Many of us have service providers in our homes regularly or occasionally. They may be there for a short time and never leaved the entry way (think grocery deliveries etc). They may see all kinds of pieces of your home with house cleaning or regular handy people etc. We probably like these people but don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what their homes might be like. We also probably don’t think about all the things they might know about us. Maybe the house cleaner saw the past due bill, the plumber saw some of your meds while they were fixing the sink. They don’t rummage but it’s your home, where you live, there are things that tell people about your lives when they are in it. You may invite these people into places you would never invite others. This is true for dog walkers too.
We are often one of the first to know intimate details of people’s lives. The first to see baby stuff accumulating, or maybe an ultrasound on the fridge. We are there when someone is home sick, often seeing people at their worst. I’ve seen people crying, fresh out of the shower, excited, hopeful, hopeless.
The most poignant and painful example of this for me was when a client called, voice shaking with emotion, and told me he needed to go home because his brother had killed himself and he needed someone to care for the dogs while he was with his family. It was clear he had probably just hung up the phone with whoever told him and saying it out loud to me made it hit home in a way that it perhaps hadn’t yet. I promised him we would take care of his dogs and did my best to be kind and patient which was the literal least I could do. That conversation remains one of the most memorable and heart breaking of my life. I wanted to make it so no one ever felt like that but I couldn’t. All I could do was tell him I’d make sure his dogs were OK and ready for him when he got back. As it turns out, he found a friend that could stay with the dogs, and we don’t see those dogs anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved home to be with his family or maybe he just didn’t want to call me again.
Most people think that dog walkers work exclusively with animals but the reality is a good portion of our job is working with people. Because of our proximity to their every day life we have to have a certain amount of discretion and often compassion. Fortunately, we are well suited to this since we are animal lovers but it is one of the things that surprises people when they ask what my job is like. Things like this don’t happen every day (thank goodness!) but we are there when they do.