Annabel Leigh

My husband and I recently jumped at the chance to dog sit for the weekend, because the dog in question lived in the Ansonia--the grand former Upper West Side hotel where our friends own a $4 million four-bedroom condo that's eight times the size of our one-bedroom rental two blocks away.

Our dogsitting weekend was not just a super-sized staycation. It was also an opportunity to experience life as we would otherwise never know it.