Do you have a problem having licensed professional service people come into your house when you are on vacation?

I do have a problem with that.
When we’ve gone on vacation, we’ve boarded our dogs at the breeder’s facility.As for the cats. we have a relative come to take care of them.Sometimes they’ve gone with us.:)
I am sure there are plenty of fine care takers out there but I feel better with family.

I would find your wife’s insecurity on the matter rather alarming. But you took the correct path. If that’s the worst you will confront, you’re a lucky man.

I would not like having a stranger in my home.

Random strangers—maybe not. But between the wife & kids and all those girlfriends and the grandsons’ friends the house is already trafficked like a bus station. Now the wife has taken to holding the monthly meetings of her dancing guild here. There is always some sort of screwball girlie nonsense that I avoid like the plague. Otherwise I wind up waiting hand and foot on a crowd of cackling biddies. The wife just LOVES the humiliating spectacle of me fetching and cow towing to her criminal cohorts, so I habitually make myself scarce. Since our housekeeper retired and fled to Texas, these board meetings compels the wife to thoroughly clean house and I run like hell from that one as well. It’s always a 2 day affair to which she devotes only the mornings before noon. On such days, I’m usually out of the house by 4:30 A.M.

We’ve had different “dog sitters” for 25 years, the current one comes over three or four nights a week just to watch TV with her husband.
During the day she comes three times morning, noon and night. She’ll come back after doing any other “sittings” with her husband to watch TV; they don’t have cable. House looks like it is occupied.

I, personally, don’t like anyone having free roam of my dwelling, while I’m not there.
That doesn’t mean that I disagree with your arrangement.

Just saying….

Why not pay that neighbor the same amount that the service would charge?
Factor in that the pet may not like the stranger either.
I wouldn’t like strangers in my home.

I’m not a big fan of having strangers in my house either. Though I have to ask…is this kind of reaction unusual for your wife? Is there something more to the interaction?

I vote for NO strangers in the house. Choose a good pet boarder. Make sure they don’t just lock the cat in a cage the whole time. Another alternative is a foster home provider. Visit the place you choose.

I was going to pass on this question, but I read the thread. I have to add for the record that I have no problem having a licensed professional come into my house as I’ve arranged while I’m away. Doesn’t bother me at all.

I’m not comfortable with it. Boarding for me.

It would make me a bit nervous. If it were someone I got to know, like a cleaning person, then maybe. But a stranger from the internet just coming in for an extended period of time when I’m away, no thank you.

I’d rather have a friend or neighbor come. I have cats so they don’t require so much care when I’m not home. Someone can come every other day and it’s fine.

My stepfather has a dog that he leaves either with a vet/kennel or a private dog sitter who used to work for the vet/kennel.

Other people I know pay friends to stay at their homes when they’re on vacation, to tend to the dogs. I understand it pays quite well. If I had a lot of free time, like if I were retired, and I had a friend that needed that, it would be fun.

I used to have a cleaning person who came in when I wasn’t home, and when all was said and done, three gold rings were missing. I noticed it about six months after I stopped using her, so I didn’t report it to the police because I felt like at that point, it would be odd to file a report for something that I wasn’t sure when it happened. Nobody else comes into my house, so it had to be her. She had substitutes come when she was pregnant and also other times, she’d bring a friend along to help, so I really couldn’t accuse her, either because for all I know, it was one of her helpers. I am on the verge of hiring another cleaning person but this time, there’s no really valuable jewelry within easy reach.

25 stars out of how many? How long has she been in business?

Thanks for all the thoughtful answers. Interesting that so many are against having a trained pet caretaker into you home alone. No big deal to me. Guess I’m too trusting.

@Inspired_2write My neighbor is an old ARMY buddy. He won’t accept money from me. I always bring him back stuff from our travels. Not nearly the value of his time and efforts.

@Dutchess_lll The animal caretaker from Rover.com has been in business for nearly one year. I understand that she has had 25 different jobs and all gave a 5 star rating. All raved about how pleased they are. Also she had 16 repeat jobs.

Not much in our house has any value worth stealing.

Also nowadays people have cameras everywhere. I put up a few mock cameras. That is likely on the minds of pet caretakers.

Also I told our next door neighbor that I hired a cat caretaker to feed our cat while we’re away and to let me know if anything weird goes on. Like a wild party. HA! I better tell our neighbor that I changed my mind.

So what was the decision?

Remember that you can install cameras in your home now. Someone with the OP’s budget, should already have them. You can even look at them, on your smart phone, while away.

@Dutchess_lll I’m letting my wife bug her friends to feed our cat. She seems OK with that.

@MrGrimm888 I’ve seen the commercials about the computerized cameras. Seems like a cool idea.

^Hey yourself some cameras bro.