We are retired and have a small house in a neighborhood called the Flats across the bridge near Portland, Maine. Our family includes a couple of Ginger kitties and a black dog mix. Our home is in a place where I hate for it to just sit empty while we are away. We did VRBO before the renovation and had great success. Now that it is even better I look forward to finding sitters that want to return. Portland is such a wonderful place to explore. I am looking to find information and tips to find sitters even at the last minute. While we will be looking for sitters right now we hope to begin sitting after we get a few takers to watch our home.
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Welcome to the forum @cathychamberlain22
Take a few moments exploring the many topics and comments and please join in.
We do have fun here and hope you will enjoy contributing, we love stories,
and exploring.
Your pet family sounds wonderful and you live in a great area and have no doubt you will meet sitters as well as other owners soon.
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Hello @cathychamberlain22 and welcome to the forum. If you are TrustedHouseSitters members, you may want to add a link to your listings in your forum username. I’ll add a link to the instructions here:
adding your listing to your forum profile
If you have yet to join THS, then I’ll add a link so that you can see the many benefits of becoming a member.
Francine,
Voluntary Forum Moderator
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Welcome, my husband did the same - had sitters for awhile, then started sitting as well. We love it. Maine is on our list to go to at some point so I’ll keep a lookout for your sit. My best advice for you is to put alot of pictures and be very descriptive of your home and location when setting up your home profile. Good luck and I hope you love it as much as we do!
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l’ll keep an eye out for your sits. Would love to sit near Portland. I have some old friends in the area that I’d love to catch up with face-to-face. If you are open to letting the sitter use your car, it would make the sit more desirable, at least for me.
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Hi and Welcome @cathychamberlain22 
It sounds like a wonderful place you have there. I have no doubt you will find exactly what you’re looking here. I have a friend that I used to work with from “The First Portland” is what he called it 
(We were flying into Portland Oregon, when he told me that) and he spoke of how great of a place it is. So maybe one day I’ll make it out there to see myself. Welcome again, and feel free to ask any questions you may have.
-Deb 
Hi, I think I have added a link to my forum profile. When I click on the link nothing happens. would you mind checking to see if it works? I may have picked the incorrect link.
Thank you, I’ll get the hang of this soon.
Cathy
@cathychamberlain22 It’s working wonderfully for me. 
It could be that Angela saw your message before me and fixed it. Either way, it’s working now.
Hi @cathychamberlain22 I took a look at your listing. You mention that often your dog travels with you and therefore the pets to care for would only be cats. This can make a big difference to some sitters. If Pepper is going with you for this trip, that may be a more important point to show in your heading, as your listing will show a dog and cats when someone searches.
Your one photo, taken at night of (I think ) your kitchen is very dark. Can you perhaps redo that one?
Given your start date is March 20, as of tomorrow you can add your listing details to the Last Minute Sits category.
Also, if you have a standard or premium membership you can boost your listing once.
If you’d like your listing promoted on social media, please direct message Angela to request that as she needs your permission.
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Thank you for your input. Your ides are good ones.
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Wow! We found the perfect sitter for our house right away. He was posting from my same town!. After chatting a bit it turns out he wants to relocate to this area and is living with his brother while he looks for a place. We had him come over to go over the details. Everything is going so well. I just know it is easier in person to explain the sit. Glad this was my first one. I’ll let you know when we return, in three weeks.
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That’s serendipity in action!
Your cats look like great characters.
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Hi Cathy!
I’m currently in Monmouth, not far north of Portland. I’m doing a long-term sit here with two beautiful kitties until May. I’m here while I apply for my US citizenship, which will likely still be processing through the summer.
Cherie
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