Key Stories

Talk to any pet sitter or dog walker, and they'll tell you they often feel like a jailer - so many keys to take care of!! I have a little key safe that keeps them secure, all with little tags, but no addresses. I know who they are!!

When I go to meet a new customer, before I come away with the keys I always check that the key works in the door. Even if they're well used, and not newly cut, there are always little idiosyncracies, so it helps if I know the ones that might be a little fickle. I've been caught out before!!

Sometimes though, it's not possible. For example, one of my customers moved recently, and popped the new key in the post to me. I went along last Saturday, put the key in the door and tried to turn it, but nothing!! I could hear Tiggles on the other side of the door, miaowing at me, and I really did want to get in, but couldn't. Poor thing. I tried and tried and tried, but no good, so thought that I must have been sent the wrong key. I called my customer, and luckily she had her phone with her. She explained that, yes, it was very fickle, and she also had the same problem with her key, from which mine had been cut. But she had tried mine and it did work - eventually. At least I knew it was the right key, so just kept trying, and she was right - it did finally give and I was in.

But that happens so often! A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting a couple of sister cats, and had been told that the lock was temperamental, that I might be standing there for a couple of minutes trying to get in. At least I knew what to expect, but when it's not your own house, you expect that a neighbour is thinking you're trying to break in!! The cats there were very used to it, and showed great patience, but it was frustrating for me to know that I had to go through this every time.

I go to see Billy fairly regularly, and there's not usually too much of a problem with the lock - but when we had that very very hot weather a little while back he was due a visit. No matter how I tried I just couldn't turn the key in the lock. The lock had been in full sun all day, and the metal had expanded in the heat. Nothing for it but to try again later, which I did do - and glad to say it worked this time. I won't bore you by telling you all my stories about having to jiggle keys in locks, but there are lots and lots. I've often wondered whether a sideline as a locksmith might be a good idea!

Then there was the time that I'd gone to meet a new customer, we'd worked out which keys I'd need, tried them, and off I went with them - to discover that in fact they weren't all the right keys after all! Still no idea how that happened, but on my first visit it was very clear that one of the keys wasn't right at all, and I just couldn't gain entry. She called her Mum who arranged to meet me there later with her own set of keys, and all was well for the rest of the visits. But I'm still baffled to this day as to how that happened. Must have been the key gremlin!

The first time I went to visit Nia, no luck with they key then, even though I'd just tried it myself a couple of days before. It just wouldn't turn. I tried to call my customer, but there was no answer. I decided that I should go to do my other cat visits and return again later - but still no good. Called again, and left a message saying that I was calling in a locksmith. When he came he used a great instrument that had a mirror on the end to look at it from the inside - and could see that there was a key in the door on the other side of the lock. That didn't make any sense as they couldn't have left the house and locked it from the outside with a key in the other side. The next minute though the door opened!! They'd had plasterers in a few days before, but told them not to come while they were away - but the workmen hadn't listened. He must have heard me trying to get in for ages, so why didn't he come to open the door straight away? Guess who paid the locksmith's fee...... (and it wasn't me!)

But the worst was when I locked myself out of my car on Christmas Day a couple of years ago. I'd done my first visit, popped open the car boot, returned the house key to my bag and retrieved the one for the next visit. I shut the boot again, and went into my fleece pocket for my car key. It wasn't there!!! I couldn't quite believe it and spent a couple of frantic minutes checking all my pockets (all 2 of them), looking under the car and around, but had to admit that somehow I'd also put my car keys in my bag in the boot. There was no way to open the car or the boot and I was stuck! I'm going to cut a long story very short, but I spent 3 very cold hours on Christmas morning sitting on a doorstep waiting for my friend to drive over from Leeds to my house, let himself in to get my spare car keys, then drive down to Didsbury. And then I still had all my other visits to do!!! It's never happened before, or since, and I am so, so, careful now to be sure that I've always got my car key before I shut the boot.

So, I'm looking forward to the day when there are other means to get into homes that don't involve mechanical locks. There is one cat that I visit where there's an electronic lock you use a fob with, much like a car, but what happens when the battery runs out??? We have the technology for iris recognition or fingerprint control, so wonder how long it will be before our homes are secured in this way........