UPDATE: 'House sitters' from West Kelowna refute allegations made against them

(Update: Dec. 23 2019 @ 12:30 pm):

The home we showed you in our recent story about a house sitting gone bad may have been a terrible mess, but the people accused of creating the mess say the allegations made on Facebook and repeated in a story by KelownaNow are entirely false.

They contacted KelownaNow to set the record straight.

First of all, the pair say they weren't really house sitting at all, but rather just renting two rooms in the home. According to one of the women, the mess was not theirs at all, but rather accumulated by their accusers. They say their rooms were tidy but never shown in the Facebook postings.

The pair say the accusation that they sold a Kitchenaid appliance and other valuables is untrue. They said the video showing something being sold on the doorstep wasn't the Kitchenaid mixer, but rather a Keureg coffee maker that belonged to them.

Further allegations that the pair had sold-off kittens with false claims about their health status were also untrue, according to the two individuals. They told KelownaNow that they had been seen by a vet and had received their shots. They say eleven kittens were left for them to deal with and it was overwhelming.

The pair say the accusations have caused them all kinds of problems and distress including with their new landlord and with work.

Original story

When Chrissy Lassen headed to Vancouver to deal with a troubled pregnancy, she left her house and kittens in the hands of an old friend and her spouse. When Lassen's adult daughter returned to check on the place she was in for a shock. Garbage, filth, and missing valuables.

Shaylyn was initially struck by the smell. "You could smell cat urine and feces," said Shaylyn.

Then Chrissy noticed on a security camera that something was being sold-off on the doorstep. "The first thing I noticed was her Kitchenaid was gone."

And that wasn't all. "It was my eleven-year-old sister's stuffed animal, my fifteen-year-old brother's professional camera," she said. "It was more than just valuables that were taken, it was sentimental things."

Then there were the kittens, Chrissy Lassen said they could be re-homed. Instead, said Shaylyn, a number of them were sold after misleading ads went out saying they had been received their shots.

Needless to say, the friendship is over, and the whole saga is the subject of a post by Shaylyn on Facebook. She's hoping to make contact with the people who bought the items.

They believe, the whole thing will cost them about $5,000.

So far we've been unable to contact the women who were house-sitting.

The good news is, thanks to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at BC Women's Hospital, Chrissy's new son, Blaze, is doing well after a premature birth.

"So far, he's doing phenomenal," said Shaylyn. "It's the best thing we could have asked for."