Hello from Canada

Introductions
#1

My husband and I live in Kelowna, BC, Canada and have been housesitting with THS for four years. We are retired teachers and most of the time, we housesit in England and France, but would love to find the perfect sit in Italy some day as well. We also did a sit down in Phoenix last February, just before the pandemic started.

2020 was a washout of course and our 6 weeks trip of three sits in England had to be cancelled last May/June but we are hopeful that we will again be able to travel in 2022. Fingers crossed!

Apart from travel, we spend our time at home volunteering for Pacific Assistance Dogs Society to raise service dogs from the age 8 weeks to about 2 years. We’ve had a hand in raising 3 dogs in the last 4 years and we have a new puppy joining us this weekend!

It’s difficult to have your own pets when you travel for 2-3 months a year, so pet sitting and raising service dogs allows us to have animals around and still visit other countries. It’s the perfect match for us.

I look forward to having the opportunity to interact with other house sitters from around the world!

I have sometimes blogged about our house sitting travels so if you’re interested, you can check it out here.

http://kelownagurl.com

~Barbara

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#2

@Kelownagurl Hi Barbara, from Kelowna a beautiful part of BC, love it there! … Welcome and thank you for joining our community forum, what a great intro and story, thank you so much for sharing.

Thank you for being part of our amazing community for four years, we can’t wait to share in your THS adventures, enjoy the conversation and connecting with our members from around the world.

Angela & The Team

#3

Thanks Angela,

I’m glad you’ve got this forum set up now, I’ve been looking froward to it.

You and I have also interacted in twitter I believe. :slight_smile:

Barbara

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#4

We have indeed Barbara , welcome again!

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#5

Welcome Barbara, it’s not too sad when a young dog leaves you at 2 after you have raised him ? After the loss of our beloved border collie, we hesitated between adopting a new puppy or doing what you do. I’m not sure I could cope with the pain of the departure… Every 2 years ? It must be painful even if a new puppy arrives soon after (which is a hard job, I had forgotten how puppies are terrible…)

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#6

That part is always tough, but it’s not unlike sending your child off to university. There are so many positives that we can handle the sad separation. And if we want, we can always get a new puppy to raise almost right away. We are also lucky that we are usually able to follow along on the dog’s progress and see the amazing impact they have on a client’s life. I think when you go into it knowing you will be saying goodbye in a year or two, you’re ready for it. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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#7

Hi Kelownagurl, We are on the other side of the Country from you in London Ontario.
We joined THS for similar reasons. We have always wanted to travel more. When our two elderly Australian Shepherds died within a month of each other, we decided this would be the perfect way to travel and still be surrounded with the love and comfort of pets.
Unfortunately Covid happened before we even got started, so we are anxiously awaiting a time when we can travel and try out this interesting way to experience other places, like locals.
I look forward to hearing experiences from you and others like you who have lots of experience to share.

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#8

Hi @danandamy welcome to our community forum, it’s great to have you join. We look forward to sharing in your TrustedHousesitters journey and enjoy connecting with other members … in Canada and around the world.

Angela & The Team

#9

Someone i’m sort of familiar with! Do you still do tri’s or just one sport these days?

Just saying ello from Oz :slightly_smiling_face:

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#10

Not racing these days. I do still enjoy running sometimes and we walk a lot, especially when travelling. How about you! (Do we know each other from another world?)

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