Katie Rubin describes her first meeting with Tiny as "love at first sight."

Rubin brought the chihuahua mix, with big black eyes and sand-colored fur, to her Oakland home as a foster pet in June. After two days with the shelter animal, Rubin adopted her, and the pair became inseparable.

"She is the light of my life," Rubin said of the one-year-old pup.

On days when Rubin had to work, as a professional actress and teacher around the Bay Area and Sacramento, she'd leave Tiny with a handful of daytime sitters whom she found on the dog-sitting website Rover.com.

Sometimes called the "Uber for dogs," the Seattle-based website connects pet owners with walkers, boarders and sitters in the area. Rover operates in thousands of U.S. cities and has a network of more than 140,000 sitters, the site claims. All sitters must pass a basic background check, complete a dog safety quiz and fill out a comprehensive profile to qualify. A company spokesperson told SFGATE that less than 20 percent of potential sitters are accepted, all of whom are hand-vetted by "sitter quality specialists."

Rubin had used Rover multiple times to find sitters, some of whom she had rejected after an initial meeting. When the actress met a 20-something mother of two on Rover, she remembered something seeming "a little off."

"But how bad could it be?" Rubin recalled thinking on the afternoons she'd left Tiny with the Sacramento sitter.

Then, one evening in early October, Rubin's worst nightmare came true. While driving to pick up Tiny, Rubin said she got a call from the sitter. Tiny, she said, was lost. The sitter said Tiny had run out the front door after it was mistakenly left open by her husband.

More than 20 days after Tiny bolted, the chihuahua remains missing. Rubin said her month of searching has become "like a second job."

"For eight days after the incident I was manic, out of my mind," she said.

"I stayed in Sacramento and didn't come back to the Bay Area, where I live and work, to hand out flyers to every house within a 5-mile radius."

Rubin says she's "absolutely devastated."

For a website such as Rover, a lost dog can be devastating, too. Bad press plagues companies like Rover and Wag, a similar dog watching startup founded in 2014. Such companies are tasked with the difficult job of convincing people to leave their beloveds with strangers, and any hint of unrest can send ripples through their business models.

Despite a steady stream of investor funding, these companies have other troubles, too. Writes Olivia Zaleski of Bloomberg: "They're battling many of the same issues that have bedeviled other gig economy players: regulatory scrutiny, complaints about shoddy service provided by people they don't directly employ, high marketing costs and heavy losses."

Bloomberg said Rover has brought on three attorneys to combat "more than a dozen city and state regulators who claim its pet sitters operate as unlicensed kennels and are illegal."

Rover later disputed these figures when speaking with SFGATE, claiming the company has just two "active dialogues" regarding regulatory issues and only two lawyers, one of whom was hired two years ago.

But on a smaller scale, what happens when a dog is lost or injured?

After inquiring about Tiny's disappearance, Rover spokesperson Brandie Gonzalez told SFGATE: "Should an emergency arise, Rover has a dedicated Trust & Safety team that is available 24/7 to help owners and sitters resolve situations as quickly and safely as possible."

Gonzalez said all owners are covered by "premium insurance," and Rover's resources include "local sitters who help search, pet amber alerts, fliers and other materials." When a dog is lost or injured on a sitter's watch, Gonzalez said Rover suspends the account pending a full investigation, which may result in the sitter's removal from the platform.

When asked if the sitter watching Tiny remains suspended, Gonzalez declined to comment per Rover's privacy policies.

Rubin, who said Rover remained in daily contact with her in the 10 days following the incident, has found the company's response to be "so unhelpful it's mind-blowing."

"They would call me once a day and offer empathy, but that was it," she said.

According to Rubin, Rover posted on a series of lost dog websites about Tiny and sent a text message alert to local sitters. The company offered sitters $40 a day to participate in searching efforts, Rubin said, but only one sitter showed up to help for a few days. As for the woman who lost Tiny, Rubin said she halfheartedly assisted in search efforts after Rubin confronted her.

After complaining about Rover's lack of action, Rubin said the company offered her a check for a "one-time courtesy printing of 30 flyers." That number increased to 300 colored flyers after Rubin pressed further, and a $410 donation to a GoFundMe page Rubin created to cover search expenses.

Rubin says she has missed days of paid work and spent upwards of $2,000 to print flyers and hire a pet detective.

She remains in almost daily contact with Rover, whose terms of service stipulate that the company is not liable for "for damages associated with Pet Care Services (which may include bodily injury to, or death of, a pet)" nor the costs associated therein.

Companies fueled by the gig economy, like Uber and Airbnb, are often built upon a contract of mutual trust among strangers. The system may work for rideshares and housing rentals, but Rubin says it has faults when it comes to pet-sitting.

To her, Tiny is family, and Rover's response doesn't match the weight of her loss.

"I have empathy for everyone in this situation, even the woman who lost Tiny," Rubin said, explaining that many of her friends in creative professions use Rover for a flexible income on the side. "But I don't have empathy for Rover."

Read Michelle Robertson’s latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.