I feel like I’m being under paid and don’t know how to tell the client (so many pets!)
I’m an independent pet sitter that is college aged and mainly sit for friends of my parents. My normal rate is $50 for over night which is fairly reasonable for the local I live (a moderately sized town where the living wage is $24.50 an hour). I’m not sure if I’m under cutting myself in the first place or not?
Ok to explain the sitting situation I‘m in the right now where I‘m definitely being under paid. I was recommended by to this person by one of my mom‘s friends that I’ve sit for, for a lot time and have a good relationship with (2 dogs supper chill) and I really enjoy spend time with. She texted me asking if I could sit for her for three weeks in June/july, I initially didn’t really want to do it because its a really long time so I ignored the text bc I was busy, then later texted her back bc it would be a good way for me to make some money. She said she had someone but would keep me in mind, then texted me a few weeks from then and asked if I could meet to talk about sitting and I had no clue what I was getting myself in for.
- 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 parakeets, 2 fish tanks, like 5 ducks and a whole flock of chickens
Its a lot but when we initially meet it was just to meet everyone and get an idea for the 3 week stay. She said the dogs and parakeets would go to a friend’s house, so I wouldn’t have to take care of them. I’d be left with the cats, fish tanks, ducks and chickens. She brought up cost and at first waited to pay me $45 a day/night, I said I normally do $50 for my mom’s friend for just two dogs. She said that was reasonable bc I was going to be staying the night. I kind of feel like that’s not enough in the first place bc Ive charged 50 for just two cats before. I kind of agreed because I feel uncomfortable negotiating especially with someone I don’t know very well.
It doesn’t end there because last week she sent me and sos texted that she needed a sitter asap for a family emergency (family member going to hospice). I agreed to it and meet up with her to go over all what would be needed to do. Since it was short notice she would not be able to send the dogs and birds to a friends and now I’m left with all of them. When we talked about payment she really didn’t want to pay me more with the additional 2 dogs and 2 birds. She said it only takes her an hour in the morning and night to do everything around the house for the animals. I’m not her I don‘t know her pets and how to run her house and that’s not how pet sitting works.
I was able to get her to raise it to $65 bc I asked how much she paid her previous pet sitter and it was 65. I told her I need to make this worth my while and that gas prices are getting expensive. She said it was would be really expensive for her to pay me much more than that and acknowledged that having so many pets makes have a sitter experience. She did tell me if I started doing it and felt I wasn’t being paid enough to talk to her but it‘s so awkward to do that.
Oh on top of all of the normal pet stuff she’s was getting live snail and shrimp delivered which were might to arrive 5 days ago but came late so I that to unbox them and do a video incase any of the were DOA (thank god they were all alive).
She later texted me that I would need to pill her dog bc her had tumors and could explode then she would need to be put down during the time I’m watching them. I can’t do that, even if it doesn‘t happen when Im here its enough to scare the living sh*t out of me.
Its just a really messy situation bc she have so much going on in her life I don’t want to be a bitch and ask for more money when she is clearly struggling. I’m glad I was able to do this for her in her time of need but I cant just except it and she did say if anything changed about how I felt about the pay to tell her.
rant/context:
She’s has had a hard time with a pet sitter in the past where one left her dogs alone for 13 hours and they pooped and peed in the house. The person tried to deny it but she has cameras so she knows that it happened. I would never do that, it’s cruel to do that to any animal.
I kind of want to give her a reality check bc you can’t have that many pets and expect to pay a sitter shit but still expect to get a good quality of care. I don’t want to justify what the other sitter did but I‘m not feeling like putting my full 100% in bc I’m not being paid adequately.
Also so many text!!
Sorry for the long post I just needed to get that off my chest and I looking for some advice on what to do.