Hi from Darlington North East UK

Hi, we are Janet & Brian from the North East of England. Recently took the plunge and joined THS after lurking on the sidelines for a while wondering “Should we?” We’ve house and pet sat for friends until now, but as we are both recently retired and have a passion for travel, and cats, we decided to join.
We’re still looking for our first THS sit, hopefully a shorter sit in the Northern part of the UK, within an hour or two traveliing distance to begin with, but sadly these seem pretty thin on the ground at the moment.
Last year we housesat 3 cats in Cyprus for a friend of a friend and would love to find a housesit there too, or in Spain where we have spent a lot of time and would love to spend more time relaxing in the sunshine.
We are mainly house and cat/ small pet sitters, and would be comfortable caring for a small dog too. But would prefer not to sit any larger dogs to begin with, as neither of us have much experience with dogs larger than terriers.

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Hi @JanetandBrian
A very warm welcome to the forum. It is so lovely to see you here and thrilled that you have decided to take the plunge and become sitters.

I would like to suggest that you add as many photos of you and pets, as this will also boost your profile which is really good and you have put in lots of lovely detail.

In order to get your first sit, continue to be proactive as well as flexible, and also to reach out to local or last minute pet parents/owners who will be grateful for your help

If you have any questions, you can use the spyglass to find answers. There are also so many discussions you will find interesting.

Please keep us posted and wishing you so much success.
Best wishes
Therese and the forum team.

Hi @JanetandBrian , dont worry - there will be plenty of sittings for you to choose from, last year there were not enough sitters to go around! There seem to be a fair few sittings now in Northern England but maybe they arent ‘right’ for you - keep looking.

The standard advice on here for new sitters without many reviews is to look for local, short sits, as this way you are close enough to meet the home-owner in advance and they can get to know you before confirming the sit.

Your profile reads really well. A couple of things that might help:

  • any chance of more external references?
  • ditto any more photos, especially of either of you with animals?

Hi. You will a lots if sits come up in York area. If you put areas you would like to visit into your search then click save you will be notified of sits. I put France in this year and got a sit within a short time exactly where we wanted to visit. Good luck

Hello @JanetandBrian and welcome to TrustedHousesitters and to the Community Forum :wave:t2::slightly_smiling_face:

There will be plenty of sits come up for you to choose from I’m sure, it’s just a case of having to keep on looking and of course you can use the save search facility to be notified… if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to ask, we are all more than happy to help and good luck for finding your first sit :blush:

Hello Janet and Brian

Welcome to THS!

I’m from Darlington too, though I live in Durham with my husband and two little Podencos. We live part of the year in our Spanish home on the Costa Blanca.

We’ve been members of THS for about a year and it’s worked well for us so far.

Jill and Eric

Post edited to meet posting guidelines

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