A UK mum has issued a warning for holidaying pet owners after her vacation was left in ruins when her family dog died after a neglectful dogsitter lied about being licensed.
Aesthetician Lauren Hauxwell, 36, and her daughter Myah, nine, from Mansfield, Nottingham went on a £1,750 holiday to Turkey for four days, until they received a devastating text message from their highly recommended dog sitter, that their healthy six-month-old Samoyed puppy, Boo, had died due to a gastroenteritis infection.
The family bought the puppy a week after Myah, who suffers from severe microphthalmia and has had a series of surgeries, returned to the UK from having a bionic eye made in America.
As soon as the family found out they wanted to book the next flight home, but the extra £400 was too expensive for them. After spending the remaining two days of their holiday trying to comprehend their loss, they took the three-and-a-half-hour flight home.
The family bought the puppy for Myah after she returned from having a bionic eye made in the US (mediadrumimages / @LaurenHauxwell)
Boo pictured on carpet (mediadrumimages / @LaurenHauxwell)Incredibly, the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in Austria, after a fellow passenger had anaphylactic shock due to a nut allergy. Lauren and another passenger were trained in anaphylaxis CPR and helped revive the woman who lost her pulse for four minutes.
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Upon returning to the UK, just two hours delayed after having the emergency landing, Lauren struggled to comprehend how their loss could have happened. Lauren spoke to her vet and to her dismay, she discovered that the dog sitter had lied to her on multiple occasions.
She was shocked to find out the report from the business owner to the vet did not align with the messages she had been sending Lauren, with inconsistencies in the timeline of her dog's death, as well as the biggest shock that the dog sitter was in fact unlicensed. The vet did confirm the dog died of a gastroenteritis infection.
The horror message they received (mediadrumimages / @LaurenHauxwell)
Letter from the vet regarding Boo's post-mortem (mediadrumimages / @LaurenHauxwell)Lauren said that she would never have left her puppy with an unlicensed carer if she had known and is raising awareness to prevent the same thing from happening to another dog. "I had not used this particular dogsitter before, as I have trusted dog boarders I've previously gone to and on occasions asked my friends to look after my dog", said Lauren. "However, as the holiday was a last-minute trip for myself and my daughter, those options weren't available, so I reached out for recommendations and this one was highly recommended by people online."
Lauren explained how she received the dreaded message from the dog sitter, that no dog owner would want to receive. Lauren said: "I was messaging the owner at around 6pm UK time, just asking her to play some voice notes of myself and Myah to Boo, so she didn't forget who we were as she was just a puppy.
Proof that the dogsitter was unlicensed (mediadrumimages / @LaurenHauxwell)
Myah with an air steward manager on their flight (mediadrumimages / @LaurenHauxwell)"To which the owner responded at 6pm saying that she's absolutely fine and she's starting to use her voice and barking. I was absolutely beside myself in shock when she messaged me at 3am UK time saying that Boo is very poorly, when the day before, she said that she was absolutely fine. It turns out she wasn't very poorly either, as I found out later that by this point Boo was already dead and cold upon arrival at the vet. There was nothing the vet could do."
Lauren still had two days left of her holiday with Myah until they received their flight home, knowing they'd be met with loss. When returning home, Lauren tried to make sense of her own loss and spoke to the vet, putting together the timeline of Boo's death and found holes in the dog sitter's stories.
Myah during the last two days of the holiday (mediadrumimages / @LaurenHauxwell)She added: "There were also inconsistencies in the timing the dogsitter was giving me while I was on holiday and those she was giving to the vet. I later found out that the owner had told the vet, who took in the puppy after Boo became ill, that Boo started being sick and having diarrhoea by 4.30pm. Yet at 6pm the dogsitter texted me to tell me she was doing fine.
"The vets concur with me that the timelines don't add up. I believe she was on her own. Why did she leave her six hours before seeking any medical advice or informing us?"
They desperately wanted to get the next flight home but the additional £400 was too much for them (mediadrumimages / @LaurenHauxwell)Lauren said that herself and Myah are still traumatised from the death of their dog and have now cremated the puppy. "Boo has been cremated and we have a little stand for our dog to keep her memory with us", said Lauren. "The owner has no remorse and accountability. It was Myah's dog, it was for her after getting through the trauma she's been through with getting her bionic eye, travelling so much and moving on from that, but now her dog's gone."
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