Mary and Patrick from Scotland, recently retired professional couple in 50’s with experience of all domestic animals, seek global house-sits

About this sitter

Mary and I are a married couple of 30+ years. We are 59 and 60years old respectively and retired from teaching four years ago after 34 years’ service. We have lived and worked in the lovely town of Crieff in Perthshire for the last 30 years. As teachers, we always had long summer holidays and loved to travel. We towed a caravan for years, enjoying many a holiday with our two kids in the UK and Europe. We have also traveled further afield to the USA, North Africa, Hong Kong and Vietnam. We always took our little Border Terrier, Benji, with us on the caravan holidays as we regarded him as part of the family. Unfortunately, after 14 years of companionship and love, the wee chap finally passed on. Our children are now grown up, through university and have embarked on their own life stories.
We are both fit and healthy. We both enjoy running 10 km races and half-marathons as well as hill and trail walking. I also play golf and Mary enjoys yoga. I have had teaching materials published commercially but now have modest ambitions to do some creative writing in my retirement.

Down through the years, we have also thoroughly enjoyed looking after many different pets that belonged to us or other family members – hamsters, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, chickens and birds (canaries and budgies). From an early age, and as far back as I can remember, there were always pets in my family home – a cat, a dog, a guinea pig and a goldfish. When I married Mary and started a family of my own, I couldn’t wait to bring pets into the family unit. Both of our children love animals as well.

Why they want to house sit

House sitting seems to be the perfect amalgamation of our two passions – pets and travel.

Their experience

It was always part of the retirement plan to head off around the world. That is exactly what we have done and we are loving it. We have house-sat in England and Scotland, France, Spain, Australia and Dubai. The last two years of travelling and house-sitting have been wonderful and far exceeded our expectations. Obviously COVID restrictions have curtailed our travels recently but we have had our jabs and are keen to get going again. As well as mindmyhouse.com we also use trustedhousesitters.com and have received 5 star reviews which we can send to you if required. House-sitting has opened up a whole new way of looking at life and we have met some great people and their wonderful pets.

What can they bring to the assignment

Both of us are friendly and outgoing. We enjoy meeting new people, seeing new places and have a great sense of humour. We also really want to improve or foreign language skills. I speak some French and we both plan to embark on Spanish lessons. We firmly believe that when visiting or living in a different country, one should make the effort and at least try to converse with the locals, partly out of respect for them, partly out of being pragmatic. Both of us held middle management positions for many years and take professional pride in everything we do: I was Head of English at Morrison’s Academy and Mary was a promoted Guidance and Mathematics teacher at the same school. We are used to working with, and managing, fellow professionals. Having been an employee in an independent school also has taught us the importance of communicating and liaising with the stakeholders: parents and pupils. We are highly respected by our colleagues, parents and pupils and, again, we can provide personal and professional references, if required. We recognize that house sitting is not an easy option but a serious responsibility – albeit a rewarding one. Needless to say, if you are prepared to offer us that responsibility, Mary and I will look after your home and pets as if they are our own.