Our first housesitting experience was 3-1/2 months in the French Alps, looking after a chalet all winter, near a ski resort and skiing in France and Switzerland from 2014 to 2015!
Since then, to be exact, we have happily completed:
- 129 house sits– many are repeats now, as many pet owners invite us back and schedule their travel around our availability.
- In 6 countries : Australia, France, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA.
- Cared for 308 pets: including dogs, cats, horses, goats, chickens, guinea pigs, fish, birds, turtles and 1 bearded dragon!
- For a total of 1182 nights = 3.24 years or 39 months or 169 weeks.
I keep track of it all in an Excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs: Color Coded Calendar, Housesitting Log (which is a database I built with all the detailed information for each housesit, including all the pets’ names) and several Pivot Tables I designed to automatically calculate and tabulate percentages and other fun data! Do I need to mention I was a Financial Analyst? I love doing this stuff! But most of all, we love getting close to new pets and being reunited with old ones.