Level Three. House Sitting Lana.
Level Three – House Sitting Lana.
By Michelle Lloyd.
What was house sitting? This was New One’s question and as he had not known about anything like it before, it was a good one.
New One was sat down and it was explained to him that house sitting was a bit like being a guardian or a keeper of someone’s house while they were out of it for a temporary time. While they house sat, New One learned, that they would be looking out for their neighbour’s home and looking after the needs of their pets. The last part New One had to admit sounded quite fun. He was less eager to be involved in the first part of the agreement but he assumed that his parents would take care of that bit of the House Sitting task.
House Sitting did not sound too bad and to someone who lived for looking after pets, New One was not at all upset about being able to get in and preside over some new animal antic action.
When he had first been told about their neighbour’s going away New One had been a bit puzzled by the House Sitting question, but when he had found out what it was that they were going to be doing he could hardly wait for the Petersons to leave and he even waved them off quite happily as they went. It was then that New One turned to his parents and the house that they were going to be sitting for, he exchanged a look of eagerness with Lana and even before they went in they both had the same expression of resolve on them. They were going to be good house sitters, the most entrusted and able EVER! If there were pets to be looked after, they would do it, excitement to be had and areas to be explored then then they were the ones who were willing to do it and if there was cleaning to be done…well then Mum or Dad may need to do that bit but generally New One and Lana would be the House Sitters Extraordinaire.
Having gone down in history as the most eager House Sitters New One and Lana wasted no time. They were up the drive and in to the neighbour’s house before Dad had even had a moment to tell them what needed doing. Why bother with the boring what needs to be done, when New One and Lana were experienced enough with the objectives of exploring?
A half an hour in and House Sitting had not gone at all as expected. Lana had startled the neighbour’s pet cat so badly that he had leapt on to and clawed up the curtain rail and refused to come down. Lana had then gotten too friendly with an, at the most relaxed of times shy tortoise, who had then retreated into his well kept home and New One had managed to spill a glass of water all over the floor. It had been a bit too much for the one Dad to keep an eye on all at once and so the pair had been sent out into the garden where it was thought less damage could be done…only it was once they were outside that New One and Lana had discovered the greatest and possibly the most exciting of their finds and that was the aviary.
Birds were homed in their large and lovely habitat and that was where Lana decided that she had to make LOTS of new friends. Only the new friends seemed less than approachable and suffice to say colourful displays of displeasure were shown.
It was terrible. New One and Lana were sent back to their own home and with a head down and a tail firmly between legs they both went.
House Sitting was involved, New One’s Mum explained to him, when she had heard all about what had happened. It was a task that had to be taken with a lot of responsibility because the pets, objects and house belonged to someone else. New One claimed to understand and even Lana looked very obliging but it was decided that they should probably not go back into the neighbour’s house and that Mum or Dad would do all the House Sitting tasks.
New One thought it was unfair. Lana was not at all fine about it. Both of them thought that they were capable and able to do a bit of House Sitting. The first time had been exactly that, a first time, and they could not be expected to get it right the first time could they?
That was why come evening New One and Lana decided that they would go into the neighbour’s house and show everyone that they could do House Sitting and do it well.
It was done with the most admirable of intentions but when New One and Lana sneaked out of their own house, down the path and into the neighbour’s house all did not go well. It started off with the neighbour’s cat being alerted to them getting in with the key that New One’s Dad had left out at home. The cat, frantic at seeing Lana approaching the house from out of the window, decided that getting up high was the only means of escape. Only this time getting up high meant climbing the table and knocking off statues, picture frames and much loved ornaments as he went. The mayhem started before New One and Lana had even got inside the door because when they did something happened that neither of them had thought of and that was the alarm went off.
When New One had been there before it had been with his Dad, who had unbeknown to him turned off the intruder alarm. New One and Lana had been too busy exploring and startling the animals, all be it inadvertently, to notice. As the alarm howled and let everyone know of their being in the house, the poor cat started doing a bit of an OMG paw pat sliding all over the table top frantic shuffle and more antiques got dumped rather clumsily on to the tiled floor. It did not take long at all before Dad and Mum came hurrying to the rescue.
New One, Lana, Mum and Dad all made it into the neighbour’s house where promptly the alarm was silenced with the appropriate code and a call was put into security to tell them everything was as it should be. New One and Lana then got the looks from Mum and Dad to tell them that were in a lot of trouble!
The cat had to be given a lot of affection and quite a few treats to get him back to some semblance of normality, the tortoise who had retreated into his home and in his slow but significant haste left a bit of a panic poo trail had to be given reassurance and all this was after it was explained to New One and Lana that they would be punished for breaking into the neighbour’s house. New One and Lana had to sit through quite a lecture and only after it was over could they say how sorry they both were. Neither of them had meant to cause any distress to the pets and they both saw the damage that they had done. Everything would have to be put back and the objects that had to be bought would come out of New One’s allowance. It was all too sad for New One and as he turned to Lana to tell her that he thought House Sitting was not for them he saw something good that may have come out of it all as she and the neighbour’s cat looked to be taking the first break in their little cat on dog war. The two had been giving each other significant looks all through the lecture New One had sat through and with the reassurance of Mum and Dad being there the cat had even pawed over to be nearer to Lana, or at least nearer to her tantalising tail. As New One watched there were definite signs of approval from the cat and no longer fleeing the feline befriended Lana. It seemed that House Sitting had for Lana not been too bad a doggy experience.