Hi All,
Margaret and Des introducing ourselves from Dublin. Hard hit by lockdown but looking forward to better times ahead. Joined the site a couple of years ago and it has brought a whole new dimension to our love of pets and travel. Started locally with a sit in the west of Ireland, then to our neighbours in the UK in the beautiful Cotswolds area. During a brief respite in the lockdown last summer we managed to get to France and loved every minute of it. Our most unusual pet sit took us to Northern Ireland to care for Alpacas!!
I’m taking early retirement in June, after a career as a teacher and Deputy Principal of a school in South County Dublin. Love the job but looking forward to a new chapter and lots more travel and pet sitting.
Our dream is to head abroad for an extended sit, experience real life and culture in another country, minding wonderful pets and homes.
This is such a great site and I love the idea of this forum. It seems to attract like minded people, certainly those we’ve met through our experience of house sitting are all bonded by a love of their pets, good conversation, travel and a great sense of hospitality.
So onwards and upwards for the future, safe travels, meeting new friends and pets!!
Hello Neighbour 
welcome
Welcome @Mags and Dean, thank you so much for bringing the Emerald Isle into our morning. Thank you also for the great introduction into your lives and THS journey, you really have had amazing experiences, I’ve cared for horses, pigs and goats but never an Alpaca, it’s on my list.
Thank you for being part of our amazing community, enjoy the conversations and meeting other members from all over the world.
Angela & The Team
What was most surprising about the Alpacas? When I cared for parrots I found myself repeating myself - often. 
Hi Victoria,
The alpacas were fab. Two adults and a baby, We sat and watched their antics for hours. Very shy and timid but adorable.
Welcome Margaret and Des! I’m from Dublin originally and emigrated to Vancouver, Canada with my parents at an early age. My husband and I have had the pleasure of house sitting twice now in Dublin for a lovely family who asked us back a second time. It was great being back in the city where I was born and visiting relatives as we were the only family that emigrated to Canada. We look forward to hopefully another in Dublin!
Thanks Annette, that’s lovely to hear and so glad you enjoyed your visits to Dublin. My sister lived in Vancouver for many years and I visited Vancouver while she was there. A great city, we really enjoyed the trip. Des also has a brother living in Toronto. Visited there many years ago also. Hope you get to visit Ireland again soon.
Good for you! Thanks Mags. Happy travels once COVID is all over!
Welcome Mags and Des, great to have you on the forum!!
Dublin is a beautiful city in an absolutely stunning country. When we’re asked what our favorite places are (out of the 26 countries visited), Ireland is always one of the first places to come to mind.
Your sitting experiences so far sound like so much fun! Where’s you dream abroad location???
Thanks Shannon and Sergio,
Ireland truly is a unique destination, we are a bit biased😜 Being inspired reading your posts!
Our dream destination abroad would likely be a sit in South America. Fingers crossed our dream comes true.
Our fingers are crossed for you as well! We’ve seen several intriguing house sits in South America come up over time, so if the world opens up hopefully you can apply for a few and start some exploring.
Hi Mags and Des from Dundee Scotland. Myself and husband got early retirement at the start of 2020 with the same travel hopes as you guys 
. 1st home sit was arranged for Nova Scotia in June but obviously couldn’t happen, but rearranged this year for September if all goes well. Right now would be happy for a weekend in Edinburgh but things can only get better!
Awww alpacas!! What a fun opportunity! They always look so happy, it would probably be difficult to have a bad day when hanging out with those buddies. I love Ireland so much; a lot of my ancestors are Irish and I’ve visited a couple of times… it always leaves me wanting to stay longer each time. Best of luck with your next adventures!
Hi Anne and Graham,
Lovely to hear from you, as I said great to meet like minded people on this forum. Like yourselves we can’t wait to start our travelling adventures. Nova Scotia sounds like a great sit, how long will you be going for? We’re really hoping to get something long term when things open up again. We have 6 weeks on the Datça peninsula starting the middle of July and keeping everything crossed that it will go ahead… Hopefully the vaccine will sort the whole travel situation out and we can get going again.
Stay safe!
Hi Kate,
Thanks for getting in touch. Ireland is a great place to live alright. Yes, the alpacas were very entertaining and lovely to watch. Hope you get to have some great adventures soon
The sit is only for around 3 weeks but we’re hoping to tour around Nova for longer. Nova has thankfully been largely untouched by Covid and we’re lucky enough that we will have had both our Astra jags by then too, 1 down each, 1 to go. Your July trip sounds great, hopefully it will happen and the vaccine roll out picks up around the world.
That is a fantastic picture!