So cross!!!

moments_of_sanity

I have just come back from our 2 week holiday to Spain and our neighbours very kindly offered to feed out cats, water our house plants and water the plants in my greenhouse and garden.

I come back to find that they have emptied all the waste cat food into my kitchen bin, it stank to high heaven and the food had turned to liquid, leaked out of the kitchen bag, through the seal of the bin and onto the floor. All of my houseplants are in a terrible condition with my Aloe Vera the worst, it has gone a very light yellow colour. Worst area is the greenhouse, I only had 3 pepper plants, 2 tomato plants, 2 cucumber plants, 1 courgette plant and about 15 strawberry plants (including lots of runners from them in pots). I have lost 1 pepper plant, 1 tomato plant, both cucumbers and at least 75% of my strawberry plants!!!!

Why do people offer to do these jobs whilst you are away if they then don't bother - I have no problem with people saying they don't want to and I could have asked my family to take the fruit, veg and houseplants as everything is in pots. I am just so cross that some things have died and the one's I have left are looking like they are going to keel over soon, I spent ages making sure everything was growing well, feeding, weeding etc and in two weeks I have lost over 50% of what I was growing :mad:

floss2

Hope you haven't already given them a "thank you" pressie....

moments_of_sanity

floss2 wrote: »

Hope you haven't already given them a "thank you" pressie....

LOL - luckily I hadn't!!! :rotfl:

timmyboy_2

You make it sound like they did it on purpose.
Did they not do their best? By offering to help they sound like good neighbours, did you leave explicit instructions for every plant and the cat litter etc?
I would just be grateful that I had someone looking after my place and keeping it free from burglars etc.

lostinrates

Just like to say, on two occasions i have not taken as good as care as i would have liked while people were on holiday.

The first I was asked and said no ( i had exams and other stuff going on and was spread too thin, but had done it in the past) They were not happy but they asked another neighbour, who then dumped the keys on me after week one saying they had already booked their holidays and the neighbours in the house in question had said i would do week two. I was FURIOUS, but of course made sure the cats were fed and watered and cleaned their trays but in no way shape or form was i going to use my precious time watering their HUGE collection of plants. As it happened, their pipes failed for some reason and I also spent several hours there one night with an emergency plumber, had to pay the bill, and they COMPlAINED i had done that and it had coat too much money.


The second time I was very happy and willing to do it, but after they had gone I had a family crisis. This obviously created some difficulties. Again, i made sure the animals were done as I would any animal I had an u dertaking too, but I am afraid plants came second to the other occurance and would have done for that neighbour too.

moments_of_sanity

timmyboy wrote: »

You make it sound like they did it on purpose.
Did they not do their best? By offering to help they sound like good neighbours, did you leave explicit instructions for every plant and the cat litter etc?
I would just be grateful that I had someone looking after my place and keeping it free from burglars etc.

I am not saying for one minute they did it on purpose but I just hoped they would have looked after everything better. I don't have a huge garden, I don't have many houseplants (maybe 5) and they didn't need to empty any litter trays etc as we allowed the cats to still come and go (they never go further than the garden fence, too scared I think).

When I have looked after people's pets etc, I have made sure everything was done and would certainly have not left waste cat food in an indoor bin for any length of time. The people I look after their cats for are 10 miles from my home so I tend to do a feed before and after an 8.5 hour working day, even tho I am shattered by the time I get there I still make sure things are done that need doing.

Maybe I am asking too much but maybe that is because when I look after peoples houses they come back to find things as they left them.

Davesnave

Sadly, some people really are one sandwich short of a picnic. The trick is to spot this, so even if they are "good neighbours," they don't get the holiday home-minding job.

We have pleasant neighbours, but never in a million years would we give them the level of responsibility quoted, because daily observations suggest that they wouldn't handle it well.

Sometimes, being "nice" or well-meaning isn't enough.

rhiwfield

Sympathise a bit but your neighbours did try to help you out and, being so cross at them for not meeting your standards, seems very harsh.

Its always an option to put cats in a cattery (costs though) and use the old bath trick for plants. That way there is no obligation on neighbours, and, if you have let your annoyance show, not much chance that they or other neighbours will volunteer again

Not sure whether you left precise instructions either, which could have helped.

Maybe the best thing is for you to cool down, have a nice glass of red wine, thank your neighbours for their efforts and plan how to get it right for next year

blossomhill_2

Oh come on! Be fair! The weather this year has been so up and down you dont know for sure that you'd even have been able to keep your own plants going - read the threads, you'll find plenty of people who haven't managed

Are your pets ok? Yes? Good, they did a good job then, even if they failed your housekeeping test

Even OH failed to keep my plants alive but as long as he kept the pets safe and fed I forgave him

Next time, pay for a cattery (which may in fact lose your pet, and would require you to have them vaccinated etc before agreeing to take them) and set up a capillary watering or drip feed system for your plants

moments_of_sanity

Cats don't fair well in catteries I find so prefer to leave them at home, cost isn't the issue as we paid £500 for our dogs to be looked after for 2 weeks whilst we were away.

Regardless of weather, most people can tell if plants need to be watered or not, you don't need a degree from the met office! Still I suppose I should have known better as they have 3 dogs that remain crated in the house for most of the day as they can't seem to house train them. Lovely people and would do anything for anyone, just a shame about the plants really. Did manage to get the cat sick out of the cream carpet once we got home though and in no way did I expect the neighbours to sort that out, not even DH goes near vomit!

No annoyance shown to the neighbours, just won't ask them again.

blossomhill_2

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

Cats don't fair well in catteries I find so prefer to leave them at home

My point exactly, they did you and your cats a favour