Just out of curiosity, what is the going rate for petsitters in your area.

Here in S. Florida, expect to pay $20 per pet at someone's house. I have found a college student who will watch our 2 dogs and cat for $20/day.

A neighbor coming in twice per day to feed my cats is $30 per day. A professional would be much more.

The vet's kennel is $40 per day per pet - and they don;t take large dogs.

A petsitter for Pup was $25 a day - in her home..
A petsitter for the little cat was $25 a visit, she came 3 times a day..
Now I will leave Pup at a DoggyDayCare place and it is $23- a 1/2 day ( 3-6 ours)
It is cheaper to hire a housekeeper who lives in and takes care of the house , kids and dog/cat LOL

The college student sounds perfect!!

that cat sitters visit was a day/$25-

We pay $40 a day for a wonderful woman to come stay at our house and take care of our 2 dogs and 1 cat.

It is so worth it for the peace of mind!-- She takes better care of our home than we do, so we don't have to worry about a thing while we're gone.

I pay $15 per visit for my one dog and one cat. I have my sitter come 2 or 3 times a day (vary it during the week). Plus I tip. I'm located in a suburb of Dallas and this is the going rate in the Dallas area.

The peace of mind for a professional sitter is worth the extra money versus a student, friend or co-worker. I've used ad hoc sitters like that before and almost lost a pet when they didn't recognize the illness.

My current sitter is an independent who used to work for a larger petsitting company but she's a real pro. She knows how to detect illness and when to take the pet to the vet or emergency clinic.

These prices sound expensive!

When we go away for a few days, my neighbour comes in twice a day to feed the cats and bring in the mail. (No money changes hands, but I have noticed my power tools at work on their renos, and my lawnmower seems to like their lawn as much as mine, LOL.)

If we go away for a longer period of time, we take the cats to a kennel. It's a great place--a farm, with huge kennels, each one with a screened-in balcony so the cats can watch the birds fly by. The price is $10 Cdn per cat per day, tax in. The cats (Wandering Angus and Travis McGee) love it.

Anselm

I did live-in petcare for a month one summer and the family paid my rent (so that I would, indeed, live-in) and did not charge me any utilities. It was a good situation, as it was August and they had AC (my apt did not).

That solved a lot of travel problems for them: no stopping the mail, I took phone calls, etc. . .

When I lived in Marin County, CA (North of the Golden Gate Bridge) it was $50/day. Marin is dog heaven, guess that is why is costs so much.

on Long Island in NY I pay approx $ 250 for an old sitter to live in the house and watch our dog, cat, guinea pigs & chinchillas. Less than I would pay to just board the dog at a kennel and better for all concerned.

Donna

I pay a vet tech $25 per day to live in the house, take care of the five dogs, water the plants and bring in the mail. She refers to her stay as being at her "house in the country". We are pretty lucky.

We board our dog every year when we travel it is over 25 but the place is great like a hotel for dogs. It's called pooch palace. They're very careful who is booked must have recent shots, papers.

Wow! I guess we're pretty lucky. I usually pay $10 a day for my dog at an animal farm, which she loves. (Remember, this is rural south Mississippi). However, this time we have some friends coming in to work for us while we're gone who offered to watch the dog for free (as they're staying at our house anyway). This will be perfect since the dog will be in her own home, with people she has known for quite a while.

Everything is higher here in Boston.

We have two large dogs and a cat. We pay a professional pet sitter (she's great!) $15 for one visit per day or $25 for two visits. She usually grabs the mail, checks the house and sits down and visits with the animals for awhile. Didn't charge to come over and get to know the dogs before we left for out first trip using her services. Brings treats along for them. We're very glad we found her. City of Memphis.

Wow, are we ever lucky. Dor's sis lives in non cat friendly apartment land. She loves to move in to our house and spoil our cats rotten. Flaked white tuna for dinner every night ruins them.

Anselm! Travis McGee! Now you need a girl cat to name Puss Killian... or another boy, called Meyer, of course.

Any friend of Travis is a friend of mine - you made my day!

(BTW - Dog goes to the best kennel in the world, like dog camp out in the woods, and costs about 20 per day. I always seem to get an offer from a co-worker to check on the cat. I'm must have been a saint in a past life, 'cause I sure don't deserve friends like that in this one...)

I pay $150 a week and a stocked fridge to a girl that works for me that moves in for the time I'm gone.

Worktowander, I'm smiling at the notion of an economist cat named Meyer. We'd have to get him his own houseboat and call it the John Maynard Keynes.

We took TS Eliot to heart:

"But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?"

Anselm

I trade in FF miles and get Mom a ticket to stay at the house and watch our baby, Spencer. He is an 8 yo English Springer Spaniel who used to not mind going to the kennel (which was more like a doggie country club). We used to tell him he was going to "puppy camp".

Cost in South Florida is about $20 per day to kennel him. We figure for the same cost (even if we had to purchase the airline ticket) we would rather keep him home. Plus this way we know Mom will be visiting at least twice a year. It works out for everyone.