I left my pets with this lady when my husband and I moved to Italy in July. She advertised that she was a boarding facility who specialized in long term pet care for military members who were deploying or moving overseas.
The initial care was supposed to be for 1-3 months until my parents were able to pick up the animals and continue their care. I paid her a full 2 months in advance.
She was very nice when I talked to her. She said that none of the animals (2 cats, 3 paraqueets, and 2 rabbits) would be any problem. She had a lovely website www.yourpamperedpaws.com that showed pictures of animals supposedly in her care. She promised monthly pictures and regular updates. She said my animals would have their own room since she also had dogs and that would stop the dogs from being able to worry the cats and rabbits.
The first thing that should have clued me was that she wouldn't let me see where the pets were actually going to be kept. She said that was her private home and she didn't allow people back there. I should have left then.
The pictures didn't come. The updates were just - everyone is fine. The first month her camera was broken, the second month just sort of got ignored. The 3rd month I did get some pictures. The cats were held and cowering. The rabbits also held. No pictures of the birds.
By this time things had fallen through with my parents and I asked if the animals could continue to stay with her until we returned to the states (Jul 10). No problems she told me. Thats what she was there for.
I noticed at some point in Nov/Dec that the website was changed and she told me she was closing her business side and just going to the foster program through another website netpets.org. She also said she was continuing her commitment to her current fosters.
In December my requests for pictures were being ignored again.By this time I was getting really worried. Right after Christmas I started insisting on some pictures. The response I got was that the birds, didn't like the flash. The cats couldn't be found most the time and were hiding and the rabbits didn't like to be held. At this point she also told me I needed to find arrangements by Mar 15 as she was closing and going on vacation April 1.
I called a friend of mine and she agreed to take my pets. She called and made arrangements to get them. At this point my friend was told, one bird was dead and one cat was peeing all over the house, including the stovetop. I had not been informed of any of this. The cat should have been taken to the vet, and while I understand that in 5 months an animal, espcially a small bird, can die - I should have been told.
When my friend picked up my animals, one cat was soaking wet. Tanya had dumped her under the water since she was now peeing all over herself. Her quote to my friend was "he likes to piss on himself". There was no towel in the kennel and the cat was soaking (is this how a professional groomer sends an animal home in freezing weather?). The other cat was breathing heavily and shallowly. The rabbits were extremely skinny and sitting in one cage (there were 2 when I dropped them off) on paper with some pellets. The birds cage had also just been cleaned - they had no food or water and Tanya gave my friend the remains of some finch food.
Everybody was taken straight to the vets. (Countryside in Lowville). One cat was diagnosed with a severe UTI, the other cat has respiatory issues requiring steriods so far. The rabbits are underweight, upon inspection their cage was severly stained from not being cleaned, their food and water containers were actually moldy.
I would not under any circumstances leave my pets with this woman. I would not recommend anyone else do. The lady looking after my rabbits now, suspects they would have died from starvation had they been left until March. Goodness knows what would have happened to the cats. Who knows what happened to my other bird. Tanya said the birds bit her and she had to wear leather gloves to handle them - who knows what she was doing? They're paraqueets, my son has them perch on his finger and they dont even bite.
This lady should not be allowed to look after anyone's pets. If she's still got your animals then I recommend taking them out of there asap. I wouldn't use her so called grooming facilities either.
0 comments