By Briseis Schreibman.
Interview with Angela Lemus
Angela with her dog walking essentials
Hey CUP family!
We’ve all been doing a lot of difficult readjusting lately. Changing our daily routines can feel anything but comfortable. I know I’ve certainly found myself confronted with many challenges in the past few months.
As Covid-19 updates continue to develop and there is talk of more stores and services opening up, it can be scary thinking about how to go about doing things that used to feel second nature. What will getting a haircut look like? How will we hang out with our friends and family? What will going back to work look like?
It seems like questions are the main thing on everyone’s mind.
While CUP certainly doesn’t have answers for all of these, we are at the front lines for any questions you may have about pet sitting during a pandemic. Angela Lemus, one of our fantastic team members, took the time to answer some questions about working during the shelter in place.
Angela has developed an excellent system for keeping herself and clients safe through every step of her workday. She begins her shift by gathering her disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, and a mask. After making sure she has her three new essentials, she heads to the CTA bus.
She says:
“CTA has done a great job with taking much-needed measures to keep both drivers and riders safe. Riders must now enter the bus through the back rear door. Riders also have to sit as far from each other as possible.
There is a limit on how many people can be on one bus at a time. If there are more than 10-15 riders, the bus driver does not allow more people to get on until someone else gets off.”
Angela says she personally feels safe taking the CTA because of their protocols.
She reminds everyone though to wear gloves when they are getting on the bus just in case they need to touch anything.
“Gloves are important as sometimes the rear back doors do not open and everyone is touching that.”
Once she arrives, she has a few different steps depending on the building and whether or not a client is home. If she has to ride an elevator, she is careful to only get in an empty car and to avoid sharing any close spaces with others. If a client is at home, they are encouraged to get the pet ready themselves while Angela waits outside.
“Keys and leashes are sanitized by both parties before any type of hand off“
If a client isn’t home, she will take off her shoes and leave her bag at the entrance. Then she will wipe off any doorknobs, keys, or other high touch areas with disinfectant. Throughout both dog walks and cat sits, she uses lots of hand sanitizer and avoids making contact with too many surfaces. Lots of hand washing before and after touching any animal is also an important step!
Angela is an awesome example of how we can find adjustments to our routine to keep ourselves and others safe. There is no doubt that this pandemic is a stress-creator, but CUP is here to keep things cool, calm, collected, and sanitized.