Dog sitting

It seems that, even though manyof my friends and I are beyond the age or life situation where we want to have a pet of our own (having been through everything from goldfish to great danes when our children were young), many of us are blessed with granddogs.  In the past week three of my friends have recounted recent times when they have been dog sitting for their granddogs.  for the most part these are pleasant enough experiences.  A friend will be dog sitting for his daughter's dog next week and he anticipates a positive experience.  On the other hand, another friend has a granddog who is an escape artist.  She had the whole helpful neighborhood looking for that dog.  Happily, she was found safe and sound.  I personally had a granddog escape while I was dog sitting (someone had left the back gate open) and she wasn't found until she had made it across Lima Road (a busy 4-lane highway).  All of the gates on my daughter's back yard fence now have padlocks. Very smart.  It doesn't happen often, but when I do dog sit for my three big, boxer size, granddogs, I stay at their house.  Yet another advantage of apartments living - their dogs are too large to stay here.  Awww, too bad.