Monica

In the Silicon Valley (San Jose) we pay a service $15.00 for a once a day check-up, play with the cats, take in the mail, etc. It's an adult who comes, we get the same woman every time so she knows our cats and how to take care of the geckos, etc.

nina

Don't write off the neighbor kids. My neighbor asked my 9 year old to feed and let out her dog. He loves the dog, plus she said he would pay him. He was so diligent he set his alarm for 6:30 to get up early to let the dog out, and kept asking me if it was "time yet" in the evening. Now of course I had to go with him because he couldn't quite manage the locks and I wanted to supervise.

The last morning we were horrified (I apologize, I know it's lunchtime), to find dog poop all over the kitchen floor. My son just daid "No problem mom, I'll get it, it's my job" and would have picked it up with his bare hands if I wasn't there to give him plastic bags. He cleaned it up, no problem. How many other people would have done that willingly?

When the neighbor returned I told her what happened, since I thought the dog might be sick, but she said, "Oh no, he does that sometimes, he's so old!" (wish she had mentioned that BEFORE she left).

For this my son got $ 20 for 3 days, and was thrilled. I'm sure he'd like to do it again but I think I'll let him stick with watering the plants and picking up newspapers.