Annette - That’s awesome that you’ve been sitters for six years now. That is reassuring to those of us that are new and wanting to do this long term. What was your longest sit and where was it?
Hi - our longest sit was one our first sits and it was only an hour away from us in Vancouver, B.C. We’ve also done two week sits in Dublin, Ireland and the Gold Coast Australia and we followed up with two week vacations of our own tacked on to those sits.
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We are on it, just over two months on a tiny island in Bocas del Toras, Panama. Most of our sits are one or two weeks.
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Hi @adventuresinlexington This is a good question in it’s own right. I’ve moved it to a new conversation so that this doesn’t detract from the original post question on the original topic. Please feel free to adjust the topic heading if you can think of a better one.
Our longest sits have been 3 months - in our first few years we aimed for 2 to 3 months to keep us on one continent for the longest time to reduce flight costs. We have also done the same sit 3 times over an eight month period in Mexico. Our sweet spot is 3 months as our absolute max as we begin to get itchy feet … although that theory has been thrown upside down for us over last 18 months 
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About 4 months in a village in Switzerland (we did this sit twice and spent 7 months in total there). Very nice, but a bit too long for our taste (1-2 months are perfect).
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Great question and thank you for creating a new category as this is an opportunity to present new perspectives and ideas of the many wonderful choices we have.
My longest sit was 3 months. It was a wonderful experience but like @Vanessa_A has mentioned I did start to feel like I was ready for another adventure. Nothing was wrong at all except that restlessness that stirs for something new. It passed within a few days as I refocused.
Ironically though, I do many repeat sits often and those are usually the longer ones. Some of those have been in remote places and have been as long as two months. When there is a particular place that touches me in a way that is difficult to describe I have joyfully returned. I will say it is just the right combination of physical place, animals and people. For me it creates the right atmosphere and the trust and comfort level increases and just enhances the experience. That is what is most important to me and what I look for.
On average my sits are 2 weeks long.
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My longest sits have been about 2 1/2 weeks.
A 19th C listed ‘castle’ in Somerset in the UK with a pair of delightful and fun black labs and a pair of cats. The castle had 2 woods, a lawn, a lake and and orchard so plenty of opportunity to spend time wandering with the dogs without ever leaving the property. Allowed use of the car so every few days I’d go exploring in the area. The only ‘drawback’ was that although the guest room was only 1 flight up (and had a toilet and bath), the shower was 2 flights up with the family bedrooms. And since this was a ‘castle’ the floors were double height so more like 4-5 flights of stairs to the shower.
Another ‘long’ sit for me was in Portland, OR. The dog was a charmer who loved to walk and was very well behaved. The neighborhood was great - lots of places for coffee and the weather was good enough that I could sit outside with coffee and the dog. Great public transportation for exploring too. The drawback was that the host was a bit of a hoarder so the house was kind of cluttered. Fortunately I could spend time outside.
And Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA. Two fun dogs and use of the car. The island is only 55 sq mi, about 10 miles from tip to tip and 5 miles across at its widest point. Some nice historic parks and public sculpture, and other things to see. Great coffee and bakeries in Friday Harbor that I could walk to with the dogs. A friendly dog park near the airport where you could take the dogs and watch the planes coming and going.
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Our longest was 19 months. We came back from 6 months of sitting in Australia in Jan '20 for a 4 month sit in Edmonton. Covid hit a few weeks later, stranding the HO in Europe. The sit was extended twice and ended up finishing in Aug '21. It was a great experience, lovely cat, great neighbourhood - but I was definitely getting a bit twitchy after the second winter. I did a few “short-haul” sits in the city just to give myself a different set of walls to look at 
.
On the other hand, we sure saved on Airbnb…
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Hello @adventuresinlexington,
Being sitters since 4 years, our longest sit was in Portugal for 5 weeks.
We never sit less than 1 week (we would if not would be very close to our home place).
Our favorite length is above 10 days and up to 3-4 weeks.
For Christmas we were lucky to find 2 sits very close so we’ll be gone 5 weeks in 2 different places.
@Myhnabird 19 month !!! very impressing !!
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Our longest was a 6 month sit in Spain which extended to 8 months … we enjoyed the area so much we even looked at buying a home there, we had a home in Vancouver, Canada which our sitters enjoyed for 10 months.
We had the very sad experience of having to help the adorable rescue dog we were caring for transition and do our very best to help the owners who were unable to return, through their grief, loss and feelings of guilt but they took comfort in knowing Bruno was loved right until the very end.
We also had many wonderful times and made lifelong friends.
When I secured the sit I started seraching shelters and rescue centres in the area and a week after arriving began to volunteer with a horse rescue centre, I figured I wouldn’t adopt a horse where I might a dog or cat if that was where I found myself … wrong!
Three days after I started two severely abused young ponies were brought in … long story short I fostered/adopted both of them, sadly we lost Valiente this year to colic but Hope, who has since lost much of her sight is currently at a rehabilitation centre in the UK .
Happy endings … that was my longest sit experience and I’d happily do one again.
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You are an extraordinary woman Ms. Angela. So happy that you are doing exactly what you were meant to do.
edit: I wasn’t born with “a leash in my hand” but I am gravitating fully into the animal world very happily.
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@BunnyCat I have the biggest smile on my face just looking at your beautiful photos, I can only imagine what joy these “fine feathered friends” brought into your lives every day, all 45 of them … it must seems a little less colourful and a whole lot quieter without them.
What an amazing sit experience, thank you so much for sharing 
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Our longest sit so far has been in Singapore for 7 wks. The HO was a teacher that went home to the UK for the Summer. Worked out great for us since we wanted to stay in Singapore for at least a few weeks. Our other long sit was 3 wks in Tokyo but was actually 1 wk with a 2 wk break and then another 2 wks at their place. Worked out perfectly that we were able to travel to Osaka and Kyoto for the 2 wk break and then go back to Tokyo.
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