I moved back to my parents house in the year 2019 when I went back to nursing school. I also dropped down my hours at work. I needed a way to passively make some money that didn’t involve a webcam. I also needed to maintain the illusion of independence by being away from my parents as much as possible. So I put out a post about being around to dogsit. Since I was starting school in the summer, I wasn’t doing much travel so I was available and it seemed like an easy way to supplement my part time income without sacrificing my study time. My sensibility paid off and I got a decent amount of requests.

Here are some of the key things I learned and follow.

1.I’m not actually a dog person. I don’t hate dogs by any means but I don’t care about stopping and petting them when they walk by or want to look at pictures of new puppies.

2. The hook is I’m responsible. In the sense I don’t have any responsibility for any children or pets of my own. I might not be overly affectionate towards pets but I will feed them, walk them, and not leave them crated for an unreasonable amount of time.

3. You have to send photographs. Usually they won’t ask because they don’t want to seem like a crazy dog person but they love when you do it.

4. I have a strict no snooping attitude. I will not open drawers but I will physically walk into every room because I play a game of House Hunters with every house.

5. I’ll eat your snacks. I mean I won’t pull out your frozen ham and make Christmas dinner. I will eat all of your chips though.

6. People think leaving detailed notes are neurotic but it’s actually the best. You’d be surprised how many people won’t tell you where the dog food is kept.

7. I’m not going to drink your booze. People are always very forthright with giving me permission to drink. At best I’ll steal one craft beer.

8. I’m going to build a nest. I don’t know what it is about other people’s homes but it’s an introvert dream where you feel like you can’t do anything or go out so you just bunker down with the best tv.

9. I probably won’t sleep in your bed. A guest bed sure, and I always feel bad because people are like “we just washed the sheets for you”. Depending on my comfort level with you, I will probably sleep on the couch.

10. I’ll ruin your streaming algorithms. Sorry if you were really into Scandal and The Great British Bake Off, Now Netflix thinks you’re a sad gay teen.