Hello @K.Land what a lovely story thank you so much for sharing.
Welcome to our community forum, it’s wonderful that you have joined, bringing seven years of experience with you, we cannot wait to hear more of your stories and we’re sure you have many insights to offer.
The connections we make are so special and yes many lifelong friendships develop when our pets bring us together, a shared love and a shared passion.
Enjoy the conversations and meeting other members from all over the world.
I’m here because I travel a couple times a year… once for 2 weeks and secondly for 4 weeks. I may also take several 1 week trips but I hate leaving my two small pups and I won’t board them. I can’t afford the prices that are now being asked for house and pet sitters and my grandchildren have grown up and have busy lives and are no longer available to stay at my house… so here I am!! I want to join but I’m concerned that being in a small city in Wisconsin that sitters will be hard to find. October is lovely here but the month of Feb when I need help it can get pretty cold and snowy. Do you think there would be problems in finding sitters?
Hello @Javadee welcome to our TrustedHousesitters community forum and thank you for joining from Wisconsin.
Sitters choose locations for many different reasons, it’s not always the well known or most popular as they are not tourists but pet loving travellers who have chosen a unique travel lifestyle, each and every pet sitting stay is a new experience.
We may view where we live as ordinary after all everything is so familiar but it’s new to sitters, they see different, an opportunity to meet new pets and people and have a new experience in a place they might otherwise never have seen or could be visiting friends and family, staying close but being independent.
With the the Standard or Premium Owner membership is a money back guarantee if you do not receive any sitter applications within 14 days of posting your first listing. Our Membership Services Team would be able to advise you and I believe a chat with one of the team would be very helpful, I’m going to connect you with @Katie_Mc to continue the conversation.
We found out about TH through a Facebook group here in Istanbul. Someone was asking for advice about kennels, and the advice was to look at Trusted Housesitters. We had never heard of them.
We had adopted a kitten in Tunisia that had just arrived in Istanbul to join us (after a few months in a foster home whilst her injections were sorted) and we thought we were going to have to split our holidays so that Kedi would always have someone with her. And then TH came along! The absolute perfect solution.
We were a bit nervous at first, but we’ve had 3 sitters now and Kedi loves all the fuss & attention she gets!
Hi @Heavenl1y and welcome to you and Kedi. What a lovely introduction story, thank you we are so glad you joined us from Istanbul.
So Kedi has welcomed 3 sitters, she’s practically a veteran of our community, so glad you got over your nervousness for your sake, Kedi’s and the great sitters she’s had and will have going forward.
Enjoy connecting with other members and sharing in all of our THS journey.
Company of wonderful animals.
Wish to travel.
Wish to live like a local.
Meet new people.
See the world.
We are sailors but know there is more to a country than water and the coast so we started to use THS to see a bit more of the counties we were sailing to. It then developed to travelling to countries without the boat and only sitting pets. Now, we are more or less full time sitters/travellers, meeting new animals and people every few weeks.
Life is good.
Elsie
Interesting @Saltrams
I am the total opposite. I worked hard to follow the rules, be a good girl (failed miserably) do the right things. I listened and followed “the man”. I am 66 now, retired and I am having the time of my life. I may not look it, but I feel like that free spirited hitch hiker.
Buen Camino! Happy tails to you in your journey!
I recently retired and miss travel, but living on a limited income makes that a challenge so my BF signed me up as a gift so I can try house and pet sitting. He still works and isn’t much of a traveler, so he’s happy to let me take off while he watches our pets at home.
I’m convinced it’s the secret to a long and happy relationship LOL. I am happy to read about all your adventures and experiences. I just completed my first of 3 confirmed sits here in the US (August, September and October). Next year, I’m hoping to get over to Europe. I’ve only ever been to Scandinavia and Greece, so lots to explore!
You are going to have so much fun @PajamaJan. As you have new experiences and explore, personally as well as what is shared here, you will see and become very creative. Enjoy and travel well!
I am currently “only” a HO but as a flight attendant I can completely understand the need to travel. This pandemic showed me how much I miss being on the go for a few times per month and I don’t look forward to retirement at all. But pet sitting might be a solution I never even thought about. There’s still time until I retire but I will l keep it in mind.
Congratulations to your first sits and I am sure there will be more to come. Maybe when you come to Europe you would like to spend some time in Germany.
Ah, I love this question.
We (family of 4) joined TrustedHousesitters very recently because during Corona lockdowns we realised if we can work from home, we can work from a home anywhere. This opened up a whole new perspective on the daily life grind for us. My husband works as an Agile Coach for a large Danish bank and needs to be available for meetings during the day, which is all done on Zoom. I work as a photographer and often with brands that need images of their products, which means I’m very flexible. The only thing we try to do is adhere a little to schooling periods. I don’t believe that the children need to be in a classroom but we do like them to be there for the 1st day of school or any fun events that if they missed it could affect their connection with building friendships with classmates.
We love to travel and it is the only reason we haven’t committed to owning our own pet. However, my husband and I have grown up our whole lives with different pets and I miss having animals in my life. So we thought, what better way of connecting a love of travel, working remotely and also having animals in life!
Hi Natasha …
Welcome to our community forum, thank you for joining us from Denmark and what a lovely introduction.
It’s such a shame to hear of animal lovers who are allergic to certain species and cat allergies are so very common, at least Mum can go and get a feline fix and 10 … that’s a LOT of kitty love!
We cannot wait to share in your new family adventure and you’ll find lots of kindred spirits here on the forum, helpful and supportive, that’s what makes us such a very special community.
I am curious to know how others found out about TrustedHousesitters. For me, I found out about THS like I do most things by pure accident like (this forum, Seinfeld, pineapple on pizza). I used to live in Sun City Center, FL and we would get a community newspaper weekly. About two years ago, there was an article discussing websites to visit for those wanting to visit different places around the world and be able to stay at others’ homes. One of those websites was THS, but it did not mention anything about petsitting. I went online and checked out THS and discovered that it was mostly about petsitting. I had a dog at the time and most homeowners did not want another dog to be in the home with their pet(s) for their own reason(s). So, I didn’t join at that time. But when I lost my bestie, Rocko, I decided to give THS a try and join. I am so glad I did, truly loving it.
Hi @anon49809275!
There is not a day that passes in all sincerity that I do give gratitude to my wonderfully, incredibly, vibrant daughter.
She is a registered veterinary technician who began doing local sits in California. From there she expanded and bloomed in a world traveler! My little girl who I remember clearly the first time I took her to London at age 9, how terrified she was we would get lost!
Avid now about animals and traveling, she encouraged me when I retired. I didn’t think it was for me but I am here to tell you I absolutely love my life as a home and pet sitter!
Hi @Amparo Thank you for sharing such beautiful photos! The love that your daughter shows to the animals conveys in the photos. Wow, from local sits to spending time in such places as Colombia is sure to be adventuresome. It is truly awesome how animals are the reasons why we travel to places we may not have otherwise traveled to and meet people we may have never crossed paths with.
After we found out that our neighbors, who we asked to feed the cats while we were away, fed them only half their regular portions or must have forgotten them completely on some days, we had our first sitter staying here. This was a private arrangement and we were really astonished how relaxed the cats behaved when we got back. From then on we had different people cat sitting but there was nobody available for our holiday next week.
A friend posted the link to THS on Facebook exactly at the same time as I was trying to find someone and I was so thrilled that I instantly signed up. It seems like this was the best decision to make sure that my cats are in the best hands and also that the house ist well cared for.
