Joey

Ahh thank you Bertyboop, that's so lovely of you. My niece is going to house sit for us next time, so it's all good, but your offer is so very much appreciated. And to echo Teeny's words, I know I was just really unlucky as I can't imagine any normal person who loves animals ever doing this. I just picked the one person in 1000. Please don't let my story put anyone off, but do your checks thoroughly and pick someone who is very well established. That's where I fell down.

Hi all, thanks for your replies. I'm less emotional now and more logical about it all. We had our locks changed which took away my main concern of her coming back and stealing from us. My main concern since then has been any other animals she's agreed to look after, as well as the fact that she has dogs herself. I really do wonder if she is fit to look after animals at all. And don't get me started on the fact that she has a child as well. She blocked me from seeing her personal account on Facebook, and she seems to have closed the business Facebook account down. I'll share the details privately with those who have asked - still looking at involving solicitors at this point to try and retrieve the money for the locks, so don't want to do anything that may stop that. Teeny - she showed me an insurance certificate, although I must admit I didn't scrutinise it. I know the road she lives on, although not the number. I met with her twice and was really impressed with how professional she seemed. And from stalking her FB page (on my husband's account as she's blocked me), I know an awful lot about her partner and life. Her references were from people whose dogs she looks after regularly, and seemed very genuine - even had pics of her with the dogs. I have vowed to keep an eye on her going forward - any sign that she's even thinking about setting up again and I'll be naming and shaming her on every bit of social media I can find. Eddie_shef - the company is actually just her and she's totally ignoring me. The police have advised against going to her house as it may escalate - I'm calmer now than when I first talked to them, and I think they thought at the time I might try and punch her Or worse, take my husband with me, which would definitely have led to an escalation! My family have all said that no matter what, they will look after the pets for us in the future, and in fact my niece has now decided she will house sit for us also - so I will be more worried about parties than the animals on my next holiday :D.

Me and my sis in law looked at this shop as an option about 16 years ago. We are really glad we didn't go ahead with it - although it looked really good at first as Java Lounge I never saw it busy in there and think we would have regretted it.

Long post alert! I haven't posted for ages on the Forum although I do read through the posts regularly. However I've just had an experience that I feel I have to share to prevent this happening to anyone else. My hubby and I had a holiday last week. We used to have family look after our pets but due to illness, house moves and work, it wasn't possible this time. We only used a cattery once and my cats were totally traumatised - plus it didn't help with the problem of feeding the goldfish and tortoises. So I had the great idea of getting a pet sitter in. I chose a local company, relatively new but with great reviews and assurances of her love for animals. I met up with her twice and really liked her, was impressed that she had enough about her to start a small business as that is close to my heart. She wrote everything down about my pets to make sure they would be well looked after and confirmed that she would call in twice a day and I would get a text every day to let me know they were okay. I honestly thought that if this worked it would be the perfect long standing agreement for every time we went away. I handed over my key and she sent me a message saying I should relax and enjoy my holiday. She called at lunchtime (not early morning as agreed) on the first day. And she never came back. I realised by the end of day 2 that something was wrong - I had a camera that showed no-one had been to the house. My dad had to travel over - he has cancer and was recovering from the latest round of chemo, which is why we hadn't asked him before. He found that the cats had been eating grass and had thrown up everywhere. The torts and fish can survive a few days without food, the cats get dramatic if their food is half an hour late. We had to cut our holiday short and come back early. Despite multiple attempts to contact this woman, I've had no response or explanation. And most worrying is that I haven't been able to get my key back. Im sure the majority of these businesses are totally dependable. However lessons learned for anyone using similar services ( unfortunately I won't be ) a) only use businesses that are long standing and well established b) ask to speak to previous customers - the business could have posted their own reviews c) check with your house insurers that they will cover you if the key is handed to a third party and your house is then burgled. Apparently most don't. d) make sure you have cameras - if I hadn't, my animals would have been at the vets now or worse. e) check that the business has a plan in place should anything happen to them. No idea if this woman is in a coma somewhere or is just a scammer, but whichever it is, there could be someone else's pets right now that are suffering due to her lack of planning/honesty. The police are now involved and we are looking at passing the cost of new locks on to this woman. Locksmiths are here, we are looking for solicitors and additional cameras and I'm very stressed. Not how I expected to be spending the last few days of my holiday. I hope this helps prevent this happening to anyone else and their pets. And apologies to all the genuine businesses out there who really do care about animals and wouldn't dream of doing this to anyone.

Well, it just so happens ...... I wish!!!!

Hi Adele - I lived just off Herries Road in Sheffield 5. It never looked like it was the good sort of post

Same at Burncross - and just happened again :-/

Could be - he looked darker than that but then it was pitch black It looks like the sort of dog he was to be sure. Unfortunately he had gone this morning. I'm going to put some food out though as it seemed as though that's what he was after last night - he jumped over my gate onto my decking which is what made me look outside. I often put my cats' food out there, so he could probably smell it. So he may come back later if he's still loose. I'll post later if he shows up.

Thanks Strix. No, he is just running up and down it, but he can easily get into other gardens. I doubt he'll still be there in the morning, or possibly in half an hour, but if anyone is looking it might give them a starting point.

I live close to the Herries Road end of Wordsworth Avenue and a big dog is in my garden that looks as though it's got loose. It has a big red collar. I know nothing about dogs, so can't tell you what type it is, but it is a similar shape to a staffy, but bigger. It looks as if it is different shades of brown with white patches. It's quite a big dog. I'm trying to get a better look but I'm scaring him so I'm not sure I'll be able to get a pic or anything. If anyone is missing a dog, please let me know by pm. Ta.

Hi, Readicut have a super sale on at the moment with balls of Twilleys wool 2p plus a £3.99 one off postage. http://www.readicut.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=RC15048&name=rc15048&sfile=1&jump=0 Hope that helps. ( spotted on MoneySavingExpert - thanks SukiSu ) Hope I've not broken any rules by posting the link. If so - sorry!!!

I've been experimenting with bread too and will have to give yours a go next weekend. My favourite so far is 100g of plain flour mixed with 100g of plain yoghurt, made into a dough, rolled into two flat breads and put into a hot frying pan with a tiny bit of oil in it. I can make them and be cleaned up in 5 minutes :0) Tastes just like nan bread. I started off adding spices to them, but I just make them plain to have with curry now ( I'm so lazy !!)

That was excellent. Especially the sketches at the bottom!! Thanks for a good laugh :-D

Well done!! That's a brilliant time - my first year it was 73 mins!

Thanks GB and everyone else who was there to support - it really does give you a boost when everyone is shouting and singing and clapping, especially up that last hill. Shaved a minute off my time - 60 mins this year! Was hoping to get 50-something this time, but I'm still really pleased. And it gives me a target for next year Well done to everyone!!