I had a client for about a year (give or take) and I assumed that everything was great. She never told me that she had any problems with me, I loved the dog, and our professional relationship was as it should be. Then out of nowhere I stopped hearing from her. I didn't think anything of it. People don't want to spend the money, their schedules change, they move... there could have been a million reasons. Then I hear through the grapevine that she got another walker. I was curious as to why, but never asked. In a way, I didn't even want to know. This walker lasted a bit, and she was replaced by another walker. Then that walker dropped the owner as a client. The owner then got another walker who was actually a good friend of mine. Then she dropped him and called me back to be her walker! This was about 2 years and 3-4 walkers later. She left me a voicemail as if nothing ever happened! I still didn't know why she stopped using me, but based off of that as well as what I have heard from the pet sitter community, I decided to keep my distance.
This past week I ran into her previous walker (2 walkers ago) who brought her up. We had never met, but knew of each other. She mentioned this client that we had in common and hesitantly said that there were some not nice things said about me. Well then I had to know! I had gone over everything in my head a million times! Did I do something wrong? Did I piss her off in some way? Did she just not like me or my services? We never had a fight or confrontation, I just stopped hearing from her. So the truth finally came out! She told this next walker that she fired me because "the new person that I hired stole her diamond earrings." Um, WHAT???? First of all that is a blatant lie. No one that works for me would steal anything. I trust them implicitly. Secondly, no one has ever been alone in her house except for me. Thirdly, if that actually happened, why would she say NOTHING? And lastly, if she thought that was true, then why did she call me back 2 weeks ago to work for her again?? I have gotten jobs because the last dog walkers DID steal and the police officer that took the report referred me as a walker.
I let this sink in and I then sent a text to the next walker that she used to ask if this was what she told him. He said that he didn't remember hearing anything about diamonds, but remembers her saying that I left dog poop all over her basement and wanted to send someone else besides me to fill in for a walk. Let me just touch upon these two things. First, if anything comes out of an animal and it is on the floor and I SEE it, I am cleaning it up. If I don't go into that particular room and see it, how am I to know that it is there? If something happens between the time that I leave and the time that the owner gets home - I cannot be held responsible. The next major point is that I am one person running a busy business. I cannot always be the one to do the walking and or feeding. I will not send someone else to a house alone without giving the owner a heads up, especially for clients that were used to it just being me. My newer clients know that it could be me or 2 other people right off the bat.
This situation infuriates me because I was accused of things that I didn't do and I didn't even have a chance to defend myself! She accused me of this to other people and never confronted me! I know that I did nothing wrong, and I'm pretty sure that she knows it too since she keeps changing her story and going through dog walkers as often as she changes her socks. I hold no grudges, I am just in shock.
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