For me it was chickens … just once, a flock of 12 rescues, I can’t wait to “sit” more.
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For us, it was definitely a tiny Chihuahua. For those who now say well that’s a dog and not super exotic, I say yes you are correct. But for us who are usually only surrounded by dogs at least 160 pounds or more, it is a bit unusual. We typically don’t worry when a bird of prey is around, or we walking over a bridge, and the dog normally not fits through the railing.
The remarkable thing was that this little sweetie disproved all our prejudices. All Chihuahuas that we have met before were annoying barkers who must be carried most of the time and acts as divas. But Pixie was different. No matter where we went, she was well behaved. No matter how long we were on a trip, she always walked herself, and when the big ones gets tired, she was still happy to walk with us. Even for things for which she was actually too small, she found a solution on her own. It was inspiring and changed our attitude towards Chihuahuas fundamentally.
And here as a pack leader in Milan
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We LOVE house sits with chickens… Ian has an affinity with them and I’ve often come across him wandering round with one tucked under his arm! My surprise was “Hairy Hero” the guinea pig owned by the young son of a homeowner - every evening I spent an hour or so being entertained by him in the bedroom where he was allowed out to exercise away from the dog. I was like a kid again myself making tunnels and interesting runs 
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For our second assignment through THS we were due to sit two VERY lively dogs and a parrot. The owner said their son could take the parrot if we weren’t keen but “everybody falls in love with him” (the parrot, not the son). We agreed to give it a go with a pet we had no experience of and what a week it turned out to be. “Anfy” kept us entertained and on our toes by imitating both the owners’
voices (mostly correcting the dogs but the odd swear word thrown in), singing, demanding a treat and repeating the ring tone of someone’s mobile phone - hilarious! We tried teaching him a few (polite) expressions and, from the owners’ feedback, it sounded as though he’d grasped them.
Did I fall in love with him? You bet! I actually think I might get a parrot when our travelling days are over.
Apologies: posted 3 rather than 1 photo and can’t see how to delete them without deleting the whole thing
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Another “first” for us was sitting one hen. We’d kept chicken ourselves so knew what to expect but “Mel” was quite something. When I went to collect that day’s eggs I found not one but several eggs in her little nest. Was she a superhen or had she sneaked off to the local Waitrose for a top up, just to impress us? She never let on.
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I must say chickens too. But because of my lack of experience.
I was asked to let them loose during the day and make sure they were all in before darkness because of coyotes.
Little did I know that they were used to come back in by themselves. All I needed to do was to lock the door.
I let you imagine my efforts to run after them. As soon as one was in, I was after another, while the first one was coming out again.
I finally found a stratégie. But I learned the hard way.
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Chickens for us as well.
Think maybe I over fed them.
Loved to see how many eggs we got each day
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♂:running_woman:
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Five chihuahuas! It was a local sit that I didn’t even apply for as the only chihuahua I had ever met was an awful, nasty little thing. However, the homeowner contacted me, begging for help as no one had applied and she had her vacation tickets purchased.
So I went out to meet them. Adorable! It was no more trouble than sitting one dog, because the whole little pack just moved around as one well-trained dog. If I said “Who has to go pee?”, they all went to the door, filed out to their own little pee spot, then came right back in in an orderly fashion. At bedtime, I just had to announce it, and they all went into the kennel.
They made such a lovely snuggle pile in the tv room.
It’s nice when your preconceived ideas or prejudices are torn down.
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That’s such a lovely story @Millie … “all’s well” thank you for sharing
A pug called Baby, we never thought we could love a pug, but we truly did
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Two geese. I thought I was going to be rather wary of them, but they were very calm (well, apart from the loud squeaking) and when I said, come on “time for bed” they calmly followed me and waddled behind me to their “home”
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They sound like lovely geese. I grew up with geese and ducks and those pesky geese used to nip the back of my legs when my back was turned! 
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Its worse Paul when you get a nip on your rear end 
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Haha, oh dear!
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We looked after two German Shepherds in Palm Springs. Even when we were on the plane going there I mentioned to my husband I was a bit nervous. Never had any experiences with German Shepherds before. When we arrived these two beauties just quietly ambled out to greet us. They were the most gentle, adorable dogs who were so protective especially of me.
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Beautiful picture. Love this.
And Palm Springs, lovely place.
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