#that camera though

A lot of observation happened.

So, both families have two boys. One family has parents who are separated, the other divorced. In one household, the mother is the primary caregiver; in the other, it's the father.

The house in which the mother is the primary caregiver is pretty spotless, give or take a few random items scattered around the house (I've known this family practically my whole life, enough to know the mother is a bit quirky, peppy, and scatterbrained).

The family run by boys is a different story.

You'd think that when you'd be going away and leaving your pets in somebody else's care that you'd tidy up your house, stash away your belongings and lock up anything of value.

Nope, not this house.

There are clothes all over their floor, in piles but all around the hallway. And not just clothes, but stinky football jerseys, and even men's boxers. They knew specifically that a girl was going to be coming over to feed their cats, yet it didn't seem to bother them.

Alright, I guess that's a bit odd, but okay

Now the rest of the house is in dire need of being cleaned. And I don't like cleaning myself, but their house needs it. The kitchen floor should be swept of all the tracked-in mud and dirt from their football escapades, the kitchen table could look nicer if they cleared their stuff off it, and they really need to find a place to put their shoes-there are shoes EVERYWHERE.

But maybe they're just a bit too busy to clean it. Now I'm making excuses for them.

This is where it gets kind of ridiculous.

There are valuables all over the house, just left out.

One of the boys, old enough to take care of a big expensive camera, has his Canon EOS 20D (which costs about $1,000 more or less) on the very edge of the kitchen table. I nearly cried out in agony when I saw that, and then moved it to the center of the table (and then drooled because camera).

The father works with computers, and has computer monitors, towers and laptops alike all over the place. On the kitchen table, on the kitchen countertops, on the coffee table in their living room...everywhere. And these are expensive computers, too.

There are Canon Camcorders hooked up to outlets on the countertops charging. There are battery packs and memory cards for one son's camera on the table. I also have seen lens hoods and camera cables to hook up to said computers. I seriously became concerned that something happened to them because WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU GO ON VACATION AND NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR EXPENSIVE DEVICES. I called them and they said they just "didn't want to bring them" and had point-and-shoot cameras and a simple camcorder with them. Alrighty then....

What strikes me the most is that there are credit card bills and cash cards spattered all around the kitchen. Why the HELL would you leave THOSE out. And that's not the end of it. I also have come across copious amounts of money- I have seen five, ten, twenty and one dollar bills on counters and tables; I even saw a 100 dollar bill on their countertop next to the sink. Jeezus.

These people are REALLY frickin lucky that it's ME who's petsitting, and not some stranger or even a family member who might take advantage of all this.