This topic is for ALL members … especially our most important ones, the pets!
Your first ever TrustedHousesitters experience … share your story
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We decided to try out housesitting to enhance our travelling experience and after research it was obvious that THS was the biggest and best platform to register on. Our first sit in Kent wasn’t great. Big untidy, dirty house with an untrained unhealthy dog. Worst we’ve ever had. Thank goodness it didn’t taint the whole lifestyle and we carried on.
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Our very first Sit was the best experience we could have possibly ever hoped for caring for gentle giant Txuri, a Pyrenean Mastiff, for 5 weeks, in beautiful Aldeburgh, while her owner took a ‘trip of a lifetime’. Diana was also using THS for the first time so we were newbies together. We chatted for ages on the phone and she invited us over for lunch to meet her and Txuri and see her beautiful home. We all bonded mmediately and we fell instantly in love with Txuri. After non stop chatting, we had so much in common, Diana blurted out “Please can I say I already love you both and please will you come and stay with my precious dog”. Emotional!
We took Txuri everywhere with us she became like our own. AND THEN February 2018 we had heavy snowfall 
. Txuri was in her element, it was so adorable watching her bounding in the snow.
We now have a very special friendship with Diana, friends forever meeting up regularly.
This incredible friendship and wonderful start to our house/pet sitting journey is all thanks to Trustedhousesitters.
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@Julie what a wonderful first experience for everyone … especially the adorable, gentle giant, Txuri … LOVE your photos too, a picture really does say a thousand words!
Thank you for sharing 
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Hi @Jon-JWalking, I’m so sorry your first experience wasn’t the best, thank goodness it didn’t stop you from pursuing a pet and housesitting lifestyle and enjoying your THS adventures.
Thank you for the joy you share.
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Funny our first experience was similar. We are talking 2012 so early days for everyone but it really was a trial. The house was not the cleanest, they had not even put clean linen on the bed as we found out when we found a pair of undies in the bed!! The dog was only a young little Yorkie but what a handful. At the time we were travelling with our own dog and their dog Fonzie used to give our dog Jess such a hard time. Fortunately she was so good natured.
But it started a fantastic adventure which is now over 60 sits long.
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Amazing that you weren’t put off by that first experience. Glad you continued.
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Our first housesit was in the lovely Lake District for a month! We arrived on the 2nd of January 2018 to a small cottage in the northern lakes. It was so peaceful and we had the lovely Bob, the border collie, to show us around! He was so full of energy and loved going on hikes in the hills. We were knackered after a day of hiking and all he wanted to do was play more and walk more!
It was a great first experience in housesitting, we learnt a lot and also realised that we had made a great decision to start housesitting!
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Oh my this is 
!!
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Wow, you did well to try another after that, I think I may have seriously doubted the idea!
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My first house sit was just this year and it was more utilitarian than glamorous. It was less than 10 miles from our house for a 3 night sit. I really just took it to get experience under the THS platform and earn a review, so that I could be more successful in applying for traveling sits. The HO was delightful and the pups were really fun and sweet. Theywere free-fed, so it was a really easy sit. This earned me my first 5 star rating which helped me get sits in New Orleans, The North Georgia Mountains and an upcoming sit in Hilton Head. Because of the pandemic, I am only traveling within a days drive from our home, so I won’t be stranded if cancelation occur. We hope to do longer and further sits later and possibly travel internationally at some point.
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In May of 2013 we decided to quit our jobs and travel around the world. I started researching long term travel and discovered THS. We hit the road on mid August and started our trip in Ireland, then it was onto Scotland in September to spend some quality time with Olie and Rory, some of the nicest dogs we’ve ever met, their humans were lovely people as well! We spent our time hiking, relaxing and visiting the pub. It was our first experience and after that we knew we’d be lifelong members of the THS family
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Hello @Alice
Welcome to our Trustedhousesitters community forum.
Thank you for sharing your very first Trustedhousesitters memory and for the lovely photos, we can’t wait to get to know you better and hear more about your journey with us.
Our Forum is a small one at the moment as we have not yet invited our entire global membership, enjoy the conversations, making new connections and thank you for being part of our amazing community.
Stay safe and well.
Angela & The Team
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Lovely story Alice and welcome to the Forum, I’ve found it very informative and supportive
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Yeuck, good job it didn’t put you off and no doubt you laugh about it now!
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We struck gold with the first sit we managed to secure. Gorgeous pets, lovely home, fabulous location and idiot-proof instructions made it a rewarding experience. It’s become a regular sit (owner always gives me first refusal) and now feels like “going home”.
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Our first house sit was a fantastic experience and one that we will cherish forever. It was a beautiful countryside cottage near Bath with two lovely little dogs. The cottage was so quirky and personal that we felt like we got to know the owner really well but in fact we never met! We had one conversation before the sit and agreed the key would be left outside and then we left before she returned. We felt so grateful to be chosen and we had the most idyllic time walking the dogs over the fields and meeting cows and horses including a Shire foal. We were apprehensive about how it would feel to live in someones house but after about 5 mins we felt right at home and didn’t want to leave! We felt so lucky to have had such a wonderful experience on our first sit and it really set us up for our house sitting journey so far!
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My first sit was a holiday saver for a lovely lady Eileen who herself was going on holiday as a guide translator for deaf people. I got the sit a few days before she had to leave as her sitter had canceld without warning. So I got to go to London for Xmas and had a fantastic sit with THE most gorgeous mini panther and he was tiny. But such a loving little character. He wanted to be near me all te time and preferably on me. He was quite ill (had major tummy problems) but sooo sweet you could’ny help but fall for him. Heard from Eileen later that he managed to hang on until the summer but unfortuantely then passed, at the fantastic age of 19 !!
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My first sit was close to home here in Ontario. It was fab. I got to look after two of the sweetest dogs, a pile of kittens and two baby goats - and it had a swimming pool to boot!
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