How did you learn about Trusted Housesitters?

Fun Stuff
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I think it would be interesting to hear how each of us came to discover THS. It has had such a positive impact on my life.

I’ll start with my own story.

I spent a lot of years handling a lot of responsibility – taking care of two dogs, a child, several family members with serious health problems all the while not feeling so great, myself, dealing with loss and upheaval. I raised my daughter as a single mother and had very little freedom to go anywhere. Then, about four or five years ago, after she had gone away to college, either in an email from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) or in their magazine I read a blurb about Trusted Housesitters and the proverbial iight bulb turned on! It took a couple of months for the idea to gel in my brain until I acted on it and joined, but it’s been a marvelous adventure ever since. I’ve met so many wonderful people- this forum included, and so many delightful animals, it seems every day is new and exciting. My gratitude overflows!

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We learned about THS by searching the internet for pet sitting services. We are very glad we did. The previous service we were using were very professional but they just came once a day for an hour and it was very costly for longer trips. We could have paid for more visits but that would have been even more expensive. We couldn’t have afforded it for 6 weeks and our cats would have been depressed after a while with almost no human contact, especially now that we have just one left.

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I’m an empty nester and needed a more affordable way to travel. And I ADORE the company of animals (usually more than people). A Facebook group I’m in for solo women travelers over 50 kept mentioning THS. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it was so highly recommended… I did my own research and the rest is history. I did over 20 sits last year since joining (several of them repeats), and the best part is that I’ve gotten to include my senior aunt on some of my sits, and she thinks it’s the greatest adventure of all time!

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:grinning:hello to all,
I discovered THS on a facebook NY page
where a young woman was looking to keep her animal
and another posted the THS link,
I looked and I found it purely brilliant :hugs:

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I was traveling through Ireland and staying with an AirBnB host who had a large menagerie of dogs and cats, but also traveled a lot. I asked her how she managed that and she told me about THS. As we had this conversation while I was on the floor playing with her dogs, she suggested I check it out because it would be “perfect” for me. After I lost my last doggie, it filled that empty space.

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I first heard about it in 2012 when I read an article in ‘The Sunday Times’ about the couple who started it when they were travelling. It seemed to me a good way of spending my holidays, as I was working full time then. I joined, but didn’t actually use THS. Rejoined in 2018…

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I googled it during the winter of 2021 as I was longing to spend time with animals. During the pandemic I started working from home and it got very lonely when my partner was away at work.
At the time I didn’t join because there were still too many Covid restrictions. A few months later I was in an AirBnB in Sweden, where two cats lived as well. One of them was immediately my best friend, hopped on the bed and we had a cuddle.
This sweet encounter prompted me to go back to THS and actually join. My first sit was in June and since then I haven’t looked back :sunny:

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I was looking for animal-related office work, having worked as an event groom in the horse industry for many years and then at a veterinary practice, I wanted to experience an office job (I was getting too old to keep falling off of horses!) that was pet-centric and the fact that it was a requirement of the job to pet sit to experience the product and you could take dogs to the office was a massive pull to me.
Fast forward to losing my office dog companion :cry: and relocating to a new country, we have been lucky enough to do nearly 20 sits and counting.

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Met another family at an rv park and they told me they have been able to travel the world through house sitting

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In September 2020, because of covid, my husband went full-time remote working. We were/are big fans of Airbnb and decided that we would give up our city centre - no outside space, apartment to see if it was possible to move around living full time in Airbnb accommodation.

This worked well for us until May 2021 when we needed to be somewhere specific for a wedding. The venue was in a remote location and we could not find any Airbnb accommodation.

As I was Admin on a large Airbnb Host Facebook forum, I put a shout-out asking if anyone had any accommodation we could use. None did, but one Airbnb host asked if we had tried house-sitting.

We had never heard of it but a quick Google search brought up Trustedhousesitters, We joined immediately and got lucky - there was a listing exactly where we wanted to be!

Having zero housesitting experience we joined this forum and were overwhelmed with the generosity of experienced hosts that were happy to share their advice, knowledge and experiences with us. This kindness encouraged us to apply for the sit and we were delighted to get accepted.

Unfortunately, one of the home hosts fell ill so that initial booking was cancelled but, by then we had already become addicted to daily checking out the new listings and had already started to apply to other sits that took our fancy.

After more than twenty rejections, out of the blue, we received our first-ever private invitation from a home host that had previously rejected us. His first choice of sitter had cancelled on him, he was now desperate, could we help out?

We were not too proud to be ‘second choice Rose’ so immediately agreed and our house-sitting adventure was, at last, out of the starting blocks!

We did our first sit in May 2021 in Towcester UK, looking after Mistletoe the cat (You never forget your first sit!) It could not have been a better first house-sitting experience and we left proudly waving and now armed with our first review to show future guests. ( The home host very kindly didn’t mention that I broke a vase whilst I was hoovering!)

“Colin and Karyo were just excellent. They were able to sit at the last minute after I was let down by one house sitter. They let me know of their arrival time and were completely reliable in all aspects. They were very polite, friendly, and courteous and asked all the right questions when we had a chat initially. On arrival, we met up and they were lovely. I was away for 4 weeks and I received regular updates on mistletoe – she seemed much happier with them than I! Was great to know both she and the house were being looked after. Completely self-sufficient as a couple – did not require anything from me at all. I have come back to an amazingly clean house, my plants in the back garden are thriving, my patio, table etc all look so much cleaner and more inviting than when I left and my cat Mistletoe is a very happy little girl. Would completely recommend Colin and Karyo 100%”.

The disappointment of our initial twenty or so rejections now seemed like a distant memory and our applications were suddenly now getting accepted!

That all seems like a long time ago now, and since then, our lives have been a bit of a whirlwind!!

We have sat all around the UK, in Spain, and in New Zealand. Currently, we are sitting in Australia on our 35th house sit. We are booked to be in Brussels all through September and In Amsterdam all through November!

Along the way, we have had the pleasure to meet in person other house sitters and home hosts that we now call friends. Some brand new to house sitting and others that are are far more experienced than us. All have the common denominator of ‘getting’ this lifestyle and of loving travel and loving animals.

We can not imagine settling to a permanent address again anytime in the future and will be forever thankful for the encouragement of members of this group when we were wet behind the ears and also to our nephew, who decided to get married in the middle of nowhere back in May 2021 :smiley:

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We were on a first time ever cruise eight years ago from Singapore to Dubai. We met a couple from Liverpool who we really enjoyed chatting with and they were saying how much they missed their beloved pets. I asked who looked after their pets while they were away and they said “Trusted Housesitters”. I’d never heard of the organization but as soon as we returned home to Canada, we joined. Just a couple of weeks later, we applied on our first sit - a local one and much to our amazement, we got it! We did quite a few local sits and two years into being members, we started doing international sits. It’s been a great experience!

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I learned about THS several years ago while doing a random internet search. Then, two years ago I semi-retired and returned to Alaska for a seasonal job. Honestly it was a bit of a tumultuous summer and due to that experience it ignited my desire to spend my winters caring for pets and traveling. It was then that while looking through my promotional email box, and saw an ad for THS and signed up. It has shifted my gears and I absolutely love it. I still work seasonally in southeast Alaska as a nature guide leading walking tours and in the fall return to house and pet sitting. I have one more sit for 2 months before i head back to the land of the midnight sun. Best decision I’ve made in a long time.

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in 2010 an email arrived in my inbox about a new housesitting platform called TrustedHousesitters.com I was a member of two other platforms at the time.

I was intrigued with the concept … to grow a community of pet loving travelers where no money changes hands. Where sitters sit out of the love for animals, having new life and travel experiences and in turn enable pet parent/owners to travel with peace of mind more often that they ever thought possible, while their beloved pet family members were kept safe and happy at home.

The sharing economy working to benefit pets & people … brilliant!!

I was so intrigued that I searched out Andy Peck, author of the email and founder of TrustedHousesitters. We connected first via a telephone conversation and then in person. After a 5+ hour “meeting” I became part of the TrustedHousesitters story and a 13 year journey that has changed my life and the lives of thousands of pets and people in places all over the world.

A global community of pet loving travelers whose beginning was inspired by a dog called Dave.

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In early winter of 2022, I read an article on CNN.com about a couple who were retired and traveling the world through THS. I thought what a fantastic idea and signed up.

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I’ve been with THS since December 2015. I had come across it on the internet prior to that when I was thinking of using a house sitter for my own cats. My last cat died in early 2015, and I was looking to start travelling again. A friend of mine suggested that I could cat sit their 11 rescue cats so that she could get away with her husband. And I thought, oh, that’s a good idea, looked up house sitting on the internet, joined and got a sit within a couple of days. And the rest is history with over 120 cats on my CV.

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I found out about THS in 2019 when I was bored at work one evening a few months before I retired. I was reading an article online about things people do after retirement. Delivering food or groceries was unappealing by traveling and pet sitting was. About a month after I retired I joined THS and booked my first sit within a week. I’m so glad I stumbled upon that article online!

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My story is similar in that it was from the AARP Magazine that they send to me. I don’t always read it but this time the front page heading was, I think, “50 ways for seniors to travel inexpensively.” The first company listed, was Trusted Housesitters. Once I read that it was for pet owners/lovers, I was “in”. I started out as a HO but quickly decided to try it as a petsitter.

My first sit was in Anchorage, AK. I specifically chose it because 1) my dad had been in the Civilian Conservation Corp in AK when he was young and it sounded like a great place to go 2) though I love cats, I hadn’t owned any in years so this provided an opportunity to hang with 2 of them 3)the dog was a Pitt Bull/German Shorthair Pointer mix. I had previously been bitten by a Pitt bull in a park, so had some fear reactions around them which wasn’t helpful to either me or the dogs. I felt that getting this opportunity to be around a very sweet one, would help me relinquish that reaction, which it did. Ted was the sweetest, most well behaved big dog I have ever met.

I’ve had wonderful adventures with TH ever since and I always love knowing that a similar pet lover will be at my home when my little dog can’t accompany me on journeys.

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@Colin your post just solidifies the fact that patience and perseverance will prevail. Look what would have happened had you just given up after a few rejections! Not every sit is right for every sitter and not every sitter is right for every sit, but there are plenty that are right…and THAT you have proven!

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We’d been pet sitting for years prior to finding T.H. but it was always random and word of mouth.

I learned from my Aunt & Uncle about T.H. after a chat in early 2022. They’ve retired a number of years ago and have used house sitting as one of their main tools for travel.

They shared it with me and my wife and I looked at it as an opportunity to explore different people, places, and critters.

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I was retiring in spring 2019, at the time both of parents were alive (aged 90 and 87), and they lived near me. I knew that in retirement I wanted to travel, and, I knew that my income would be somewhat limited. So, I needed to find ways to travel cheaply. I researched like crazy and found WorkAway.info and trustedhousesitters.com. I signed up for both.

I was committed to the care of my parents, so, read, watched and observed as long as they lived and my sisters and I took care of them (I’m the oldest and managed things). My dad passed away in June 2020 and my mom in January 2021. Two weeks after my mom passed away I was in Mexico working at a cat sanctuary (WorkAway.info) and I had my first THS housesitter, Janet. Janet has taken care of my house and pets 4 times since then, for not less than 3 weeks each time. She is now there while I’m sitting in Europe for 3 months.

In the last two years I’ve had a total of six different THS sitters, for a total of 11 sits. And, I’ve been a sitter on four occasions. For me, it’s a whole way of life. It enables me to fulfill my travel dreams, as well as establish new friendships.

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