House-sitting in England

A few years ago, sitting in our apartment in Buenos Aires, at the end of six months travelling around South America, Carolyn informed me that we would be house sitting for strangers upon our return to the U.K. “O.K…How is this going to work?”  I asked.

It is simple, she said, whilst others go on their travels, we stay in their home and look after their pets.  We then get to visit parts of our home country we perhaps would not otherwise have seen

We had done this before informally, mostly for friends, friends of friends sand  acquaintances . This time Carolyn we would enjoy a more “formal” and  organised approach with an online house-sitting agency.

We posted our profile online,  arranged references and within a few days people were contacting us with enquiries.  It has worked really well both for us and for the people for whose homes and pets we care for.

In the five years or so we have been doing this,  we have stayed in a wide variety of  homes in many different  locations. We have met some wonderful and interesting people many of whom we keep in touch with and who ask us back to house and pet sit on a regular basis.  All the dogs, cats and chickens we have looked after have been adorable and we have grown attached to all of them. It has been hard to leave some of them behind!

Here is a little about some of our most recent experiences.

Hertford

Looking after Henry, a huge but gentle and adorable Labradoodle was a treat. Being a huge dog he needed – and loved – lots of exercise.  Fortunately, the house was just minutes from some beautiful walks in the Hertfordshire countryside. Good job that for such a large dog he was so well behaved.

North London

This was last minute arrangement that we managed to squeeze in between other housesits.  A lovely couple in Barnet, north London, needed to attend a wedding in Scotland, so we spent long weekend looking after their two very affectionate, boisterous  and excitable dogs that had been rescued in Greece and bought back to England.

Wiltshire

November saw us in a remote farmhouse in an idyllic setting near Chippenham.  Carolyn had travelled down on her own by train from our previous housesit as we didn’t want to leave those dogs alone for too long before their owners returned. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived by car, much of the area had been flooded!! It took me several hours of driving around the Wiltshire countryside at night taking instructions from the owners on how to navigate the maze of (mostly flooded and impassable) country lanes from the motorway to the farmhouse!!

After retracing my route many times,  I eventually made it and was welcomed by our hosts with an amazing meal and some wonderful wine from their own vineyard in France.

Our charge for the next month was an elderly but  beautiful cat named Cashmere. As with many cats he was a little aloof to start with but we very quickly became firm friends.   His daily grooming routine (combing his lovely long fur for at least half an hour at a time) was something both we and he enjoyed.

Our time here allowed us to explore some of the most picture perfect villages in England.  Castle Combe and Lacock were two particularly stunning villages.  The City of Bath was fabulous with all its Georgian architecture and the busy Christmas market.

Rutland

One Christmas and the New Year were spent in Uppingham, home of the public school whose more famous alumni include Rick Stein and Steven Fry. It is the definition of a quaint English country town with a terrific weekly market, traditional butchers etc. and proved a great place to stock up with Christmas produce – we went a little over the top!

We were looking after a really quaint cottage right in the town, three dogs (which included a mother and her adorable puppy) and six chickens and some fish.

Three dogs, even three small ones, can be quite challenging. They all got very excitable  at walk time, but we soon got the hang of it and highlights of our days were the morning walks across the frosty fields (this has been a very cold winter!) and the evening walks around the streets of the town ablaze with Christmas lights. The walks around the streets always took much longer than expected. Everyone wanted to stop and talk about and stroke the dogs!! Each exuberant dog had its own personality and foibles and we loved them for that. They, in turn, seemed to love sitting on us, watching us eat and following us everywhere.   The  happy clucking from the chickens when we gave them a tasty extra made us smile every time.  Who knew chickens were so appreciative?

Lots of great pubs in the town and we visited most of them during our 5 weeks here. Boxing Day provided an extra treat of Morris Dancers in the square who later joined us in one of the pubs. We did explore a bit out of town, but not too much as we could not bear to leave these guys for long!

Henley on Thames

January-February saw us in beautiful Henley On Thames,  famed for the Henley Royal Regatta, beautiful  riverside walks and some great pubs and restaurants all of which seemed to be dog friendly.

We were looking after a beautiful house and two small but, if anything, even more beautiful and characterful dogs. The younger female dog followed Carolyn around like a shadow, the older male dog was very much his own man, a real character, my buddy and great fun to be around.

Henley is surrounded by gorgeous countryside and some impossibly picturesque villages, many of which have been used in filming period dramas for TV. One day we were watching “Endeavour” the prequel to Inspector Morse and realised that it was filmed in Hambleden the same village where we had walked the dogs that day! Spooky!  The “Vicar of Dibley”  a Dawn French classic TV series was filmed in a nearby village too, although the walk to the windmill on top of the hill looked too much for dear old Dennis.

South Downs

Apparently one of England’s newest national parks. I spent a lot of time in this part of England in the seventies so it was great to get reacquainted with the area.

Our companions here are two cats, again each with there own personalities. As with most cats were a little cautious of us to start with but that only lasted a day or so  and  then they were friendly as can be. I am typing this with one of them sitting on my shoulder and one on my lap!

Summary

We thoroughly enjoy our house and pet sitting and find it very rewarding. There are occasionally some unexpected challenges, but, having done this for many years we have learnt a lot by experience and there is nothing we haven’t been able cope with.  When we are in the UK, we find it to be a lifestyle that suits us perfectly.

We have met some wonderful and very interesting people (specific names and exact locations have been omitted for obvious reasons!).  Walking a dog, or two or three,  is quite sociable  – complete strangers often say hello! Other dog walkers give you the inside info on where is too muddy to walk and butchers even sometimes donate bones. Indeed, on a couple of occasions, we have got chatting to people out dog walking and swap phone numbers and ended up being asked back to pet sit for them.  We have felt very much at home in every new location.

When house and pet sitting we recognise that people are putting a tremendous amount of trust in us to look after their homes and their animals. We  take our responsibilities for both very seriously and make sure to understand exactly what is required in the care of both.  We believe it is essential to obtain full, detail information and instructions on the requirements of our charges – feeding, exercise routines, idiosyncrasies etc.

We recognise that owners will miss their pets whilst they are away (because we always miss them when we leave after a housesit). We make a point, especially on longer projects,  to provide regular  updates by email and sometimes even by WhatsApp or FaceTime.