Ever since high school--maybe even middle school, but I don't quite remember if that's accurate, so we'll go with high school--pet-sitting is something I've done to make a little extra money here and there. I also enjoy helping my friends out, and taking care of their pets is always fun for me. When my aunt called and asked if I could look after her family's house and their dog while they were on vacation for a week, my response was, naturally, yes! We worked out the details and she told me everything I'd need to know about taking care of their 12-year-old golden retriever, Sally.

It might be something to consider for readers who are still in school and need to make some money. Or, if you're already busy with two or three jobs and school, enjoy my dog pictures and little personal sentiments!

Day 1, night:

I'm happy I get to have this pretty girl all to myself for a week. She's so good!

I'm staying at my aunt's house for the week, so I'm sleeping in the guest room. My aunt offered to let me sleep in her bed, but even if it would be more comfortable, I couldn't. For a couple of (mostly personal) reasons: 1. I'd feel a little like Goldilocks, and 2. the guest bedroom has the comforter my mom made my aunt before my aunt had her first baby. It was a long time ago--that baby is almost a teenager now--but I still remember all the work she put into it, and how could I pass up the opportunity to sleep in that bed? So the guest room it was.

Day 2, morning:

I definitely had three separate nightmares about people breaking into the house. So I slept really well.

At least the bed was comfy.

Day 2, afternoon:

I set an alarm to remind myself to feed Sally at the time she usually gets food, but I did manage to remember without it. She didn't really seem interested in it though. As much love as I'm giving her, I'm sure she misses her family.

I also learned that what I thought was just a light switch in the guest room actually controls the power to two outlets, which was why my laptop wasn't charging. I felt superbly intelligent after that, but at least I only spent about five minutes being frustrated that my relatively new power cord had apparently stopped working.

Day 2, night:

Let's be real: Sanders Bumpy Cake is the only payment I need. YUM!

Day 3:

The room I'm staying in is on the second floor of the house. Sally stays in the basement. Coming from someone who grew up in a ranch-style house (read: no stairs) and who now lives in a student apartment on the first floor, I can pretty confidently say that every day is leg day while I'm here.

I made my way downstairs and tried to get Sally to go outside even though it was raining, because she hadn't been out in roughly 14 hours. She looked at my like I was dumb, then ignored me.

"You want me to go outside? In the rain? Like some kind of animal?"

Of course, after I got her to go outside, I dried her off with a paper towel, which she then tried to eat, so as much as she acts like a princess, she's still just a puppy.

Day 4:

Sally says "Good morning!"

I think I woke her up coming to check on her.

She still doesn't want to go outside. And it's not even rainy this morning--just cold!

What a princess.

Day 5, morning:

For the first time since I've been here, it hasn't been raining when I went downstairs to let Sally outside.

She actually got up and voluntarily went outside!

I looked around for a rainbow and a pot of gold or flying pigs.

At least she seemed to enjoy herself.

Day 5, afternoon:

A Mysterious Knock at the door resulted in me tiptoeing down the stairs and peeking suspiciously out the window. I didn't answer it because my aunt didn't tell me to expect anyone, and if it was a package, they would just leave it at the door and probably not notice me backward-creeping.

There was a white sedan in the driveway next to my car, and a man in a red shirt retreating back toward it. I wonder if he was actually trying to visit the person who lives next door, because he was looking over that way.

If so, oops. If not... weird.

Day 5, early evening ("prevening"?):

I have Food Network on on the upstairs TV pretty regularly: my own dogs are comforted by background noise like that so I thought Sally might like it--living with two young boys, I'm sure she's used to constant noise--and I know I get distracted more easily when it's too quiet. As I was coming back upstairs from letting Sally outside, I happened to catch an episode of Cupcake Wars featuring Mayim Bialik of "The Big Bang Theory" fame. She also has a Ph.D. in neuroscience (which makes her exponentially more awesome), and I wanted to see how she'd do on the show.

She looks like me when I'm baking cupcakes. Except I'm not wearing makeup. Or an apron. And my hair is messier. And there's usually flour everywhere.

She made it to the second round, which was pretty respectable, considering everything she made was not only fairly complex and a bit exotic, but also vegan. Applause from Alex.

Day 6:

I went to run the dishwasher this afternoon and I once again made myself feel superbly intelligent. The dishwasher has a one-minute delay after pressing the start button; I just thought I was doing something wrong and tried to figure out what that could possibly be.

It didn't help that I had just listened to a podcast in which the hosts discussed a survey that found that, evidently, about 1 in 8 millennials can't change a light bulb. I can do that, but I was kicking myself for not knowing how to operate a dishwasher by just pressing buttons. I eventually looked up the manual for it and realized that I wasn't actually doing anything wrong: I had just never encountered a dishwasher with a start delay before.

Again, I felt really smart.

On the plus side, I found this tiny little tea set while I was putting the (finally) clean glasses away. It absolutely made my day!

LOOK HOW SMALL!

So smol.

Day 7:

I made cookies for my aunt's boys--my cousins--tonight as a sweet surprise for when they get home tomorrow.

They're just the Pillsbury place-and-bake ones, but they're a guilty pleasure of mine, and hey, I'd be happy if someone made them for me when I got home from somewhere, so I figured, "why not?"

Of course, I had some for myself, but I did do the dishes afterward (by hand--not messing around with that dishwasher again, even if I know how to run it now), so I felt like I deserved some. And of course I had to taste-test them to make sure they were done.

This was definitely not me as the cookies were coming out of the oven. Nope.

Day 8, morning:

Just like Day 1, this was a kind of half-day: I wrote a note for my aunt and packed up my car. I went to say goodbye to Sally and make sure she didn't need anything, and she didn't want me to leave. She brought me her leash and jumped around and wouldn't let me go back upstairs.

I stayed a little longer, but when I finally left, she whined loud enough that I heard her from upstairs. I felt like the worst person ever.

But I promised her that her family would be back soon and told her she was a good girl one more time before I drove home.

Not every job has had me actually staying in the person's house, but they are always interesting--and fulfilling.