 ) healthy , and 3 ) happy . I would NEVER do anything while animals are in my care that would put any of them in danger . Additionally , I make sure that my client ’ s houses are secure and usually leave them in better shape than they did .

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way , let us head straight to the Real World confessional ( yes , I am 37 and still watch it ... don ’ t judge ) and spill the beans on a few things that I have done while on the job that I am not totally proud of .

While pet sitting , I have :

• Set off my client ’ s house alarm so that four police officers showed up , lights blazing , and shamelessly flirted with them so they would go away and I
20 | WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2018
wouldn ’ t have to call my client ... it worked ! SCORE – I ’ ve still got it !
• Rummaged through a client ’ s cabinets to find muchneeded sunscreen – I had the stupid idea of riding my bike to all of my visits on a hot , Florida August afternoon ... needless to say , I looked like Magda from There ’ s Something About Mary when I got home .
• Gone about the better part of a day with dog poop smeared on my face wondering why everywhere I went smelled poopy before looking in the mirror and realizing it was me .
• Drank ALL of the Cokes in a client ’ s refrigerator while he was out of town and had to replace them before he returned home - we don ’ t keep Coke in our house so it was a treat I couldn ’ t resist .
• Acted like I was the owner of the mansion that I was staying overnight in – I went full on character , twirling