‘It’s not a safe place’: Woman says Rover dog sitter gave their dogs away to someone else

Photo by@mckenzieleighc/TikTok

In the past few years, dogsitting apps have become a popular way for dog owners to have their pets taken care of while they’re away.

That said, dog owners haven’t always had the most positive experiences with these apps. For example, one user claimed that someone she hired off of a dogsitting app lost her dog, while another said she caught a dogsitter lying about how much time they spent with the animal.

Currently, a TikTok user is facing criticism for her app usage after posting a chilling tale about her experience with a dog sitter.

How a Rover experience ended in lies and 2 lost dogs

In a collection of multiple videos and a single video that encapsulates all the information available, TikTok user McKenzie Leigh Comfort (@mckenzieleighc) shares her terrifying ordeal with the well-known pet-sitting app Rover.

Comfort recounts that she and her partner had been utilizing Rover for a couple of months, with their experiences ranging from neutral to favorable.

By the end of August, Comfort mentioned that her family had extensive travel plans, and her daughter was recuperating from an operation that made her extremely sensitive to noise. Consequently, Comfort opted to hire Rover to look after her dogs for approximately three weeks.

Shortly after making this decision, Comfort started getting pictures of her dogs from the caregiver, suggesting that all was well. However, by the third week, the situation had drastically changed.

“We stopped getting photos, and they were still communicating with us every day,” Comfort recalls. “But we would ask them, ‘We want to see the dogs. We want to make sure that they’re good,’ and they kept giving us excuses of, ‘Oh, I’m just not home yet’—blah, blah, blah.”

What did the Rover sitter do with their dogs?

When the return day finally came, Comfort says she received a message that baffled her.

“We get the most insane text message from this individual from the Rover app that says something like this: ‘Congratulations. I just dropped your dogs off at their new home. It’s a seven-acre property. The owner is a 55-year-old cancer survivor. They’re going to be so happy. You guys are making the right decision,’” Comfort says.

In a state of panic, Comfort inquired about the individual's conversation, making it clear that she had not requested her dogs to be relocated. She sought more information regarding the location where the dogs were currently staying. The responses provided by the caregiver were contradictory, leading her to contact Rover for help.

“We contact Rover, we tell them what’s happening, and they tell us, immediately, ‘Oh, this person is already banned from the app, and there’s an active open police investigation with them already. So when you guys call the police, they’re already going to have a file on this person. Go ahead and call them right now,’” Comfort states.

Following that, Comfort reached out to the authorities, offering a statement. Subsequently, she started participating in groups for missing dogs in hopes of finding her lost pets.

Fortunately, a person had shared photos of one of her dogs, which had been discovered on the sidewalk in Scottsdale, Arizona. Comfort reached out to the individual sharing the photos and managed to find both of her dogs, despite them having been "exploring Scottsdale in the 110-degree heat for three days."

Not an isolated incident

In conversations on Facebook, Comfort has concluded that the caregivers, identified as Gina and Gabe, are supposedly recognized on Rover and within the local community for their history of losing dogs. It appears that individuals have been allowing them to continue this behavior across various platforms and websites.

Comfort speculates that the caregivers had actually lost their dogs five days earlier and then fabricated a narrative about finding new homes for them as a bizarre way to deal with the issue.

“I would not recommend Rover. I would not recommend Wag. I would definitely recommend, if you’re a sitter or a walker on those sites, to start building your own clientele,” she concludes. “We have the dogs—they’re home, they’re safe, they’re happy. But watch out out there, because people are crazy.”

Commenters weigh in

In the comments section, users shared their own experiences with dogsitting apps like Rover.

“I quit using Rover after my dog got a horrible gash to her neck that cost 3k+ in vet bills and the sitter couldn’t tell us what happened,” wrote a user.

“My rover sitter left my dog in a crate for over 24 hours. Would not let me get my dog the day we communicated a pickup (cause she wasn’t there and out of town),” added another. “I could hear my dog barking.”

“Our Rover sitter never showed up after her 1st visit and our dog was unfed and outside all night. Rover had no answers or backup plan to help,” wrote a third. “Luckily we had a family friend assist us.”