I'm reading The Art of War now and it talks a lot about resistance.

I would take the path of least resistence here and just hire someone to do it twice a month.

Sure your ready to come back to the crazy weather here in MN?!  

Weather sucks though.

@Brian WolfeI wanted to be in warm weather near the beach where the cost of living was less than NY.  

Foremost is mainly concerned with the shell of the home including the roof, being secured and not exposed to weather and or intrusion.

Thus the situation you find yourself in: most landlords, in order to minimize their risk and level of effort put into their business, simply choose the path of least resistance and deny pet owners.I'd say that your only shot might be to proactively make your willingness to pay a pet deposit and additional "pet rent" known to a landlord BEFORE that subject comes up for discussion when looking at the property.

If the weather was warm and dry during the few days you were gone, maybe they thought they were rescuing them rather than stealing them.  

If that's true I would look hard at weather or not I wanted to manage them.

Hope everyone is having a great Father's Day and enjoying the awesome weather out there.