Sighs of Relief

Last night, after several frustrating days of worry about my niece IN INDONESIA, I finally had the brilliant idea of calling my niece's home in the USA, even though I know she and her husband and sons are visiting her in-laws in Bandung this week. It was brilliant because I applied some Sherlock Holmes thinking: I know they have a dog and I know they wouldn't have taken the dog with them to INDONESIA, and therefore the chances are 50-50 that they have a dogsitter, and the chances are 50-50 that the dogsitter listens to their voicemail in addition to feeding and walking the dog, so all I risk is a phone call and in exchange I get a 25% chance of getting some info back. So I call and leave a very clear, slow message (who knows how old the dogsitter is?), including my e-mail address spelled v-e-r-y c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y and...it worked! This morning I received the following message:

"This is H the Doggie/House sitter. [Niece], [Niece's hubby], [#1 son] and [#2 son] are all doing well. I spoke with [Niece's hubby]'s family members this evening and they confirmed that everyone is safe and sound. On behalf of their family, thank you so much for your concern. I will be sure to save your phone message on the machine for them to hear when they return on the 4th of January. Have a happy and safe New Year.
Sincerely,
H the Housesitter and P the Pup"

Don't we all want that very same Doggie/House sitter for our trip anywhere? Send me your city and house/pet details and I'll ask her if she wants to sit there!