Ewens-Downing Adventures in Asia

You can clearly see from the worried look on her face that Jarra (her name means “dark wood” like Mahogany) is not too happy about recent developments around this trip. But while we’re gone we need to have Miss Pei taken care of somehow.

We got Jarra from the Shar-pei Rescue in Redding a couple years ago. Back then the rescue didn’t think she could be placed with anyone because of her anti-social barking and growling. She only trusted the person who fed her. But somehow we knew she was the dog for us. After visiting the rescue many times over a period of months, we took Jarra home. During that trip, riding on our laps, Jarra bonded with us and the rest is history.

Jarra is part of our family now. As such, we couldn’t ever fathom putting her in a kennel. Due to her history and her extra-large size emotional baggage, she would probably not do well in a kennel environment. She just doesn’t trust strangers and has many trip-wires that will set her off. What has worked for us in the past is to hire a dog sitter.

For previous trips I had researched many dog sitting/house sitting services in Marin. We tried one company a while back. But the results were less than favorable. Among other things that went wrong, the house sitter decided it would be OK for her to invite her boyfriend over to go for a walk. Well, Jarra doesn’t trust any stranger. But she *REALLY* distrusts male strangers. Suffice to say, we did not use that service again.

Ultimately we did find a great pet sitting service named Woof Pet Sitting out of San Rafael. Kristin is the owner of the business. She personally recruits and screens people to serve as pet and house sitters throughout Marin. The company is insured and bonded too. But most importantly Woof’s people really love pets.

As with all the other plans you have to make for a big vacation, you have to call the pet sitting service way ahead of time in order make sure they can line someone up for the job. Having pre-screened Woof Pet Sitting months ago made things really easy this time. I just sent off an email to Kristin and she promptly replied. Within a week or so we met our pet sitter for this trip, Michelle.

But what did Jarra think? Well, you can always tell when Jarra likes someone. When she has taken a shine to someone she will put her paws around their ankles, as if to try and hold them in place. When Michelle entered the house Jarra instantly liked her — Jarra attaching herself to Michelle’s ankle like a ball and chain. We had our house sitter and Miss Pei had a friend to watch over her during our trip.