Two Paws DOWN for Oh My Dog

I'm writing this email to share our terrible experience with the dog sitting service Oh My Dog, solely operated by the owner Kelly Crabb.  My hope by sending this message is to raise awareness of other dog owners so that they and their babies won't endure a similar stressful and negligent situation.  Please forward on to others who might be affected.

To begin with, I have NEVER boarded my two dogs, nor have we ever left them in the care of someone outside my family or close circle of friends.  I am extremely protective and selective of who cares for them.  Recently, my fiance and I had an out-of-town trip planned.  A family member was scheduled to come stay with the boys, but had to cancel at the last minute.  I was frantic to find someone to dogsit.  I reached out to my family and friends, but had no luck securing someone. I moved on to Plan B and asked for dog sitter recommendations.  I received one from someone I trusted who had only wonderful, encouraging things to say about Kelly.  I contacted Kelly, she was available and we scheduled a meet and greet the day before I left town.  I liked her immediately.  She was very bubbly, energetic and friendly, but most importantly, she seemed great with my two boys.  Little did I know, Kelly would turn out to be an absolute nightmare.

I gave Kelly the tour of the house with keys and instructions.  I specifically made it clear that I wanted her to stay Saturday and half the day Sunday at my house, including sleep over on Saturday evening. Otherwise, I had a friend who could simply check in on them and take them potty throughout the weekend.  She agreed to this for $75, a steep price compared to other dog sitters I looked into.  I was scheduled to leave at 9 am on Saturday.  She said she had a commitment that morning, but would go to my house afterwards at 1 pm then leave in time to make her dinner plans at 7 pm. She would return to spend the night after dinner, which she said would take just two hours.  She told me she would stay with the boys until noon or 1 on Sunday.  I felt good that the boys would be getting plenty of attention.

At 12:30 on Saturday I received a text message that she was about to head to my house.  I was driving so could not return the text, but since I had asked her to call me with an update each time she arrived at my house, I expected to hear from her soon.  By around 1:30 I had not heard from her, so I messaged her. Approx. 30 minutes went by and no word, so I messaged her again.  Another 30 minutes or so went by and I still had not heard from her, so I called and left a voicemail.  After that, I called my next door neighbor to check on the boys.  My neighbor called me back to report that she had let the boys out, but it didn't seem as if anyone had been by the house.  By 4:45 on Saturday, I had sent Kelly FOUR text messages, left TWO voicemails and even fired off an email as a last hope of contacting her.  I was very worried by this point that something was wrong.

Kelly FINALLY texted me (NOT CALLED) around 5 pm (FOUR HOURS after she was supposed to check in with me) and stated "Hey there! Sorry! I was taking a nap they are fine!"  Um, I am paying her $75 to stay at MY house to care for the boys and check in with me.  Why is she napping at HER house all afternoon, why hasn't she responded to me for so long, and what kind of update is "They are fine"?  At this point, I am extremely upset.  I told her to contact me that evening when she got to the house.

At 9:45 Saturday night I finally get a message that she is heading to the house.  What happened to the TWO hour dinner?  At about 10:15 she messages me that she is getting into bed with the boys.  At 10:45 I receive an email from my neighbor.  My neighbor had gone by the house at 10:15 and Kelly was NOT there.  My neighbor let the dogs out to potty and said they had to go really bad.  My neighbor noticed that the check I left for Kelly was missing from the table this time.  Right before my neighbor sent the email at 10:45, she had her husband check my house again and Kelly still wasn't there.  Kelly flat out lied to me that she was staying the night.  She didn't think she would get caught so I'm assuming she went by the house at some point that afternoon/evening to pick up the check and never returned.

My fiance got on the phone after my neighbor's email and called Kelly repetitively.  She called back at around 11:30, said she was at the house "on the porch" (even though at 10:15 she said she was in bed) and that she would be leaving the next day around noon or 1.  My fiance told her our neighbor would be stopping by in the morning to drop something off.  At this point, Kelly must have known we were on to her.  At 12:30 am she sent a picture of one of our dogs, without a message of any sort, almost as if trying to prove she was at our house.  She knew we knew she wasn't at the house and she knew she would be busted the next morning by our neighbor, so sometime between 11:30 and 12:30 she decided to show up at our home although apparently her plan was to never spend the night.

Sunday morning we received a message from her at around 7:30 saying she was going to church.  That was never her plan.  She verified with us twice she would not leave the boys until noon or 1.  We asked what time she would be back.  She said around 10 or 11.  At around 11 am we get a message with a picture of one of our dogs and she asks what to do with the house keys.  What happened to staying with our boys until noon or 1?  We were supposed to spend the entire Sunday out of town, but left at 9 am to get back to our dogs.  We got home and she had not left the keys.  My fiance asked where they were and she said she forgot to leave them. When she dropped them by later that afternoon, my fiance said she would not look him in the eye and was acting very uncomfortable/guilty and couldn't get away fast enough.

If I would have checked a review on Yelp, I would have never left the boys with her.  Kelly is irresponsible, untrustworthy, deceitful and a shameless liar.  I'll never know how much time she actually spent with my boys all weekend for that $75.  I hope my message is clear. If you care about your pets, DO NOT EVER CONSIDER HIRING Kelly Crabb of Oh My Dog!  It makes me sick at my stomach to think people are entrusting their animals to her.  She is an absolute fraud and should not be allowed to care for pets.