Online Pet Sitter Loses Dog, Lies About It, Owner Says

WAUKEGAN, IL — It's been nearly a month since Nia Morgan last saw her 10-month old puppy, a poodle mix who went missing while under the care of a pet sitter she hired online. Morgan said her Rover.com sitter's deception about her dog's disappearance was revealed via a social media post.

Morgan, 24, asked that her dog not be named in this article for fear that someone might scare him away by shouting it at him, so for the rest of this story he'll be called "Jeff."

Growing up in San Mateo, California, Morgan always had a family dog and trained service dogs, she told Patch. She said she had long planned to get a puppy and, after finishing school at DePaul University, was ready for her first solo dog.

Morgan acquired Jeff in August 2020 after spending several months during the pandemic in California with her parents and their dog. Jeff and Morgan have shared a home in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood ever since.

"He's basically a roommate, a best friend, everything you need," Morgan said.

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During a pair of previous trips out of town since last summer, Morgan was able to have friends take care of her dog. Jeff is skittish around strangers, she said, but was comfortable with her friends. But none of them were available as she prepared for a six-day trip to visit her mom in mid-March.

Morgan said she researched some local dog-boarding locations and learned about Rover.com, which she said had been recommended by other dog owners. She developed a shortlist of five potential sitters on the online platform, which describes itself as the "nation's largest network of pet owners," eventually whittling the group down to two finalists.

Following face-to-face meetings and interviews with the two finalists, Morgan selected a woman who described having experience in a veterinarian's office and running a boarding facility.

Still a bit hesitant about leaving her beloved puppy with a stranger for a week, she arranged for a one-day trial, leaving Jeff at the sitter's house in the morning and picking him up in the evening.

"She just gave me this whole spiel about what she does when dogs are in her care — she walks them four times a day, sends pictures every day, and she sends updates through the Rover app, just letting the owners know how they're doing, interacting with other dogs and whatnot," Morgan said.

Morgan said she had to keep asking for updates, but the sitter would provide detailed summaries of Jeff's activities.

"She didn't send me any pictures though, but she had said, early on during his stay with her, that her phone was broken so she was only communicating with me through Rover.com on her laptop, so she kind of excused herself for not sending pictures or for a potential delay in her response," Morgan said. "And I believed her."

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The Rover sitter's ruse continued over the weekend — until about 10 p.m. the night before Morgan's flight was due to return.

"She messaged me saying 'I have really bad news. Your dog, I had to bring him to my boyfriend's house because a maintenance guy came into my apartment and he got freaked out, and so I brought him to my boyfriend's house, just to get away for a little bit, and he unfortunately got away,'" Morgan recalled. "She claimed that my dog pushed through the side gate of her boyfriend's house in Waukegan."

But it turned out that the sitter had actually reported Jeff missing to Waukegan Animal Control the prior Thursday — within an hour or so of taking him into her custody.

The sitter's duplicity was first discovered by Morgan's friends as they headed up to Waukegan to search for the dog. Morgan said they found a social media post by Waukegan Police Animal Control dated three days before the sitter admitted losing the dog.

Morgan said she learned the sitter had avoided sharing her contact information with animal control. She also made contact with Susan Davis, a licensed humane investigator in Waukegan, who had begun a search based on the sitter's report. Given the amount of time that has passed, it is difficult to predict how far the dog may have travelled from the area where he went missing near the border between Waukegan and Park City.

Davis said people should not go looking for the dog and not approach him if they see him. Call the number on the flyer, take a photo if possible, but going after him may only push him toward danger.

"If he's seen, please call the number on the flyer [773-231-9349] immediately. Don't call out to the dog. Don't try to chase him. Don't try to catch him, because he is extremely skittish," Davis said. "He's in survival mode right now."

Davis said the search was complicated by the fact that a Park City family who lives nearby to the Waukegan location where Morgan's poodle went missing has a similar looking dog that they allow to roam the neighborhood. She urged anyone who spots Jeff to leave his capture to the professionals.

While the "Rover Guarantee" includes reimbursement for medical bills in certain cases, it does not include any coverage if a pet in the care of one of its sitters winds up lost or dead.

As Patch has previously reported, it also does not cover losses due to theft by pet sitters or any damage deemed to be criminal in nature.

RELATED: Rover Pet Sitter Blamed For Feces-Filled Home, Trashed Car

Patch asked Rover representatives if Jeff's sitter had ever lost a dog before, whether the sitter remained active on the platform and whether the company tracks the number of dogs lost while in the care of the people it pays to provide services through its website.

Dave Rosenbaum, the company's senior public relations manager, did not answer the question about whether it keeps track of how many pets are lost while in the care of its sitters but said incidents like the one Morgan described are rare.

“We join with Nia in hoping for [Jeff’s] swift and safe return home. The safety and wellbeing of the pets in our community is a top priority. This situation is uncommon and we take it very seriously,” Rosenbaum said in a statement on behalf of the company. “This sitter had successfully performed more than 330 services through the platform; after reviewing this incident, we have deactivated them from our community.”

Much like ride-hailing companies and other gig worker platforms, Rover relies on independent contractors to provide its core service.

Founded in Seattle in 2011, Rover company officials in February announced plans to go public through a merger with Nebula Caravel Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company sponsored by San Francisco-based True Wind Capital Management.

That deal values the company at $1.35 billion.

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After her Rover horror story, Morgan said she would never use the company's services again.

"I'm sure there's some great sitters on the app — I myself could sign up and pet sit, and I think I'm a great dog owner and good with dogs," she told Patch.

"Rover claims to do background checks on their contractors and the sitters that they're hiring, and I don't know what sort of review process they have with them or whatnot," she added. "But obviously, how this sitter interacted with me and the lying that took place for such a long period of time, and even the limited outreach that they provided to me since knowing that he's been missing — both Rover and the sitter — it's not acceptable."