by Andie Anderson

Created on: September 18, 2008   Last Updated: January 28, 2009

I have gone full circle in my life with jobs. There was a time when I grew up that women did service jobs, i.e. nursing, teaching, house-cleaning, and secretarial. I knew secretarial and nursing but eventually it got to a point where the work decreased to a point where there was no money at all due to lay-offs, non availability of work, age descrimination, and so forth. I filled out applications but wasn't getting anywheres. I had myself signed up with six home health agencies but no one was calling.

Things you didn't have control over in the work force took over from there. I went to college for more education but found it harder and harder to find work. It seemed that employers could find workers that were cheaper than what I wanted for pay, or there was the assumption that being over fifty I was closer to retirement than younger people, I may get sick due to my age, or whatever the excuse was. I had a 'frozen' shoulder due to overexertion somehow and word went back to the agencies that I had a bad shoulder and there was the fear of being further injured on the job by them. One of the therapists that worked on my shoulder had mentioned she saw one of the nursing supervisors and there was mentioned that I was a patient there, (which is a confidentiality violation of sorts- but try proving it). I felt like a pariah, unworthy, and unimportant in my middle age.

For whatever reason, it did hurt my feelings, my self-esteem, and it created an unreal paranoia about the economy around me. My husband wasn't worried, he could support us on his salary, but I was worried. My parents came from the Depression era and I knew what could happen and why couldn't it happen again. I felt unsafe and fragile.

So, I decided to do something. I have always loved animals and found an almost surreal kinship with them. I could feel how they felt and sense their own insecurities. Animals are not judgmental of people, and they pretty much live simple existences. I envied them and their lack of fear of the unknown. My husband suggested I go into a pet sitting business where I go into people's homes when they are away, or in the hospital, or at work. I would feed their beloved pets, entertain them, exercise them, and clean up after them.

In this time of cutting costs, there is still a need for this type of job because people get sick and end up in the hospital, people go away on holidays to visit friends and family no matter what the gas costs are, people need to 'get away', and people do work

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