With permission to cross-post I give you a real pet hero that went above and beyond the call of duty.

This is a situation this last week that happened to a fellow pet sitter. She was pet sitting three cats for a client that was going out of town on vacation for the holiday. The pet sitters initial visit with the client meant getting all the right documentation down. Where crates are kept, vets address and phone number, cat’s favorite hideouts, fire extinguishers, etc. (As professionals we take our jobs seriously).

The day before the cat sit, the client informed her she had hired a painting crew to remove lead paint from the outside of her house using an environmentally safe method. The environmentally safe method they were using? Propane torches to heat the paint then scrape it off. (yes, this is an accepted practice).

During her second visit as she was attempting to bring one shy cat out of her shell, when suddenly someone started banging on the door. As she opened the door all she could see was a cascade of water pouring over the front entry way, seeing no one she shut the door, but then came the banging on a side door, the cats by then had scattered and were in hiding. She opened the side door and one of the painters was yelling that the house was on fire, to get out and call 911.

As she was dialing 911, she was also focused on getting the three cats out as well. The first cat she put into his carrier. But the other two were no where to be found. Smoke started to fill the house and she found out that an attic fan was pulling the fire into the house, so she needed to go into the basement and shut off all power.

Because she had the client fill out a questioner on where the breaker box and cat carriers were, she was able to locate everything. The fire department arrived by then and took over the situation. As she could not get to the other two cats, she was able to give the carriers to the fire department and tell them the exact location where the cats would be hiding. The Portland fire department did a wonderful job of rescuing the two remaining cats.

After securing the safety of all three cats, the pet sitter then called the owner informing her of the situation. In her own words, “ As I see it, after safeguarding all three cats, my job as a
professional at this point was to try to help safeguard my client’s
possessions, then help the fire department figure out how it happened, and then answer any questions they had.”

Through out this ordeal, which took over 4.5 hours, she was in constant contact with the owner, taking notes, working with the client’s handyman and a hiring disaster recovery specialist, (by consent of the owner), recovering personal items, and taking the time to go to a store, buy all new cat products and taking the cats to the owners friend for safe keeping and giving the cats extra love.

To give recognition where it’s due here is our hero for the year:

*Sherry Hasslacher, owner of Sherry’s House Pet Sitting & Dog Walking