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| Daisy Mae, gifted to us by a friend |
My name is Allison Otero and I am, by nature, an
animal-lover…ok, that is the understatement of the century! I am plagued by an
irrational concern and obsession for all living things – except for roaches…oh,
and crickets, which you will learn about in another entry. My feelings towards
the way animals are treated often drives me to tears and I will literally think
that I should never leave the house again, watch the news again, read Facebook
again, etc. for fear that I will see or read something bad that has happened to an
animal and I will just die. Ask my husband about the call he received at work
when I ran over a squirrel. You know the sound a peacock makes? Well, mix that with the sound of a hyena being skinned alive and you are close to experiencing what he heard.
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| Big Boi, found on our porch |
Because of this crazy obsession, I am a professional pet
sitter and animal rescuer in Central Florida. I started my pet sitting business, AlleyCat's Pet Service (alleycatspetservice.com), on October 5, 2011 after being laid off for the second time from an
administrative position at a landscape construction company. They missed me so much the first time they
laid me off that they hired me again only to find they STILL didn’t have shit
for me to do…I’m convinced they hired me back for entertainment purposes. My
pet sitting business keeps me super busy and has been the demise of much of my
social life, but I LOVE it. There are so many adorable animal moments that I forget
that I am missing every holiday party that I have been invited to; the
unconditional love I receive from my client’s pets makes up for every hangover
that I could have had…and I should probably thank them for that.
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| Jackson "Jax", rescued from A Forever Home Animal Rescue aforeverhomeanimalrescue.org |
As for rescue – this I stumbled upon thanks to a VERY
pregnant mama kitty that lived on our back porch giving birth to four kittens
in our home, THEN, two weeks later finding four three-week-old kittens abandoned
in my mother-in-law’s attic. At the time we had six cats of our own and I
needed major help placing all of these kittens because we now had 15 cats in
our house. WTF??? I reached out to some wonderful people who have been in the rescue
business for a while via Facebook. Thankfully, my saviors, Linda and Vickie (or
perhaps I should curse them for dragging me into this!! Just kidding!) came to
my rescue and helped me place every single one of those babies into loving
homes. The mama (whom we call Mama – so creative) stayed here with us, bumping
our total cat count up to an embarrassing seven. Since Mama came along, my
husband and I have fostered and placed over 20 cats and kittens. Oh, one more
confession – Jackson is our dog. So, yes, we have seven cats and a dog
currently residing in our home (pictures attached). You will
hear more about Jackson than you would ever want to so his story will have its
own entry.
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| Jason, found on Friday the 13th, in the storm drain in front of our house |
My background and university studies have helped me to be
successful in my business and I am truly thankful to my parents for paying a
bazillion dollars so that I could obtain a degree in an area that would assist
me in opening and running my business. Ok, this is a complete and utter lie – I
have a degree in Speech and Language Pathology. That’s right, folks…my amazing
parents actually DID pay a bazillion dollars for what they thought would afford
me a respectable job. They dreamt of me possibly opening up my own practice,
helping poor children with stuttering problems or severe head injuries.
Instead, I spend most of my days picking up dog poop, sifting through and
harvesting cat feces and feeding live crickets to blue frogs, among other
things. Don’t get me wrong, my parents are very proud of my success, and they
let me know it all the time, but they could have probably skipped forking over
thousands of dollars to a university (Valdosta State University…go Blazers!) to
pay for a degree that I will NEVER use. I’m assuming it’s the same feeling they
had when they forked over thousands of dollars for me to marry what EVERYONE
knew (including myself but I was 23 and thought I knew what I was doing) was a total douche bag…my first husband. Sorry Mom and Dad! One day, when my pet sitting
biz is hugely successful, I will pay you back!
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| Mama, found on our porch |
So on to my blog. Although I am a pet sitter by trade, I do
have a creative side and, not to toot my own horn, have been told that I have
a way with words and I think I’m pretty hilarious (TOOT-TOOT!). The pet sitting
business is a goldmine of SUPER funny stories that I think the world would be
a happier place for knowing about. So, this blog, although heavy on pet sitting
stories and the trials and tribulations of being in this business, will largely
be about my life in general, the amazing people who I am lucky enough to run
around with, my wonderful family, my animals, rescuing animals and my husband.
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| The Dude, found on our porch |
NOTE: There WILL be grammatical errors, punctuation issues and a gross misuse of the words "who", "whom", "laying" and lying." That sentence was probably full of them. I know this.
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| Sasha, rescued from The Cat Protection Society thecatprotectionsociety.org |
I will do my best not to offend, but please keep in mind that I pick up dog shit for a living so what do you expect?
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| Bruce Wayne, found on our porch |
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