Worst Dog Sitting Experience EVER

Working with pets for the last 6 years or so, I have had an array of issues/emergencies/incidents that would just blow your mind. We all like to think that our pets are completely safe during the day/night, all by themselves, but accidents happen.  More often than you think.

Here's a look into one of my most horrifying dog sitting experiences:

As a lover of big dogs, I was super excited to take on a new daily walking client - two large and beautiful German Shepherd pups who I will call Ben & Jerry. Ben was a teenager FULL of energy and very mischievous. Jerry was an older gent who preferred sticking like glue to my legs.

A few weeks after I started walking them the owners asked me to watch them overnight. In this particular case, overnight meant doing a late visit at night (9pm) and an early visit the next morning (7am). What I did not know at the time was that Ben was PETRIFIED of thunderstorms! As you can guess, there was a huge storm that night but I didn't think twice about it. Until I walked into their house early the next morning....

There was blood EVERYWHERE! On the walls, on the floors, on the doors - everywhere I turned there was blood. My mouth hung open and I started to panic. At that same moment the dogs came running in to greet me. Both dogs are a very dark brindle color, and as I quickly scanned them to see which was bleeding I couldn't find a thing. I walked closer into the house, peering into different rooms...when I came across the laundry room. The most blood in one place, because Ben had gotten so anxious that he chewed on the washing machine. Yes you heard me right, the washing machine. Specifically the half metal half plastic bin that is underneath front loading machines. I immediately checked his mouth which was a little scraped up but wasn't bleeding and didn't have any major issues. NOTHING!!

Of course I called the owners who finally filled me in on the thunderstorm issue and were actually...ok with the whole situation. I cleaned up as much blood as I could and had them text me when they got home so I knew Ben was still ok. He was, crisis over. Whew.