I look at pet sitting as a mini vacation away from all the chores I have to do at home. I get the love of some terrific animals, enjoy the environment of someone else's home, get to experience a new community and walking routes and get to catch up on cable TV which I do not have at my place! Sitting for the first time for two Golden Retriever's, 2 cats and some goldfish, I thought it would be nice, with snow on the ground outside, to light a fire in the immense stone fireplace. I envy people with real working fireplaces. A friend brought over dinner and a bottle of wine. We were going to watch a movie. A fire would be nice. Got the logs, lit the starter stick. Opened the flue. Smoke started filling the house. Shut down the fire but too late... the alarm started blasting. I don't have the code!!! I'm trying to call my client from my mobile, the alarm is blaring, the dogs are barking, the doors are open to clear the smoke, and the phone starts ringing. I tell the alarm company that I'm pet sitting, there is no fire, they want the code. "PLEASE DON'T SEND THE FIREMEN" I beg. They need the code. I reach my client on the cell and tell the alarm company that I'm getting the code. I tell the alarm company the code on the phone, then go to punch in the code on the wall unit. The alarm silences. AAAAHHHH. Calm. I apologize profusely to my client. Gulp a sip of wine. Close up the doors. And relax. And then...20 minutes later... The Alarm goes off again!!! Apparently I hadn't let all the smoke out!!! But now I had the code... so I ran to box. It wasn't working!! The alarm kept going! AAGGGHHHH! Finally, off. Quiet. And so it remained, for the next 3 days. My friend and I ate dinner, watched a movie on the cable channel and took the dogs for a nice walk in the snow. Needless to say (1) I won't be lighting fires in anyone else's fireplace any time soon and (2) I always get the alarm codes now!
