Active, flexible and dependable retired couple now available for House/Pet Sitting

About this sitter

My name is Jamie. I had a Yorkie named ToTo for almost 14 years. He was diabetic, toothless, mostly blind and incontinent wearing diapers. Toto passed away in October 2022.

I was widowed 9 years ago and have been lucky enough to find a mate, Toby, a few years ago who enjoys all the things that I do. He had also adopted my Toto as his own.
I retired in 2000 from a 30+ year career in the Healthcare/IT industry. After retiring, I worked part time as a host for our neighborhood historical bed and breakfast and also helped clean an Airbnb rental for a neighbor. Toby is retired from owing and running an oilfield supply company.
We sold our historical home in the city in June of 2023 and purchased property in the country to build a smaller cottage. Most of our time now is spent clearing/cleaning/preparing the 3 acres for building.
We began housesitting as a way to travel and explore different areas of the United States as a local in that area would.

Why they want to house sit

We are interesting in house sitting as a way to experience different areas of the United States as a local would. Having responsibilities such as pet care, house cleaning and yard maintenance would truly give an idea of what living in a certain area is really like. We find that vacationing in an area is not a true picture of what living there would be like. We want to experience places while “doing as the locals do”.
Also, we both love animals! We both have a “soft heart” for animals and their unconditional love. My Toto’s passing was just so hard on us and our hearts are not ready yet to get that attached again. Pet sitting gives us the opportunity to experience the love of animals without the long term emotional attachment. Although hard to leave the pets we sit for, we know we will have upcoming new ones. Also, we have scheduled to do repeat sits, so we know there is always the possibility that we will see the pets again.

Their experience

We started sitting in December 2022 and have completed 3 assignments and are scheduled for 2 so far in 2024.
We owned a historic house in the city that we remodeled ourselves. We had a 3/4 acre yard that we maintained. We also helped the neighbor maintain his properties on a volunteer basis. We sold this house in June 2023 and bought 3 acres of land to build. The property needs a lot of work/cleaning done before building so this is what will be occupying most of our time in the next few years. We are currently renting and maintaining the house and yard on rental property as well.
We had a 14 year old diabetic Yorkie that passed away in October 2022. We administered 2 insulin shots daily for over 7 years and dealt with the occasional seizures as his diabetes was never able to be completely controlled despite the years of testing/scans/treatment.
We are both very OCD about making sure our house, yard and vehicles and are very well kept and clean, so we are very capable of taking care of any house/pet in which someone would entrust to us.

What can they bring to the assignment

What we could bring to any assignment that we would accept is a guarantee that upon a client’s return, they would have a clean, well maintained house and yard and an also a happy, content pet.