Dog Mom Shares The Long List Of Instructions She Gives Her Dog Sitter — 'You've Gotta Sing The Jingle & Do Jazz Hands'
Some people go the extra mile for their pets. This dog mom goes for two.
ninitta, Yuri_Arcurs, Zontica / Canva; Ashlee Thomas Photography A dog mom on TikTok recently uploaded a couple of videos showcasing the way she prepares her dog sitters to dog-sit her two adorable little family members, Linoleum and Stuart.
“I have buckets of instructions,” Reba claims. “This is reality. Frankly, I'm happy to have a video guide for our dog sitters now.” Totaling more than 6 minutes of runtime, Reba’s instructions for her dog sitters are thorough and sometimes wacky, but she claims she’s not joking at all.
Part of the dog mom’s instructions call for singing and jazz hands.
The first portion of part one in Reba’s video instructions explains how the dog sitter should go about feeding her beloved pups. “Alright, so mealtime's pretty simple,” she claims, before talking about the least simple process known to dog sitters. “We do a layer of kibble, a dollop of yogurt, and then we sprinkle the protein powder on top. Sprinkle, don't just dump it in a pile. They don't like that. Don't mix it in with the yogurt. They don't like that.”
The number of trials and errors Reba had to go through in order for her to learn that they only liked their protein powder sprinkled on top and not mixed or piled is unknown to us mere humans, but immediately, she contradicts herself by telling dog sitters what to do while they’re “mixing it up.”
“While you're mixing it up, very important, you've got to sing the jingle,” she explains. “‘I’ve got protein, I’ve got kibble, I’ve got yogurt, who could ask for anything more?’ And you gotta really hype it up.”
Reba makes exaggerated movements with her arms, almost doing a little dance before adding, “And then jazz hands at the end, and that's how they know that their meal is ready. They get super pumped about it, so don't forget the jazz hands. Very important.”
The instructions don’t stop there, and they only get more complex.
It’s worth noting that Reba seems to understand just how absurd it seems that she even has to prepare video instructions for her dog sitters, replying in the comments by saying, “We're next level silly over here. There really is a fridge upstairs for night night water. I'm just here to pay the mortgage and refill water.”
In response to someone who claimed that they’ve recorded an instructional video for how to prepare their dogs’ meals, she responded, “I have done that. I thought it was helpful. I suspect she passed it around to her friends and they laughed about the neurotic lady.”
Among other items on her list of instructions, there’s “night night water” and “everyday water,” both of which are never going to be tap water and have their own specific purposes (that you could probably guess just by reading the nicknames).
Speaking of nicknames, in part two of Reba’s instructional dog-sitting video, she goes over the various nicknames that both Linoleum and Stuart will answer to, starting with Linoleum.
“Lenny will answer to a lot of different names, so, I mean, really, you can't go wrong with Linoleum, Lenny, Lenn Lenn, mommy's baby boy, bubby, bubbers, big brother,” before cutting herself short.
As part of the joke, she continues later with Stuart’s list after going over the child locks she has on the doors. “Then there's Stuart, Tutu, Stewcifer — that's usually when he's being naughty. Mommy's favorite little mistake. Mommy's little baby gremlin. Also mommy's baby boy. They will both answer to ‘mama's baby boy,’” before continuing with more.
Reba's in-depth instructions are common — pet owners would do anything for their pets because they're a part of the family.
Everyone knows that pet parents would go to the ends of the Earth for their little additions to the family, and that’s totally okay! Reba is self-aware about how ridiculous it may seem to other people, but it just goes to show how much love she has for her pups.
It's not just Reba, however; most people with pets consider them to be close, essential pieces of their family puzzle. According to the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI), 95% of pet owners consider their pets a part of their family.
But that's not all. To show the extent of how pet parents feel about their pets, 86% of pet owners said they would pay whatever it takes if their pet needed extensive veterinary care. On a similar note, 76% of pet owners said they would make major life changes for their pets.
Reba is far from alone, especially since she has her two little furballs with her to keep her company. She takes care of them, pampers them, and even gives them words of affirmation on the daily — that’s a lot more than we can say people give to each other.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.