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My wife and I have been in need of a real vacation (thinking a week, or so, in Hawaii)
this year. Since a trusted friend, who has looked after our cats over a 2 decade
period, is now living an hour away, we began looking for a professional pet sitter.
We interviewed a, somewhat local, lady who had been doing petsitting for several
years.
On the first meeting she spent an hour with us, no charge, discussing TK's
special needs. Particularly the Diltiazem twice a day. She said she was good
at giving pets a pill. She seemed nice, pleasant, and caring.
I showed her how TK gets "pilled". We get his food out of the pantry, get his
1/2 pill, pat the stool in the kitchen saying "Time to feed the Kitty". TK jumps
up on the stool and waits to have the pill popped in his mouth. He then gets
dinner. He's a REAL good boy about that.
So she stood next to me as I gave him his pill and it went well even though he
was nervous about the stranger in the room.
We scheduled a supervised visit with the sitter for a week later so she could
try "pilling" him.
I went through the routine with her, again, but after I coaxed him up on the stool,
she gave him his pill and fed him. It went fairly well.
We scheduled another visit where we would just stand off to the side and
let her go through the whole routine. We also told her that, in consideration of
TK's special needs and quirky nature, we wanted to pay her $20/visit instead
of the $15/visit that she normally charged.
The next visit started out OK. TK was becoming somewhat used to her and
only hid for a couple minutes when she came in the door. It was time for his
pill and the plan was that I was going to stand in the kitchen with them as she
went through the "pilling" routine. We reviewed the routine with her, again.
She got the food and pill out of the pantry. Then I had to remind her that we
wanted her to wash her hands before pilling him.
TK followed into the kitchen, knowing that it was dinner time, and she patted
the stool. Being a little nervous about the change in routine, TK did little circles
around the stool but wouldn't jump up. Then I started seeing disturbing behavior
in the sitter. She started getting louder, and LOuder, and LOUDer, and LOUDER
while talking to him. The wrong thing to do with a jumpy ex-feral (warning #1).
Then she started telling me that we should just be more forceful with him
because this is "his game" (warning #2). After about 10 minutes of this I
decided that I should coax him up on the stool, back off, and let her handle it.
TK was still a little nervous from being yelled at, but he jumped up on the stool.
We had told her, several times, that he does no tolerate being held and to
just open his mouth and pop the pill in. So what does she do.....wrap her
arms around him to restrain him (warning #3).
So TK squirms his way out of her arms and goes to jump off the stool. Then
she grabs him in mid-jump and is standing there holding him in the air by
his front legs. Then she looks at me, goes "OH!" and lowers him to the floor.
Luckily, TK's unhurt, but there's no way I'd ever leave him in her care.
Then she tell me I should really be just grabbing him by the scruff of the neck,
pushing him down to the floor, and pushing the pill in his mouth because I
let him control me. "OK, bitch. You're out of here" I thought to myself.
Seeing how agitated she was becoming, I told her "He's a little nervous,
today, we better let him settle down and try another day". I really just wanted
to get her the f**k out the door without her creating a "scene". If you were
there you would have seen a woman becoming unglued.
She ignores me and starts yelling at TK, who is now hiding under the
dining room table, to come to her. She's practically screaming at him.
"I'll give him his pill" I said, as I tried to grab him from under the table. There's
no way he was going to allow that and he went running off.
"We're done, today", I said (rather forcefully) as I shoved $20 in her hand
and crowded her toward the door. My wife, who had been watching this from
the den, joined us in the kitchen and blocked her from heading back away
from the door.
As we were moving her to the door, she was telling us that we didn't know
anything about handling animals, TK was in control, and we need to
change the way we were dealing with him.
Finally, we got her out the door and watched, with relief, as she got in her
car and drove off.
"What a Whacko!", my wife said, "How did you keep yourself from throwing
her out a window".
Obviously, she wasn't going to be our petsitter.

I guess she had talked to a friend that evening who told her to get us to
use "pill pockets".
We got the following e-mail from her:
(snip)
"there is a product called "pill pockets" that is available from a vet (possibly otc but she wasn't sure) that a couple of her clients use to give meds to their cats. it resembles a tender vittle and comes in a couple of the ususal cat yummy flavors. you just put the pill inside and squish it together and feed it to the cat. "
(snip)
" if you are willing to try this method let me know. i think i am going to cancel our friday appt. until we can come up with something that i feel sure will work for me. i think it would create to much uncertainty on my part to go in and have to pill tk the way we were trying yesterday. it's too much his game! if you are willing to try the pill pockets call your vet, explain the situation and see if you can get a prescription for them if they require one. if you get them we can go from there. then maybe we can "train" him to take his pill this way together. if he likes them it would be so much quicker and easier for everyone. also if i were to have to stay for an hour or so to get him pilled if you and (Wife) were away i would have to charge you for an hour of my time which would come to $30 as each visit is $15 and is 20-30 mins. "

Keep in mind, we had told her we'd pay her $20/visit or more if it took more time.

My response:

 "Yes, we're familiar with the "pill pockets". When we first adopted TK, we hid his antibiotics in
a piece of ham. This worked well for a while and then he got wise to it and just spit the pill out.
But the real problem, now, is that the diltiazem he's getting is an "extended release" pill and has
to be swallowed as a solid pill (in this case, 1/2 pill) to work effectively. If he bit down on the pill
in a "pill pocket" and crushed it, it would change the timed release of the medication and could
possibly result in an overdose. This is also the reason we can't just crush it up and hide it in
his dinner. The only safe way to handle it is to put the pill in the back of his mouth so he can
swallow it whole.
 We had explained to you at the start that he was a jumpy cat who would not tolerate being
held. It's just the way he is and we've learned to deal with it. It took a lot of love and patience
to get him to the point where he will jump up on the chair to get his pill at dinnertime. It works
very well and we have no intention of changing the routine. He will, quite often, jump down
off the chair before he gets his pill. But he also knows that he won't be fed until he gets the
pill, so he generally will jump right back up on the chair again. When you grabbed him as he
was jumping off the chair (which we did caution you not the do), he immediately became
fearful of you and things just went downhill from there. There really is no need to be more
forceful with him, as you suggested, and we have no desire to take that approach with any
pet. Especially a cat with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy who is prone to stress related heart
failure.
 So I think, at this point, we can both agree that he will probably be a little too much for you
to handle and the best thing to do is end things right here before you invest any more of
your time or TK gets hurt.

 Thank you for the time you have spent trying to help us out."

I thought that was a fairly nice and non-confrontational way to put a clear end
to the relationship.

Her response, was not quite so "nice and non-confrontational".

"wow.......for someone who was truly trying to help you people out that was a rather harsh email. i spent well over three hours of my time at your house between the two visits. if you felt i wasn't the one for the job, which you certainly expressed just the opposite the whole time i was there, you should've just said this isn't going to work after the first attempt. i feel you're not the alpha animal in the house which is how it should be for you to be able to help tk. he's in charge not you, lol!! i was NOT harsh  and did NOT  hurt him and i know that you are just upset that you're now at square one again. too bad the pill pockets wouldn't work but i wish you luck with your search for someone who can pill him the way it needs to be done. i just don't have the time in my busy schedule and can't compromise my other clients visits for a situation like this. i'm sure you'll eventually find someone.  i won't open any further emails from you or listen to any messages you might
leave on my machine so there will be no further contact between us.  i don't have to and won't put up with insults from someone i was trying to help and who expressed pleasure with my efforts!! and tk wasn't fearful of me at all and you know it and kept repeating that, HE was the one who kept coming back to ME, it was you he was fearful of because you were attempting to get him out from under the table!! i feel you're very frustrated with the whole pilling situation."

I really liked the "there will be no further contact between us" part.
She fired us after we fired her.

But I'm sure glad we got to watch her when things weren't going well.
If she'd treat TK like that while we were watching, I'd hate to think what
she would do if we weren't there to see what she was doing.

So BE CAREFUL, folks.
That sweet petsitter that shows up to care for your loved pets may just
turn out to be a whacko demon in disguise.