I’m curious to know—what are some of the most unusual, or even stressful incidents you’ve encountered when leaving your pet at home alone? I’d love to hear your stories and tips on what worked (or didn’t) when you had to leave your pet alone at home. I am looking forward to reading your posts and learning from your experiences!
Aaawww, poor boy 
. My boy was a mess when his older buddy passed, too. I wish I could get him a new friend, but it’s just not possible right now. Bronson ended up on anxiety meds to help. They can grieve so hard for their buddies.
Torrance said:
I’m sure this isn’t what you were thinking, but one time I came home, and my cat had turned on my Apple TV, and was watching Halloween. Loudly.
That’s funny but quite a mystery, lol. But I wonder if your cat does something random like that when you are at the house?
Randall is no longer with us. I’m ‘cat’. True purveyor of the home. There have been random things he should have paid attention to. For weeks I made ‘chche haha’ sounds. He should have paid attention to that. Daggers are on my feet. Volume was up to muffle his screams.
I don’t know if this counts? But I had crayfish and they somehow escaped the tank and were all over my house. One was on the other side of my house in the laundry room. Second, my cat was in my dresser for about an hour and I still don’t know how she got in as it was shut before I left. I couldn’t find her until I opened it. She scared the crap out of me. Not my pets, but my dad’s dogs have escaped multiple times busting out windows completely unharmed after we moved to the country. It’s an old house so the windows were old anyway and they don’t anymore but it definitely was an aggravating few months. I don’t know if there’s anything to take out of this but uh animals are bonkers.
Oh God the crayfish remind me of a story my dad told me. So he worked in a restaurant and they got a shipment of live crayfish for dinner the next day. They open the fridge the next morning, and they were EVERYWHERE! They got out and staged a rebellion by eating most of the fruit and vegetables in the walk-in fridge. They had to shut down for half a day to catch them all and fix stuff.
My lab ripped down and chewed any blinds he had access to.
Zeph said:
My lab ripped down and chewed any blinds he had access to.
Wow. Does he still do that when you are around?
Zeph said:
My lab ripped down and chewed any blinds he had access to.
Not anymore. It happened when our older dog passed. He was a mess. He has a new little buddy now and he’s very content.
@Mika
They really do.
I was unaware my tiny 8-pound cat was a serial plant killer. I had a friend who worked in a flower shop and she’d bring me any unsold plants. Well I set several up and left for the day. My cat killed all 3 of them, like uprooted them and destroyed the pot they were in. Luckily I made sure all 3 were cat safe beforehand, but I was so surprised to come home to a plant massacre. Her favorite floral snack was white roses, she was such a plant killer she even chewed the heck out of my plastic cactus plant desert-themed centerpiece!
My stepdaughter has a big beast of an orange cat named Hank. Hank is a really good boy and NEVER does ANYTHING wrong… EXCEPT for killing plants. Fortunately for Hank my husband is a plant loving, plant growing and plant giving away man. But eventually she got sick of Hank’s nonsense and started looking into ways to keep him out of her plants. In the end she found that laying down a layer of tinfoil over the dirt of her plants made it so he wouldn’t dig them out. He hated it. In fact, he hated it so much she ended up spreading it on the floor around the edges of her plant pots. He never touched them again. Might be worth trying… If he’s anything like big Hank he’ll back off! 
Forgetting to put the trash out on the deck. What an ungodly mess upon coming home from a night of partying to find trash strewn throughout the house! Ugh. We finally got wise and got a licking trash can. I’d give anything now tho, to come home to that again.
There was that one time my dog turned on the aircon and the TV while I was out. My roommates insisted it wasn’t them, then I saw him turn off the aircon. I just left the remotes on the couch and he stepped on them.
We will sometimes come home to a variety of our shoes, his toys, blankets, random ornaments, all strewn across the floor. Worried thinking he was having some serious panic when we were gone we checked the cameras. Turns out he spent a good 2 hours carefully picking certain items from around the home, finding a suitable spot, and gently placing it there in what seemed like a very strategic position to make it look like he went absolutely berserk on his own. He even nudged a few over so they didn’t look too tidy.
Misjudged how high up my dog could reach and came home to a mostly eaten bag of Hershey chocolate. Thankfully she had already thrown up most of it. The emergency vet gave me a list of symptoms to look for, but she was ok… Now chocolate is kept much higher up.
Nothing because I use a crate. Safe for them safe for me.
My dog opened my backpack like three days ago and ate half a pack of sugar-free gum and took a bottle of lotion out. Nice $2700 hospital bill.
My cat sitter cut the corners off churu treats and left them out. He ate 3 and one ER visit and an overnight stay with fluids he finally passed them. He was miserable and I’ll never let them be watched by anyone from Rover again.
Our old Patterdale suffered with separation anxiety (which we didn’t realise at the time we thought it was puppy mischief) who ever left her it was their stuff she chewed. I left her one morning & she had chewed 3 of my books, husband left her & she chewed 2 guitar tuners & a motorbike magazine. Always 3 things.