What Do Pet Sitters Do in a Blizzard?

 

Winter storms have been dominating the news. In fact, every state expect for Florida has snow on the ground.  And there is still a lot of time left this winter, which means we could easily see more storms. So, what exactly does your pet sitter do if a blizzard hits?

Of course, if school and businesses are closed and the news is telling people to stay home, then chances are that you are home to take care of your pet.  But what if you’re on vacation?   Pet sitters are like the mailmen of animal care, with a creed not unlike, “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.[1]

What You Can Do to Prepare for a Blizzard:

    1. Hire a neighbor to shovel your driveway and sidewalks to make it easy to get in and out of your home. If you prefer to spread ice melt, make sure to get the non-toxic pet friendly version.
    2. Have extra leashes/harnesses, or carriers available. If you get snowed in, your pet sitter may need to come get your weather the storm with them. This could be necessary if the power goes out or if the storm will have people snowed in for days.
    3. If you are going to be home, make sure to call and cancel so they don’t need to worry about going over to your home in the storm.
    4. Make sure to have plenty of food, water, litter and other supplies. Have an emergency plan in place just in case everyone gets snowed in and they can’t make it on the scheduled day.
    5. No matter the weather your pet sitter will try their hardest to be there for your pets. However, we do want everyone to be safe.  If you’re worried about your pets in inclement weather, make sure to contact us. We will help set up a plan and your pet care.  And most of all, stay safe and warm this winter!

 

What We Do to Prepare for a Blizzard (as Pet Sitters):

  1. Check weather reports, especially for areas outside of town.
  2. Discuss emergency scenarios with the team. Sitters with 4-wheel drive vehicles and vehicles with higher clearance are on call.
  3. Management plans to provide assistance. Even if the sitter can get out to visits, often the road make driving slow, so occasionally a manager takes a visit to help the sitter get them all done in time.
  4. Occasionally there is a discussion of having a pet stay with a sitter in their home. Typically this is with friendly dogs who would deal well with the stress, and is only done when necessary.
  5. Stock our vehicles with emergency gear.
  6. Contact the client to let them know of the situation and keep them updated throughout.
  7. If it is possible we will not make it to a home, in advance we contact neighbors and emergency contacts and arrange emergency coverage, if needed. We provide them with all of the information needed to watch the home.
  8. Leave out extra food and water, just in case.
  9. Stay in touch with emergency backups to assess the area and keep them apprised if we need help with visits.

We have only had one situation where we could not make it to a home due to weather, and it was actually due to flooding! We had arranged for a neighbor to help and everything turned out great. Having a professional pet sitter means you never have to worry!

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