answer:Two current experiences friends have had: A friend is spending the summer in NY and advertised for a sitter for her cats. She was telling me about one who seemed to hit it off so well with her shy younger cat, but was questioning a little of her past. Turns out in a world fo small coincidences I knew the young lady and was able to give her a good reference. I checked in with them last week and both arehappy with teh sitting experience so far. Another friend was off to Hawaii for a couple weeks and left her 18 month old doggie behind with a woman recommended by a close friend. My friend would give it all a B+, everything went smoothly except the dog gained weight and was fed from the table. So now her dog is being retrained to not expect treats from those at the table, and has to cut back on his feeding a bit. My friend figures next time she’ll be more clear on “don’ts” for a dog sitter. The other thing is the sitter realized the dog’s paws were tender after walking the dog in the afternoon on hot pavement, but didn’t give the dog a full walk after dark.