Layla

I've waited a day to write this, to give myself the time to think about what I want to say. Firstly, Layla is a lovely girl. I don't doubt her good intentions and love of animals, but actioning them isn't a skill. We had Layla stay for a week whilst we were on holiday. We have 2 senior cats, 1 young adult cat and a kitten. All seemed well until we got back. Firstly, the kitchen was covered in cat litter. When I say covered, I mean disgusting. My partner literally put the suitcases in the door, said hello to our cats, and spent the next 2 hours cleaning! The fridge was covered in spilt, red alcohol, and the bathroom floor had soaking, wet towels that were not intended for guest use, a dirty brown stain in our bath and a used razor on the bath. The hob was filthy. The downstairs floors needed a good vacuum and mopping. Even our kitchen cupboards were wet because of dishes being placed in there still wet. The dishwasher was too full for the dishes in there to be clean, and we had to put it on twice more and separate the load. I'd sent a comprehensive 'how to' list to Layla before she came, and we'd had her visit. The list was ignored. Our cats are spoiled. Not everyone has the same standards, but we always have bowls of dry food to suit each cat and their ages. On our return, there were 3 bowls of kitten food out and 4 bowls of senior. No food that our Maine Coon eats and he's clearly underweight after just a week because his food was nowhere to be found. The kitten pouch food was almost gone, and obviously, all that was used to feed them all. We also found a half-used tin on the side that we'd used for the kitten the day we left. It was still there and covered in mould when we got back. The biscuit bowls were dirty and had clearly had wet food in there at some point, and then had biscuits dumped in after. We keep about 15 stainless steel bowls so when some are in the dishwasher, the rest can be cleaned. There is no need to use dirty bowls at all. We were told that the litter trays were cleaned on the morning of the day we arrived home. Judging by the amount of scooping we had to do today, they were not done at all or done improperly. We use clumping litter. The upstairs litter tray had small lumps of pee as the bigger lumps had very obviously chopped up rather than scooped. We had plenty of litter, so why the need to spread around what was in the litter box? We have 2 cat water fountains. The upstairs one was almost dry. The cats were also dishevelled and had knots in their hair. I had told Layla where to find the brushes. They haven't been used. We were in contact via WhatsApp the whole time we were away, so zero excuses can be given as to how things went so wrong. I can't even begin to explain how hurt, upset, and angry we are. It feels like our home had been used as a hostel or rental that happened to have cats in it rather than our home, with our beloved pets that should have been looked after. It seems that we paid for our cats to be unhappy and our home trashed. How did we do this to our animals? Holiday over, and guilt fully in play now. 😔 I also feel terrible for needing to write this awful review, but it had to be an honest one. Layla really is a lovely person, but her young age and inexperience are very obvious.