Have you ever hired a pet sitter?

If you have, how did you assess the quality of his/her job while you were away from home?

A friend and her boyfriend have pets. They went on a vacation and they hired a pet sitter. My friend also lent us their key so that we could occasionally stop by and play with their pets.

When my husband and I stopped by their house the first week, we noticed that there was little sign of the pet sitter showing up every day, although she was supposed to. I became suspicious, so I decided to count the pills one of their pets had to be given each day. The number of the pills didn't go down every day, just I suspected.

When my friends came back from their trip, we told them what we observed. They were surprised. They didn't notice. Although what we told them was only our speculation, they say they won't hire this pet sitter next time.

I didn't give a pet-sitting job much thought before. But considering the fact that nobody else is watching (except for the pets themselves!), whichever pet sitter you hire must be an honest person whom you can trust even if you are not around to watch him/her.