We used Rover once. The sitter lost our dog, my husband got off the plane where we were boarding for our connection, flew back and spent the next ten hours scouring the area. We were lucky a security guard downtown found him at 11:30 PM, dirty, hot, exhausted. Never heard from Rover during or after.
There was a post on Reddit a couple years ago about a pet sitter that used the homeowner’s washer and dryer for their gig laundry clients. The W/D had WiFi and the owner watched the pet sitter do something like 20 loads of laundry while they were out of town.
Thank you for this. It's tragic, but I think many people don't realize that, unlike for children, there are almost no meaningful laws to protect our pets. The onus is almost entirely on owners to protect them, which means being *extraordinarily* careful with vetting potential caregivers.
Never used rover but do sometimes petsit and am always sick with anxiety an animal gets freaked and bolts. So far haven't lost one (knock on wood) but I cannot imagine losing one and not doing everything possible to find!
I'm someone that uses rover as a sitter. I've had almost always incredibly good experiences, but when it goes bad, it is horrific.
I had an owner refuse to let me take their pet to vet. I begged, they said they would sue me if I did. The pet then passed away during the sitting. It was horrific
Not to dismiss the issues with Rover, but I’m curious about how this compares with the non-app variety. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about hired pet care, and wonder what the overall change in quality might be (if any).
