It's a small world!

Three years ago, I hired a new dog walker.

Our old one was amazing and wonderful and almost insanely concerned about the dogs' well-being. She was a corporate attorney who got tired of The Man, started a dog walking business, and quickly realized the dog parents are - to put it politely - more challenging than corporate clients. She went back to law but kept me as her sole client as she grew quite attached to Jack and Coco. Coco cried when she left each day...and Coco has never cried for anyone. Eventually, though, her schedule didn't allow consistent walks and she reluctantly told me to find a new walker.

I really liked the new walker, K, and she did a wonderful job. I've had walkers who start out great and then, slowly, the 30 min walk becomes 20 min becomes a quick walk around the block. Not so with K. She actually walked them for an extra 10-20 min every day and totally loved on them. (I know because I borrowed a friend's nannycam a few times...) K was awesome, the dogs were happy, and I was happy.

Who wouldn't love these two?

Then, in early 2008, she just didn't show up one day and didn't respond to my (super-nice, "are you ok?") messages - both completely out of character for her. Then she didn't show the next day. Or the next. Or respond to any messagees. By now, I was quite concerned. She was a young, pretty woman who, I knew, did a lot of jogging in a park. I even considered calling the police, but there was no mention of a missing woman in the news, so I dropped it. The weeks went on and I sent a final message asking her to return my house key and to let me know if I owed her any money. No response.

Now, I'm a pretty good dog mamma. I always pay promptly and give a nice Christmas bonus. I give a 2-hour range of when I'd like the sitter to visit...I don't care if the walker is running late and comes at 2pm instead of noon. When the sitter has to stay overnight, I leave out a bottle of wine with a note detailing where the DVDs and bubble bath are kept. K and I even maintained a non-dog related semi-friendship, meeting for coffee here and there. So I was confused. Had I done something wrong?

I began to imagine scenarios. An illicit love affair. Fled from creditors. Bipolar disorder. Joined a cult. A few months later, I was bored and did a search on her email address. Lo and behold, she was apparently a wedding planner in Central America. Whew. Not dead. Just...flaky.

Flash foward to now. I have two apartments that I am trying to rent. And K responded to a for-rent ad. No doubt it was her - she has an unusual name and it was her email address.

Guess she is back in town.