Housesitters from Hell and the stinky house

[maxysmummy]

I haven't posted in a long time for various reasons.

aside from that I went on a trip away to thailand, and got some house sitters i found on a website who assured us they would be able to do the right thing by the rabbits.

i came home to complete and utter carnage. their food and water was empty, there was CLUMPING LITTER strewn about the house and in their boxes, the floors of the cages had NOT been cleaned AT ALL and all around the house there was dry urine EVERYWHERE.

after 2 days of cleaning like a banshee, the smell hasn't dissapated. i don't notice it because i'm used to it but my mother came into my house and baulked at the smell.

what do i do? how do i control this?

it's an utter nightmare.

the worst part is, after letting the house sitters know i wasnt happy with the condition they left our house in, they ABUSED me and told me to grow up etc etc etc. pathetic humans. *sigh*.

 

[missmerlin2010]

Oh my gosh! That would make me SO MAD! Sorry it happened to you. Are the bunnies OK? I know sometimes they will try and eat the clumping litter..

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

For the smell, open windows and turn on a fan to keep the air moving and get fresh air in. You can get odor neutralizers, but I would stick to ones you know are pet safe. Use some pet safe cleaners on the carpets and walls. You may need to let the house air out for a few days. Baking soda might help, I know you can buy boxes that are used in the fridge for odor but I don't know if they will be effective in the rest of the house.

You should file a complaint against the people who were doing the house sitting. If they are part of a larger company, complain directly to the manager or head of the company. If they are affiliated with a vet or something, talk to the vet. Many house and pet sitters belong to national organizations, so you can send a review into them. If you found them through a website (like a classifieds one), consider posting an ad about it and encourage people to contact you if they want more details, contacting the advertising site might also help.
This isn't just that you had a bad experience as that can happen often. I would assume that you left instructions as well as supplies which were totally ignored. Between the litter, not having food and water and dirty cages, it can be life threatening to a rabbit. It's not just the litter boxes were not clean when you got home, it's your rabbits could have died from the care provided. These people could be dangerous to other animals and are very unprofessional. People need to know when the care provided by someone else could endanger their pets and damage their home.

 

[maxysmummy]

Korr_and_Sophie wrote:

For the smell, open windows and turn on a fan to keep the air moving and get fresh air in. You can get odor neutralizers, but I would stick to ones you know are pet safe. Use some pet safe cleaners on the carpets and walls. You may need to let the house air out for a few days. Baking soda might help, I know you can buy boxes that are used in the fridge for odor but I don't know if they will be effective in the rest of the house.

You should file a complaint against the people who were doing the house sitting. If they are part of a larger company, complain directly to the manager or head of the company. If they are affiliated with a vet or something, talk to the vet. Many house and pet sitters belong to national organizations, so you can send a review into them. If you found them through a website (like a classifieds one), consider posting an ad about it and encourage people to contact you if they want more details, contacting the advertising site might also help.
This isn't just that you had a bad experience as that can happen often. I would assume that you left instructions as well as supplies which were totally ignored. Between the litter, not having food and water and dirty cages, it can be life threatening to a rabbit. It's not just the litter boxes were not clean when you got home, it's your rabbits could have died from the care provided. These people could be dangerous to other animals and are very unprofessional. People need to know when the care provided by someone else could endanger their pets and damage their home.

I want to write a complaint about them but to be honest i'm really scared. It scares me that such psychotic people lived in my house for 2 weeks. who knows what sort of information they could know about me? I'm too trusting so I didn't really hide anything. (doccuments etc).

They had the audacity to say to us that they hated our house and if they didnt feel sorry for the rabbits they would have up and left. i stopped replying to the messages at that point, I couldn't deal with a tirade of abuse. but i felt like slapping him. Beggars can't be choosers and if he wanted a five star hotel then he should have paid for one.

I'm thanking my lucky stars that none of the SEVEN rabbits that we left in their care was injured.

the only lasting reminder of them is the foul taste in my mouth, the smell and the urine stained paws of my girl Jemima.

Another thing I found funny was how STUPID they thought I was. When i said "cleaning 2 weeks worth of caked on urine wasnt pleasant" they had the nerve to tell me they cleaned out the cages 2 times a day. haha i've had rabbits for a long time and i certainly know what my rabbits are capable of.

 

[Jynxie]

I'm sorry this happened to you. I would write a complaint.
If they were in that bad of shape, they probably didn't even come often. Make sure all your stuff is there, and see if any of your important documents are messed up.

If they aren't... I would write a complaint. They harassed you, and they didn't take care of your animals.

 

[maxysmummy]

they also stole my boyfriends coin jar! granted there was only like $4 in there, but still!

 

[Bluesmaven]

I think you might think seriously of changing your locks on the house. Sue them in small claims court for everything you had to do.

Vinegar and water solution helps neutralize odors.

 

[Jynxie]

I'm not sure how serious it is, but you could call the police.

 

[maxysmummy]

I'm not going to sue them but I am emailing the website I found them off and hopefully they will take them off the list.

They are evil evil people and I don't appreciate being told to grow up because heaven forbid i wasn't happy with the absolutely disgusting state they left our house in.

 

[Jynxie]

Well if they continue to harass you or anything, I would report them.

I'm sorry about how they left your house.
It's great that your bunnies are okay though.

 

[maxysmummy]

aside from that, how do i get the urine stains off jemimas feet? she looks so dirty and filthy

 

[Nancy McClelland]

You can try a little mild soap on Jemimas feet and rinse thoroughly, but, it usually only comes off completely with time. I bought some cleaner from petsmart here that smeels like apples, but, I don't know what you have available there besides vinegar.

 

[slavetoabunny]

I don't know if you can do this in your area, but look into renting an ozone generator to get the smell out. Professional restoration companies use these to get out fire smell, etc.

 

[MiniLopHop]

I hope you didn't pay these horrible people. In the US we have the better business buro, do you have anything like that where you can report them? I also agree about changing your locks.

Next time be sure your sitters are liscensed and bonded. Then you would have a way to deal with the damages, but they are much less likely to cause issues.

 

[DandelionHollow]

Im new to the forum but when I read this post I had to comment. What a horrid situation. You can help a bit with the pee smell by using vinegar. And if you have carpets you can always rent a steam cleaner to leach the urine out of the fibers (that will help tremendously)!
I went out of town a couple years back and hired a sitter as well. My situation went very different from yours and we were ultra lucky to have found a reputable and thoughtful sitter. I checked up on her before we hired her, made sure she was liscensed and bonded should anything happen, etc...
Best of luck to you on putting your house back to rights. And no worries on dealing with these jerks. Some people are just trash and you have to just let go to save some of your sanity.

 

[Nela]

There is absolutely no way that I would pay them NOR incur costs on their behalf. I am sorry but if this is really how they are, they need to be shut down completely. There's no telling what they might have done that you have not found out yet. I would strongly encourage you to take as many pictures as you can and persue this. It may be that the company is reliable but not the employees. It would be very damaging for the company to not be told about this as well. I am not sure if these were supposed to be from a professional company or not but... If they weren't, then I guess it was a very big risk to take and i guess all you can do is learn from it and suck it up... It really sucks though. :expressionlessSorry things went so badly. I hope the buns are alright.

 

[naturestee]

That is just terrible! I'd change the locks and file a complaint.

For the smell, use diluted vinegar. I think it's better than the expensive stuff that pet stores sell to clean up urine accidents. I'd steam-clean the carpets after that, preferably with cleaning solution made to get rid of pet smell.

I hope everything works out for you!

 

[golfdiva]

Closely watch credit card charges, bank balances etc. In fact, I think I'd call the credit card company and see what recent charges are and tell them the situation. Tell the bank also.

 

[Alek]

If they are an actual business you can contact the Better Business Bureau, they can get something done.
I've done pet sitting for nearly 13yrs and these sorts of people make me sick and give a bad name to pet sitters who actually do a good job.
When my Mom and I went to Alaska for two weeks we hired a girl that came recommended to come into our home and care for our dogs. When we came home there was poop and pee all over the bottom of the kennels and when I let them out they drank like they hadn't had water in days. My neighbor told me he'd only seen the girl coming by every other day. I had to give everyone a bath, sterilize everything and then my two little dogs got diarrhea due to the unsanitary conditions. Now, I use the neighbor girl or my uncle. I don't trust strangers coming into my home anymore.