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A sitter's time to stand tall

For Gasparilla, finding someone to watch children or pets can be difficult.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS Times Staff Writer
Published January 23, 2007

TAMPA - For Beth White of Odessa, Gasparilla Saturday begins with Bloody Mary cocktails and mimosas just after 9 a.m. It ends with a hotel stay near Bayshore Boulevard with her fellow Krewe of Hillsborough revelers.

For her dog Foster, Gasparilla begins the night before, when White drops him off at Pets in Paradise in Lutz. He is one of many dogs in Tampa who will spend Gasparilla weekend at boarding facilities.

White's fellow Krewe members who have children also will have to make arrangements. The long day of partying and magnitude of the event make Gasparilla, this year on Jan. 27, one of Tampa's busiest pet sitting and babysitting days.

"It's the one day of the year that adults dress in costumes and get to act like kids," White said. "Everyone in our Krewe, their kids are pretty much taken care of from Friday night on."

The hardest thing is finding someone to do it.

There's a great demand for pet sitting during Gasparilla, but not a lot of available sitters near the parade route.

Beth Warren, owner of Auntie Beth's Pet Sitting in Hyde Park, doesn't work on Gasparilla day because she can't get out of her house. The streets are congested with parked cars and residents have to show ID to get in and out.

She once tried to do a Hyde Park client a favor by walking her dog. That was a mistake.

"It took me a half-hour to go a half-mile," Warren said. "And when I got there, you couldn't go anywhere because there were too many drunks in the street."

So dog owners will drive north to leave their dogs for the weekend. Miriam Lindley, who owns Wags and Wiggles Pet Hotel off Bearss Avenue, has been booked for a month. She usually takes three dogs, since she has a few of her own.

"But during Gasparilla, I take four, sometimes five if they're little," Lindley said.

While pet owners can take their dogs north to avoid the flood of pirates and paradegoers near Bayshore, Kerri Lettiero's fleet of babysitters will brave parking and traffic to start their shifts, usually from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sometimes, sitters will have to park at a relative's house farther from the parade route and get shuttled into clients' homes.

The owner of Kerri's Babysitting Service has been booked for four months. Lettiero's service is capped at 35 because of the thorough screening process in selecting her sitters. But the demand is a lot higher.

"I have to turn work down. There's just no way," Lettiero said. "Do they really want me to just send anyone to their house to take care of their kids?"

Lettiero doesn't charge extra for the services, which start at $12 per hour, depending on the number of children.

Finding sitters for Gasparilla is a bigger challenge than usual for agency owners, said Eleanor Nesbit, owner of A Choice Nanny in Tampa. Because a lot of her younger sitters like to go to the parade, she had to make a few extra rounds of phone calls last year to fill all her Gasparilla slots.

Mindy Murphy is happy she secured her regular babysitter to watch her 8-year-old son, Jed, during Gasparilla. She could've brought him on the float she'll ride this year, but she thinks he's too young.

"There's just a lot that goes on, a lot that I don't need my child to see any sooner than necessary," Murphy said.

After the parade, she will meet up with friends downtown and attend different parties.

"It's fun," Murphy said. "And you don't have to worry about losing your child."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 813 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 23, 2007, 06:20:52]