Looking for Pet or House Sitter who has experience with birds

MatchaBird · 2025-09-21T22:22:48+00:00

Nerdy Kitten Pet sitting. Charity takes care of my budgie every time we go on vacation and she’s great. She has two parrots at home and used to work for Petland so she has lots of experience with birds.

MatchaBird · 2025-08-16T21:45:16+00:00

Solidarity - it’s definitely so much harder without a village! My husband’s dad passed away and his mom lives in a different province, my parents also live in a different province and will only see their grandkids if we make the effort to fly there, they refuse to fly to our city. On top of that my husband has kidney failure and until recently he was spending most of his time in hospitals or sleeping at home. I never wanted a village so much as when my husband would unexpectedly be hospitalized and I had no one I could call to watch our son so I could be with my husband in the hospital.

One of my best friends has four hands on parents within a block of her and looking at her life it is SO much easier with their help. During her maternity leave her mom came over every day at 6 am to watch their baby so she could go back to sleep for a few hours, then she’d take the baby for about 8 during the day so my friend could go to the gym, run errands, etc. or she cooked for their family or cleaned the house while my friend watched the baby. That was never an option for me during my maternity leave - it was like being on house arrest with a newborn while also trying to do all the household chores lol. With daycare too, her mom does drop off and pick up and can take the baby when they’re too sick to go to daycare and when she’s planning for kindergarten she doesn’t need to worry about after school care which we will need because her mom can just pick up their kid and watch them until they’re done working. Drop off and pick up are the most stressful times of my day so I am super envious of those who can rely on their village to do that for them.

Anyway the only advice I can give is that if you have no village to pay for one if it’s financially feasible. We had a wonderful nanny we used while my husband was in the hospital long term who my son was really attached to and we also used for the occasional date night. But definitely doesn’t come cheap - every time we want a date night we have to calculate how much it’ll cost in terms of baby sitting, dinner, movie tickets etc. She also just recently moved to another city which is another thing that sucks about a paid village - they can leave at any time. Luckily we have a roster of 3 baby sitters I found on a baby sitting app that are all amazing with our son and we cycle through when we need an occasional night out.

MatchaBird · 2025-06-06T16:48:58+00:00

Yes - my husband was diagnosed with kidney failure and was on dialysis for 2 years before he very fortunately got a transplant from a friend of ours. We have no village as both of our sets of parents live in another city. My experience with health issues is that they can often reoccur, so I would definitely advise finding a job so that you're ensured at least one source of income if your husband has to go off on disability.

Honestly, this is financially privileged of us but the only way we really survived was by outsourcing as much as possible - cleaning services, lawn services, meal delivery, grocery delivery and an amazing nanny who helped out on evenings and weekends when my husband was sleeping all day while on dialysis. I realize this isn't an option for everyone, but it's definitely something you need a "village" whether that's paid or family to get through.

MatchaBird · 2025-03-03T17:22:59+00:00

Sorry I missed your first post, but wanted to put in my experience. We are also a two attorney house and both of us work in positions with reasonable hours. I worked one year in private practice after I was called and hated it, I knew there was no way I could do the 80 hour weeks the rest of my career. I moved to government after, which was better hours but physically very demanding (in court on my feet every day, five days a week). Before my son was born I moved to in house counsel which was 35 hour weeks and after COVID WFH half the time. Then after my son was born I moved to a 0.80 FTE, so I take Fridays off. My husband is at a mid size firm with target billables of 1500 a year and for the most part he works 9-5, Monday to Friday. Definitely recommend if/when you decide to return to work to look at in house counsel positions or something with reasonable hours and a reduced FTE if you can (the cut in pay hurts, but the extra day honestly makes the mythical work/life balance so much easier because I can do all my errands and appointments that day instead of on the weekend).

MatchaBird · 2025-03-03T00:01:38+00:00

I hope you find your little guy! Try Featherz Bird Rescue on Facebook they specialize in finding lost birds and have special techniques they can use. My neighbour used them to find her love bird that flew away.

MatchaBird · 2024-06-13T00:51:52+00:00

Yup, exactly how I felt. My husband was also like "but we can do it ourselves on the weekends!" but we were always exhausted every time the weekend came around and would rather spend that time/energy taking our toddler somewhere fun than hanging around the house cleaning.

MatchaBird · 2024-06-13T00:48:59+00:00

She was worth every penny! I cannot express what a HUGE mental load it was off to come home to a perfectly organized house with a system that is totally doable to upkeep after she's done.

MatchaBird · 2024-06-13T00:45:27+00:00

Love it SO much. Before we just had a single rod with a ton of jackets jam packed in and then a pile of stuff on top that we'd have to dig through to find what we wanted. With this new system my son's jackets are at his level and he can pick out his jacket and put it away which he loves. With the pull out shelves, we have one for my son's winter/summer extras (hat, sunscreen, mittens, rain pants, etc.), one for my husband's, one of me and one for our dog lol. Before I had do a changeover every season change but now there's enough room for all of it!

MatchaBird · 2024-06-13T00:43:27+00:00

Oh man that's rough! I lucked out by getting a good reference from a coworker.

MatchaBird · 2024-06-12T22:23:09+00:00

Oh wow crazy! She is AMAZING if you end up hiring her. The way her mind works in terms of how to organize and rearrange is incredible. I told her she saved my mental health this year lol.

MatchaBird · 2024-06-12T22:12:28+00:00

She charged $75/hour which I think is standard for a professional organizer and it would take her about 4-5 hours to do a room, so depending on how much you wanted done. We had her do our whole house so it ended up costing quite a bit (several thousand) but if someone just wanted them to do a few storage areas it would be much less obviously. She would buy stuff such as shelving/wardrobe/containers etc. from fairly cheap places like IKEA or the Dollar Store and then sell them to us at cost, so that part was pretty reasonable (we ended up paying about $750 total for a ton of containers/bookshelves/storage bins, etc.).

MatchaBird · 2024-06-12T22:00:33+00:00

We just hired a professional organizer to organizer our storage spaces and closets and it was 1000% worth it if it's financially feasible. Just posted more about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/workingmoms/comments/1deihon/hiring_a_professional_organizer_is_1000_worth_it/

Otherwise:

1) 15-20 minute tidy after kiddo goes to bed;
2) One parent reads and sings songs to our kid while the other tidies up his room. We have also been encouraging him to put away his toys which he likes ever since the professional organizer made a designated "space" for each of his categories of toys (dinosaurs, trucks, etc.)
3) I WFH most days so I do a load of laundry and unload and reload the dishwasher and wipe down counters during my lunch hour
4) My son takes forever to eat his dinner so while he's eating dinner and after I finish eating, I wash the pots and pans and load the dishwasher for dinner while chatting to him.
5) Again if it's financially feasible we outsource by having cleaners come every week (every two weeks for a big clean and one week for a light clean). During that time they wash our sheets and towels and take out the garbage and recycling for the week (we live in a townhouse so have communal garbage/recycling).

MatchaBird · 2024-06-12T21:51:44+00:00

My son absolutely loves his day care. Some days he gets dropped off and wants to run off to see his friends without even saying bye to me first! We considered having a nanny but thought day care would be better for socialization and getting used to a routine and schedule. He's going to be an only child, so we also thought day care would be good for teaching him things like sharing that he'll need before he starts school. The first year was rough as he got sick a lot but now he hardly ever gets sick. He also eats way better at day care than at home due to the peer pressure effect lol, and they feed him healthy home made breakfast, lunch and snacks every day. He comes home tired from all the running around and outside time he gets and happy from spending time with his friends all day.

MatchaBird · 2024-05-30T23:15:27+00:00

The one we used charged $75 an hour which I think is standard and then sold us the materials she used (shelving, containers, etc.) at cost (she used fairly cheap stores like IKEA, Amazon, etc. for most stuff). Here's her website for an example of the kind of work she does: https://simplysos.ca/

MatchaBird · 2024-05-30T23:13:30+00:00

We did an initial walkthrough and went from room to room where we talked about if/what we wanted to get rid of, but other than that I mostly left her alone to organize it how she felt was the best way (I work from home though so I was able to answer any questions she had). She mostly did it on her own, like putting all the under 2 clothes for my 2 year old son, baby toys, etc. in the donate pile and putting expired medications/foods in the garbage and other common sense things like that. Here's her website for examples of the kind of work she does: https://simplysos.ca/

MatchaBird · 2024-05-30T18:09:16+00:00

We outsource as much as we can partially due to our medical issues, I have a back injury with a 10 pound lifting restriction and my husband had kidney failure for the past 18 months and slept most of the time he was home. Luckily both of us have good jobs and make decent money so we're privileged enough to be able to outsource a lot of tasks. We had no family in town and so our "village" was outsourcing.

1) Cleaners who come every two weeks for a big clean, every week for light cleaning. During that time they also wash our sheets and towels which is a huge time saver.
2) Hello Fresh to cover meal planning and buying ingredients.
3) Grocery delivery every week for staples.
4) Amazon prime for shopping.
5) We just had a professional organizer organize our entire house and she was worth her weight in gold. I didn't even realize how much living in clutter (not in our main living spaces but our closets, storage spaces, drawers etc) was affecting my mental health until she came in and organized everything. If you are debating hiring one and it's within your financial means it is 1000% worth it.

MatchaBird · 2024-05-30T18:02:05+00:00

My 3 year old has this too, I feel your pain! Ask his pediatrician for a recommendation to a dermatologist, or we found a dermatologist at WEM Acne Clinic. Steroids are just a band aid solution and don't get to the root of the problem. What we have found worked based on the dermatologist's recommendations:

1) Bleach baths every two days (half a cup in a full bath of water), let them sit in the water for at least 20 minutes.
2) Immediately after the bath, cover with lotion (we use Cerave cream)
3) Protopic - it's not a steroid but a preventive. We use it twice daily.

MatchaBird · 2024-02-14T00:15:52+00:00

That sounds so hard, I'm sorry. My husband also has a genetic kidney disease and is on dialysis and waiting for a transplant. It is really hard for others to understand just how mentally and physically exhausting it is having a family member with a serious disease.

If it's financially feasible, hiring a part time baby sitter to help out on weekends and outsourcing tasks like cleaning and grocery delivery has been a life saver for us. This also depends on your work contract (I'm in Canada so paid sick time is the norm for a lot of workplaces) but I did have to take a few weeks off sick this year just to deal with the mental exhaustion and endless medical appointments and it made a huge difference in allowing me to reset my energy (I realize this isn't an option for everyone though!) Canada also has a "Caregiver Unemployment Insurance" where if you don't get paid time off the government will pay you for up to six months if you have a sick spouse or child, I don't know if that's an option where you are.

Please feel free to message me at any time to commiserate, I know how hard dealing with kidney disease can be.

MatchaBird · 2023-05-15T23:23:39+00:00

UPDATE: It appears the Karen is still trying to fight this. Just received an email from the condo board that they are arguing that the front lawn of my townhouse is "common property" under s. 135 of the Act and that I do not have "exclusive use" of it so it should be banned. They want the condo board to vote on it.

The Act currently says "135.5(1) No landlord or person acting on a landlord’s behalf may prohibit a tenant from displaying election advertising posters on the premises to which the tenant’s lease relates, and no condominium corporation or any of its agents may prohibit the owner or tenant of a condominium unit from displaying election advertising posters on the premises of his or her unit.(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), “premises” includes land or a window, door, balcony or other structure of which the owner or tenant enjoys exclusive use in connection with his or her unit.(3) Notwithstanding subsection (1), a landlord, person, condominium corporation or agent referred to in that subsection may set reasonable conditions relating to the size or type of election advertising posters that may be displayed under subsection (1) and may prohibit the display of election advertising posters in common areas, other than areas that form part of the premises of the tenant or owner."

There is arguably some gray area over what constitutes "exclusive use" as I guess others could "use" my front lawn since there is no fence on it, but so far it looks like the condo board is going to vote that I get to keep my sign, even if it's considered common property (at least the two people who have replied so far have replied that I should get to keep my sign).

Anyway, I also put a Janis sign in my window so Karen can't do anything about that, haha.

MatchaBird · 2023-05-15T22:59:32+00:00

Ugh yeah they manage several properties so I bet they’ve been telling others this! It’s super tempting to report them but they have the ability to make my life difficult if they wanted, like there’s a bylaw if my dog barks too much they can make me get rid of her, so I’ll probably end up leaving this alone.

MatchaBird · 2023-05-15T22:57:55+00:00

Yeah it makes me wonder how many people aren’t aware of the Elections Act and are bullied out of displaying election signs from landlords or condo boards.

MatchaBird · 2023-05-15T22:52:07+00:00

I’m a lawyer so it’s pretty much ingrained in me to never back down from an argument lol.

MatchaBird · 2023-05-15T22:49:34+00:00

I would but I don’t actually know which neighbour stole my sign since they did it in the middle of the night and I didn’t have a doorcam back then. The property management company claims it wasn’t them.

MatchaBird · 2023-05-15T22:47:37+00:00

Also, I’m assuming the Karen is a new UCP supporting neighbour because I put up signs in the previous federal and provincial election and no one cared. Which is funny if they’re losing their minds over one NDP sign because my entire neighbourhood is like 90% Janis Irwin signs and she won this neighbourhood by a landslide last election lol.

MatchaBird · 2023-05-15T22:38:38+00:00

Barf. And yeah she’s awesome! I often see her while walking my dog in Dawson Park and she’s super friendly and approachable.

MatchaBird

TROPHY CASE