[Foster Mom]

We moved to NY from Western Canada a year ago. When we were in Canada a good friend of mine who also happens to be a yorkie breeder would babysit my furkids for me if we had to go out of town, worked out great. She was a great friend and she knew yorkies, and my furkids adore her and she them, win win.

My husbands mom recently got married and we are supposed to go to her wedding reception on the weekend of the 24th, and I was concerned with what to do with my little guys, my neighbor offered to watch them, but there were a couple problems with that, one she has a 3 year old and my girls are terrified of him (and he is not always the nicest kid to dogs, he kicked my little man once, and I lost my mind and spanked him (his parents do not even spank him) I told his mom when she got home I did it and why and she told him again what he had done wrong...anyhow, the other option was for her to come over to feed the girls and let them out to potty, but they would essentially be home alone all weekend with no humans except for a few minutes at a time. Neither of those options worked for me. So I was going to send my hubby and I was going to stay home with the girls, and that plan did not work for my hubby. So the neighbor volunteers at our local shelter and she knows a young girl there that she thought might do it. Well I talked to this girl, she is 17 and has been working at the shelter since she was 10 (her mom runs the shelter) so she knows all about dogs and even ones with special needs. Well she came over this evening to meet the girls and they loved her and she thought they were the greatest little dogs she had ever met. The girls would not leave her alone, they climbed all over her and showered her with kisses and she did not mind one little bit.

I think this is going to work out very well. I am confident they will be in good hands and if she has any troubles she can get my neighbor and they can call me, she also is familiar with my vet as the shelter uses him as well and he does come in if there is an emergency after hours or on weekends. She also knows my girls can be funny about eating sometimes and she knows what to do as I walked her through what I do if they get into their little eating strikes they go on at times. She is comfortable with giving them their cosequin and Pixie's thyroid pills. Of course I will leave written instructions as well. I am very relieved to have found someone who will come and stay at my house with them so they will not be alone for too long at a time, just a couple hours on Saturday when she goes to work at the shelter.

Now my question is, what is a fair price to pay her? I asked her how much she would charge and she would only say "it is up to you". I want to be fair and I want her to want to come back if I should ever need her again. We will be gone from Friday late afternoon and will be back sunday late afternoon. So basically 48 hours.

Thanks