Hello! I first joined THS in 2014 as a housesitter, but I’ve never been on the forums before and I’m hoping for advice from mods or members.
Is it okay to post in the homeowners threads that I’m trying to find a certain feature in a sit? And invite homeowners to get in touch? Is there a certain location or rules for doing this?
Thanks for any help!
Hi @anon60320350 and welcome. I don’t think you can as sitters can only contact an HO if they have an open sit and you write an application to it, you can include the question in this but you can’t “vet” it first so to speak. Does that help? What’s the feature you’re trying to find? 
Thanks! I’m trying to find a stay where the people see foxes on their property. Fox dens in/around back gardens are very common in the UK and I love foxes, but everywhere I go it’s a case of everyone knowing someone in the next town who has foxes in their garden. I’m happy to stay with any pets, any home, any place in the UK since I’m housesitting full-time and still have most of June open. I’d just love the chance to watch foxes.
Not only is this not the sort of information that people usually include in their listing, but I would have to read every listing that comes up in the UK even to try to find anyone who did mention such a thing since THS has no keyword search.
So my post would be along the lines of: Do You Live in the UK and See Foxes in Your Garden? Then inviting anyone relevant who needs a sitter this June to let me know if they put up a listing so I can apply.
Thanks for your time!
Wow, that is a very specific requirement! I don’t have a garden but I regularly see foxes here in Edinburgh. There is a network of old railway tracks in north Edinburgh that are now walking/cycling paths and foxes can often been seen (and heard) on the paths. I also see them in the streets sometimes, usually at night. There is also one that seems to live around the flats at Western Harbour (a big development of fancy high rise flats right by the sea). I sometimes look after a cat in the last block of flats (just drop-in visits, not through THS) and I almost always see the fox when I walk back home after my night time visit. If you could find a sit in north Edinburgh that mentions proximity to the paths, I’m sure you’d be in with a good chance of seeing some. There was a sit advertised in Western Harbour, it’s gone to reviewing now, but it was for August.
Uhm, someone edited this post with a new title. I can’t figure out how to edit it to return it to the original, so can someone please delete the thread and I will either start over with the original post question or simply put up a thread on the homeowners area and hope that it’s okay? Do I need to contact mods to get this thread deleted or restored to the original?
Hello @anon60320350 I’m just jumping on here to help, but you beat me too it 
The forum team saw your updated comment and wanted to edit the title to make sure people understood what your post was about and what help and information you needed.
Check out our community guidelines Titles: To ensure your posts get the attention they deserve, we might tweak titles and categories to make them more relevant and engaging.
As your request is quite specific and members who originally commented did not quite know what you meant it is best to update the title for you.
All members that use the forum both owners and sitter have access to this thread but I will change it to the owners category for you if that is your target audience.
If you have any questions my DM’s are always open.
Carla 
I’m in the U.S. and we have deer, foxes and more on our property (we have land that backs to conservation woods), but the foxes are nocturnal, so you’d see them only by hanging outside at night.
When we walk our dog at night, we sometimes see their eyes by flashlight (torch light). They also keen in a terrible way, which drives our dog nuts.
At another house, we’ve seen a few foxes sunning themselves when the weather is wonderful, but rarely. And when they do that, they stay near the tree line, so they can run off quickly if they sense any threats.
I saw a fox in the garden of our London Putney housesit!!
I’m not seeking housesits with foxes in this thread. I asked is it okay for me to post a totally different thread on the homeowners side soliciting specific sits (with foxes in the garden). My question on this thread is totally unrelated: All I want to know right now is if it’s okay to do that. It feels very violating for a thread I started to be twisted and transformed into something it is not, and for that choice to be totally out of my control. Now I have no ability either to edit this or delete it? And when I request that it be returned to the original or deleted that is also not being done? Please, please, someone delete the whole thread if you cannot restore it to the original and answer my original question. Thank you.
I think a key word search would be so helpful. I like finding out about different breeds of dogs, and I’d love to be able to search sits by breed, but nothing like that exists at the moment unfortunately. It’s always handy if HOs include the breed in the headline of their listing (if it’s not obvious from their main photo).
Onto foxes… my parents often have them visiting - or possibly living in - their garden. I was once house-sitting for them whilst they were away and had come indoors to answer the phone (oddly enough to one of Dad’s friends whose nickname was ‘Foxy’). I’d been sitting in a deckchair enjoying the last of the evening sun, and left my shoes by the chair. A fox trotted down the garden, sniffed the book I’d been reading, sniffed the shoes, and ran off with one of them in its mouth, never to be seen again! They also come and drink from the bird bath when it’s hot weather, and we’ve seen cubs playing at the end of the garden in the past. They seem to be adapting to an increasingly urban environment.
Hello @anon60320350 No worries at all, feel free to start a new topic in the owner’s section with your question. If you want me to change the title of this post let me know. I popped you a DM so might be easier to chat that way.
If you use the spyglass you can find some helpful topics like Forum update - Editing and Deleting posts/comments Also make sure you check out the guidelines and terms when using the forum as this can help you see how everything works, including the section on if you can solicit sits on the forum
Tbf, foxes to UK are like raccoons to the US lol. It’s definitely not something someone should probably track.
I used to live in a flat that had a whole family living in the back garden. They would visit often and were very people shy but you could watch them out the window and see their new kits each year 
.
You can see foxes all over the London outer zones and definitely in the countryside. I’d suggest applying to sits that look appealing and then just asking.
You can also list in your profile that you love foxes and would love to do sits where you’d get a chance to see them.
That reminds me of a sit in a village just outside of Cambridge. I was warned by fellow dog walkers to look out for fox scat when my sit dog and I visited community center fields and I chatted with locals. My sit dog loved to roll around in dirty stuff and the locals told me the smell was horrible to try to wash off. Luckily avoided that, but that must’ve been common since I heard about it from people randomly. I wasn’t asking about foxes or such.
Speaking from experience, that stuff smells horrendous! 
My dog found a pile and rolled in it as well as what smelled like deer urine. Thank gawd he had a coat on that day so I could bag it up when we got back to the car!
I live in the outer reaches of London and we have foxes occasionally passing through. My brother who lives in Ascot had a resident fox that let you feed them. When I was cat sitting for him the fox came and sat near the kitchen window until I brought a bowl of cat food out. It would let you sit outside about 6 feet away while eating. This was a few years ago now and it’s long gone unfortunately.
Yes, I did a London Putney sit a few years ago and they had a fox coming through the garden. So maybe that’s where you should try and find a sit!
There are a ridiculous amount of foxes in inner south london which are disturbingly unafraid of humans. In my experience they were particularly visible at certain times of the year like when their young were old enough to start exploring. Walk around dusk and you should see plenty.
I’m a country girl and foxes are a menace for us in the UK. Killing our chickens mostly as they are ruthless. You’re unlikely to see rural foxes in the UK unless someone is feeding them (& not confessing to the neighbours!). London has loads as a few people have said, plus other big cities are where you’ll see lots of urban foxes. They’re often just bin diving and scuttling off though so that might be tricky…good luck @anon60320350
We did a sit in London at Streatham Hill and there were loads of urban foxes, they are such pests
I lived in London for almost 2 years and saw foxes everywhere, all the time, roaming the streets and getting into bins and stuff. Just go to London and you’ll see heaps basically in any suburb, especially after dark in autumn & winter. They’re super tame and used to people, sometimes you can spot them walking the streets in broad daylight.
Also if you hear lots of neighborhood dogs barking on the street, it usually means there’s a fox around. I did a sit once where a fox got into the garden (in Kent, UK) and I had to get the dogs inside ASAP because they were going nuts. I also had a hedgehog visitor one time who came in through the backdoor and was eating the cat food 