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My Services During The Pandemic

By kari, on May 30th, 2020

(Updated 16 March 2022)

Yes, I’m pet sitting during the pandemic. Established clients (families I already know) are welcome to contact me when they need me.

Please note: I’m not taking new clients because I’m not doing face-to-face interactions unless it’s a life-or-death emergency. This will be re-evaluated when Thurston County infection rates are near 0 for several months in a row. (Infection rates in each county are posted at https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/COVID19/DataDashboard#tables under “Cases, Hospitalizations, and Deaths by County”.)

Share and Tell

I want to be sure I follow your safety procedures as closely as possible. (As always.) So let me know:

  • Have you been vaccinated? This is not a requirement, I just appreciate knowing.
  • Have you been in contact with anybody who has shown symptoms or tested positive for Covid-19? If so, don’t know how we’ll proceed, but I will appreciate being armed with this information.
  • Do you have any special procedures you want me to follow if I visit your little ones during this pandemic? For example, do you want me to avoid kissing your cats even while I’m wearing a mask? I want you to feel that it’s safe to have me helping you at this time.
  • Do you have particular cleaning supplies that you want me to use and where will I find them? I’m brining my own supplies* with me now and will use those unless you tell me to use something else.
  • Do you want to arrange your travel so it is at a time when I have no other reservations? Some days I enter a few other homes. I’m following many safety procedures (see below) but if you want to truly minimize potential of cross-contamination we can discuss how to ensure that your house and my house are the only places I go while I care for your cats. Note: If you can be flexible about your travel, we can just arrange your travel to happen on dates when no other families need me anyway. If that’s the case, my fees are the same as always. However, I might have to adjust my rates for that reservation if you want me to clear my calendar of all other families during a time when I would have to turn away other clients/income. I simply can’t afford to turn down work because this pandemic has significantly impacted my income.

gloves-rubber-cleaning-prettyMy Routines

I got my third vaccine dose on 31 January 2022.

Despite that, I’m still taking extreme precautions to avoid spreading any kind of disease. I’m following stringent procedures – going above and beyond what most people are doing not only for my clients, but also for myself and my family. I’m in a high-risk group, my feline family members are at high risk, and I’m caregiving for a human family member who is clinically vulnerable.

In addition to my usual routines for sanitizing* and cleaning, I’m doing things like:

  • Avoiding meeting new clients – I’m not meeting any new clients right now in my ongoing effort to reduce human interactions. Although I’m aching for work, I won’t take risks with the safety of myself, my family, and my extended family (my clients!).
  • Wearing a mask – I wear a mask from the moment I leave my car until the moment I’m back inside my car. So far, no cats have been uneasy with me wearing a mask. Even the most timid kitties don’t even seem to notice that I’m wearing one. If someone does seem scared or cautious when I first arrive, I plan to stay at a distance with my mask off until they’re reassured that the masked person in front of them is the same ol’ Auntie Kari.
  • Wearing gloves – I wear gloves from the moment I leave my car until the moment I’m back at my car. Depending on the situation, I sometimes wear rubber cleaning gloves, sometimes nitrile gloves.
  • Washing gloved hands – I wash my hands and my gloves thoroughly before and after each visit using soap and water for 20 seconds or a hand sanitiser. I don’t want to take any germs from any home with me.
  • Disinfecting* toys before bringing them into your home – I don’t want any viruses or bacteria to hitch a rid into someone’s house.
  • Sanitizing* items and surfaces that I touched – To ensure that I leave no germs behind, on my final visit I’ll sanitizing everything I’ve touched during your trip. This includes sanitizing your darlings with the same non-toxic sanitizer* I use on myself and my own cats.
  • Sanitizing* my hands, face, and hair before and after visiting each house – I want to keep each home’s environment exactly the same as if I had never entered. I aim to carry no dangerous microbes into any building I enter.
  • Disinfecting* my clothes, purse, and goodie bag before and after visiting each house – I want to keep each home’s environment exactly the same as if I had never entered. I don’t want to take any germs from any home with me.
  • Disinfecting* checks and cash prior to touching it – I do still prefer to be paid with cash because I still use cash at the gas pump and in stores… Pop quiz! Which is more germy: cash, checks, or credit/debit cards? There is a (non-scientific, non-lab) study (done by non-researchers) that found credit cards were MORE germy than cash. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dirty-money-germs_l_5cdec311e4b09e057802bdca Wild, eh? Why hasn’t there been a scientific study of this? More info at https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/07/tech/mobile-payments-coronavirus/index.html and also https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/06/what-you-need-to-know-about-handling-cash-amid-coronavirus-spread-who.html.

Please let me know if you have any special procedures you want me to follow if I visit your little ones during this pandemic. I want you to feel that it’s safe to have me helping you at this time.

Please let me know if you have cleaning supplies that you want me to use and where I’ll find them. I’m brining my own supplies* with me now and will use those unless you tell me to use something else.

If I have any possible symptoms or learn that I’ve been exposed to the virus, I will not enter your home. Instead, I will contact my back-up sitter who will fill in for me.

* My sanitizer
I use a non-toxic antimicrobial sanitizer made from colloidal silver. I make it myself and use the same colloidal silver base antimicrobial for household cleaners, waterless lotion-based hand sanitizer, and even sometimes take it orally. (NO, it is NOT because of anything “that man” has suggested. I adhere to advice from scientists and medical experts, NOT politicians, about health issues. Yes, the stuff I use is safe enough to ingest in small quantities, although I very rarely use it internally. I’ll write more about that in another post at a later time.)

More info about coronavirus and companion animals

For more general info on how the pandemic impacts our companions and furry family members, read my post “Safety First (Covid-19 & Companion Animals)“.

Select sources
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