While we prepared to go away on our half of a non-simultaneous exchange, we suddenly wondered what to do with the cats. It was less than a week before our departure and we had avoided booking any home exchangers. My father lives with us and we are never sure if he will feel well enough to travel when the time actually arrives.
When Dad asked me who was going to stay here with the cats while we were away I took it as a sign that we was feeling pretty chipper. The same day I received a request from a couple in Montreal who noticed we still listed the holiday weekend on our listing page. If it was still available at such a late date they would be happy to drive down.
I usually like to get to know people better than one week notice allows. In this case, we emailed and chatted more intensively than usual and decided to go ahead with the swap.
Still, the compressed time frame and the fact that this couple had never exchanged before had me a little nervous. We decided to have our Linda, our babysitter/senior care-giver meet this couple on arrival to give them the keys. It was too late to mail the keys, and she could meet them before we let them loose in our home.
"If they appear to be axe-murderers, call us" I told Linda.
"You think they might be murderers and you're sending me to meet them?" she replied.
The exchangers seemed very nice and responsible, so the chance that they were homicidal maniacs was remote. However, they almost sank this exchange in the few days leading up to their arrival. Remember, they had never swapped, we hadn't gotten to know each other very well, this was to be a non-simultaneous exchange and it was very last-minute. All of these factors had my red flag detector on high alert. That's when the red flags started coming.
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