Naturally, people write in the forum when they have a problem or concern, or need a place to vent or receive advice and support.
This post is none of that.
I would love to hear your stories about the good things that happened to in sittings or as a result of being a THS sitter or HO.
I’ll go first in the comments.
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Here is a partial list of the good things that have happened to me thanks to THS:
- My son and I sat for a young woman in Washington, DC, who turned out to work at the White House. She got us tickets for a tour of the East Wing (which is open to the public but usually takes 3+ months to get a ticket). Next week, she is taking us on a private tour of the West Wing!
- We (again, my son and I) became friends with a couple of homeowners (HOs), and we meet up occasionally.
- I am spending a lot of quality time with my 19-year-old son. On the days he joins me for the sittings we have long meaningful conversations, watch movies together, and do things together that we do not usually do as a part of our daily home life. We grew much closer to each other.
- I “discovered” Baltimore. I live an hour away, but like many people, I had certain prejudices against it. After doing a sit there, I found a vibrant city with plenty to do and a good nightlife. Since I am looking for a job and a place to live, I am now considering moving to Baltimore, something I would have never considered before!
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Sweet idea @Lilywize. A few amazing things
Great new friends across the globe
22 countries added to the adventure list
Taking care of 36 animals & 6 acres including a bearded dragon, giant tortoises, conures, quails, dogs, fish, chicks & chickens all whilst living in a treehouse in Northern Thailand 
First class tickets for Swiss trains courtesy of an HO
Freedom to travel wherever we want & make sitting part of our journey
Beautiful earrings that I still wear everyday from another lovely HO
Joining a community/tribe we never knew existed
Am sure there are loads more but they all make us very happy! #goodpeopleinthisworld
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Hello @Lilywize
This is such a lovely topic - thanks for starting it!
I hope you don’t mind but I’ve updated the title just to see if we can bring more attention to your discussion as I would love to see some more answers on here.
Jenny 
The best thing that sitting has done for me is expose me to living with so many breeds of dogs and cats. Other things involved in sitting — making friends, traveling and such — I can do otherwise.
Living with different pets, now I realize that I don’t have favorites — I’ve found them all lovable. That’s also made me less precious about my own dog, which I think is healthier.
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Being able to do sits where my grandaughter lives so I can visit her more often. Time with pets since I dont have my own anymore. More affordable travel for me since I’m solo. My first upcoming trip to Europe! None of this would have happened if I was not a part of THS.
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Your header is much better than mine, so I don’t mind.
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- I love meeting new pets and making connections.
- I walked two lovely dogs in Minneapolis to Minnihaha Falls in the snow. The waterfall had frozen into the most amazing shapes. I’d never seen a frozen waterfall before and my doggy friends LOVED adventuring in the snow.
- I was walking two other doggies, this time in Madison, Wisconsin and an opossum walked in front of us. I nearly lost both my arms out my socket that day
but it was so cool to see that funny looking creature and feel the excitement from the dogs. - While housesitting I was given access to a car and able to take a trip to a wolf sanctuary - absolutely amazing experience.
- I made friends with a parrot.
- Took ferries and buses with the cutest wee dog in Seattle. My sidekick. I shed a couple quiet tears when that sit ended.
- I discovered the very unhealthy American snack Dot’s Pretzels - amazing.
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The opossum that you saw in Wisconsin did not “play dead”?
Have you ever heard of the saying “opossum is playing dead”?
I remember a time when I took my dog out for his morning walk and we were about to approach an opossum. But then seconds later, the opossum “played dead”.
While it is called “playing dead” and looking lifeless, the opossums perceives danger and they go into shock and become involuntarily immobilized for which they have no control over. Eventually, they can get moving again.
I write from experience because—after 45 minutes, when my dog and I returned to the spot where the opossum had been—he was long gone.
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I have heard the expression but no, this fella didn’t play dead, he waddled along without a care in the world. He had great trust in my ability to hold the dogs maybe hahaha?
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What a great topic! We lived an hour out of the city when we joined THS. Our eldest son lived in the city and had been in a very bad accident and left disabled. We did a lot of sits in the city so we could be closer to him and help him in his recovery. We eventually moved back to the city four years ago. Doing those sits in the city, made me realize how much I missed living there and house sitting was the impetus for our move back to be closer to our son. We’ve also done two sits in the city where I was born where I was able to visit relatives I hadn’t seen for years. We became great friends with a homeowner couple who was one of our first sits. Their beloved pet has passed away but we still have a wonderful friendship with them. House sits have sometimes determined where we will go on vacation. We’ve been to Australia, Ireland, the Caribbean and other wonderful locations. It’s been nothing but a positive experience for us!
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I met Bear, a Romanian rescue dog, in Amsterdam and he has become one of the loves of my life.
He is a quirky silly boy who wants us to go to sleep with him when HE wants, he will run back-and-forth looking meaningfully at us and the stairs. But we usually give in because he’s so cute even if we’re not tired lol.
We have sat with them twice and his mommy and daddy have become friends of ours. And, coincidence? We have just moved our lives from Los Angeles to Amsterdam after retirement :-). And truthfully we have fallen in love with most of the animals we have sat with. But some are extra extra special.
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What was it like caring for a parrot? Challenging? Did the parrot talk?
We’re boomers and so far all our sitters have been millennials and younger. We tend to choose younger people because we live in the mountains and our dog is used to long walks with a lot of up and down and jumping streams. We ask them to stay at least one night and they join us for a meal or two. We’ve had a lot of conversations about What Traveling (and Life) Was Like Before the Internet and Famous Bands We Saw in the Sixties and Seventies. These sitters are the age of our own children who are bored with our stories. Before we joined THS we had a pool of friends who stayed with our pets but we kind of burned through them – after repeat stays the novelty wears off for them. I think about how I would review some of our friends: Ernest never put anything back in the right place; Ian did a bit too much reorganising of our kitchen. In comparison, the TH sitters have been outstanding. 
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It’s interesting how you prefer younger people to sit for you. We’re senior sitters and usually we seem to attract homeowners in our age group although we have sat for some young couples as well. I’m sure these young sitters must really appreciate your conversations about the past - that’s awesome!
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In a nutshell, it taught me I never want to be a full-time parrot parent @sharondc He was super cute and noisy, didn’t talk but squawked - loudly. I’d stay again if the opportunity arose but I’d never own a parrot. Part-time is plenty. He did end up bonding with me but as soon as his owner returned after 5 or so weeks, he was crazy aggressive and over the top loud. The sit as a whole though was absolutely amazing, in remote Pacific North West. Snow capped mountains, canals, forests, fresh oysters… amazing.
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Our best sit so far was taking care of two cats in Sydney. We loved the cats and the neighborhood, and got to experience Christmas and New Year’s in Sydney!
We’ve also enjoyed sits in some beautiful homes and locations, including Santa Barbara, San Clemente, Delray Beach, and a few other destinations. And it’s been wonderful to connect with pets again since we no longer have any of our own.
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I definitely enjoyed staying in some luxury apartments, which were very different from how I live daily. I also stayed in a beautiful large cabin (really, a house, just rustic from the outside) in West Virginia. I might not want to live in WV permanently, but it is stunning to visit!
Yes, parts of West Virginia are gorgeous.
My hubby & I have recently completed a 5 week stay in a 5 bedroom villa with pool in Portugal. There was no pet for us to look after but we kept their villa safe whilst they were away and kept their irrigation system working on their beautiful but vast garden & orchard. I was eating fresh figs and grapes each day. We visited some amazing places and had an amazing experience.
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