Hello, dear community - My name is Theresa, and I’m a third-generation Southern California-born native. We seek sitters to stay in our home with our purr babies when we travel, and I also aim to sit for you worldwide. Sometimes just me sitting but likely most times with my husband, a native of the Netherlands. I seek out the unexpected, ordinary location to be a fly on the wall and blend into the local fabric whenever possible. I am deeply interested, respectfully, in knowing as much history as possible about people, culture, and geography, especially in the places I visit.
I look forward to getting to know you and learning from your expertise and experience.
Cheers!
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Hi @tealouise and welcome.
What a wonderful opportunity to be a sitter and a pet parent, you’ll get to see both sides of the coin.
I’m a pet sitter and totally addicted… and hope to have my own pets in the near future.
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Hi @tealouise !
Welcome to THS and the forum. Laguna Niguel is so lovely! I just returned from a sit in Southern California and just loved it! I’m sure you will have many people anxious to care for your beautiful kitties!
It’s good that you have added your THS profile to your forum profile! Experienced members will now be able to give you pointers to help you make your profile the best it can be.
The forum is a great resource. I suggest you read as much as you can. You can use the little magnifying glass in the upper right to search for topics of interest as many subjects, questions and concerns have been discussed in the past.
I have a few suggestions. Do you have a combined membership? If so, you will need two separate advertisements, as it were: A Sitter’s Profile and a Home/Pet Owner’s Listing. The profile you have added appears to be your sitter’s profile. This is what home/pet owners will see when you apply to sit for them. You don’t have to mention that you will also be looking for sitters for your kitties, as this can be a little confusing to homeowners (HO) who are looking for a sitter for their own pets. This should appear in your home/pet owner’s listing. Why don’t you create a listing for your home and add that to your forum profile, as well.
Under your names at the top your sitter’s profile, you could have a short description of yourselves. Browse other sitter profiles for ideas.
I would also suggest you emphasize your love of animals – dogs, cats, (or only cats, if that is what you want to care for) etc, and your experience caring for them over your desire to travel, as this is of primary importance to pet owners whose main concern is finding excellent care for their beloved animals.
The pictures of both of you with animals are great!
In your listing you repeat a lot of the same information you’ve stated earlier. A HO will be reading your profile from top to bottom, not clicking on, say intro, then experience but skipping why I want to house sit, which would make sense to repeat certain points, so use the space to tell as much as possible about why you would be a great pet sitter.
You’ve made a great start. And please, don’t hesitate to post anything here. We are happy to have you! Many great adventures await.
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Welcome @tealouise
Your ‘purr babies’ look very cute and the black and white one is just like Bianca, one of 3 rescue cats I’m sitting near Christchurch atm!
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Oh @Smiley Bianca is adorable! … what a lovely photo. 
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Welcome! Your purr babies are precious. I have friends in Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills. Visited awhile back as my friend’s work as Naturalists for Dana Point Whale watching. I’m sure you’re going to find lots of tips and like minded pet geeks here.
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@tealouise welcome to the forum…and I can see that many of our members have welcomed you already as well.
Southern California…ah…the beauty of it all. We have family and friends in San Diego and try to visit as often as we can since the weather is almost always perfect. It is great you are going to be traveling and trusting your little ones with this great group of pet loving and like minded sitters. There is so much knowledge and experience here and I am quite positive you are going to find answers to any/all questions you may have while beginning this journey.
Make sure you send pics of your adventures as we always love to travel along with our members!
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Yes, indeed, I am thrilled that this community exists… I am fully supportive to be part of building this space.
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So Happy to have you here @tealouise it would be wonderful to have you at one of our San Diego meet ups this year. Our next one is on April 29th at a restaurant called Dunedin in San Diego.
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Hi Mars,
I am so grateful for your insights, advice, and guidance. Yes, I have combined membership, and I did think that it appears, as you say, not to have separate profiles. So appreciate you pointing this out to me. I will get to work right away on it. Thank you so much. I am delighted to be part of this growing and supportive community.
Cheers!
Thersa
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She is sweet. How magnificent.
Thank you for the warm welcome.
Theresa
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Thank you! So grateful for all of you “pet geeks.”
Oh, such good advice, Debbie thank you. I will certainly share our adventures with the group.
Where do I do that?
as @Debbie-L is offline right now you can share photos of your adventures in the “Travel Talk” category by sharing a new post. When you find a sit you can always share your sitting related photos on this popular thread
Thanks, @Kelly I am thrilled that this group exists and happy to be part of it. Unfortunately, I believe our schedule is too tight to make the meet-up on the 29th; I’ll look for the next one.
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The next one will be May 13th 
…a special one in celebration of “dog moms day.”
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@tealouise you can just come back to the forum and start a new topic.