Mature professional female with 25+ years experience of house/pet-sitting

About this sitter

Mature reliable professional female, now based in Dublin, with over 25 years of house/pet-sitting experience all over Europe for dogs, cats, horses, goats, etc., including animals with additional health needs. Please note that I can no longer sit for indoor-only cats due to a recently-developed allergy (I'm OK with cats that go outdoors). I lived in France until I had to return to Ireland for family reasons, so am especially keen to do French house- & pet-sits.

I am fully-insured, and have a current valid UK DBS check (police + legal records).

I unfortunately had to take a long break from house & pet-sitting from 2020-2024, so lost all of my previous testimonials from Mind My House (and Trusted Housesitters): I am trying to re-contact previous people for whom I have sat to ask them to re-add their reviews to this new profile.

I'm looking for house- and pet-sits for responsible owners with well-behaved & trained pets, who want to be assured that their homes & pets will be cared for properly, and will be happy & relaxed when they return.

Please note that:

- I hold a full clean Irish (EU) driving licence but don't have a car, so can only accept rural sits if you provide transport
- I don't accept sits where the sitter is expected to contribute to cost of utilities, heating fuel, maintenance, animal feed, etc
- I am open to short notice sits if my work schedule enables it and the owner is open to covering full costs of travel

Why they want to house sit

I have always loved animals, and as a child had dogs, cats, horses (plus a golden pheasant which we found injured & nursed back to health, but decided to stay!). I started looking after neighbours' and friends' families' pets then, and once the internet became widespread that quickly evolved into house- and pet-sitting in other cities. I work for myself, but as that involves periods of intense travel I'm not able to have my own pets.

I love meeting new animals friends (and their owners), and experiencing new scenery & cultures through them. I also like caring for an animal in its home environment, as that's less stressful for them than being put in a kennel/cattery/livery, and removes associated risk of anxiety and ill-health.

Their experience

I have over 25 years of house- and pet-sitting experience in many different countries across Europe, both in cities and in the countryside. I've lived & worked in many countries, so I am used to adapting quickly to new environments & cultures. I speak English, French, Spanish and a little Portuguese, but I can usually pick up sufficient words & phrases in other languages quite quickly to be able to communicate.

I'm experienced at caring for lots of different animals, including dogs, cats, horses, goats, chickens, etc., including animals with additional health needs & need medication, a special diet or exercise regime, etc. Please note I can't sit for cats which only live indoors now, as I've developed an allergy recently to some indoor-only cats: the allergy is fine if the cats spend time outdoors.

As noted above, I lived in SW France until recently, until I had to return to Ireland for family reasons. I loved living in France, so am particularly keen to do house & pet-sits, and will consider any location.

What can they bring to the assignment

As mentioned above, I am well-travelled, adaptable & reliable and speak several languages. You can be assured that your pets will be happy, relaxed and calm when you return, and your house clean & tidy and in full working order.

I've renovated 3 properties in 2 different countries, so have good DIY skills. In my 30 years of house/pet-sitting I've successfully dealt with a number of property & animal emergencies, including storm damage to property, heating/power issues, illness and injuries (also, in my professional life I'm professionally Emergency Planning Gold/Silver Command trained) so if anything did happen, you can be assured it will be dealt with calmly and sensibly.

I do not own a car as I live in a city & cycle everywhere, but I've had a full clean driving licence since 1988, and so insuring me to use your vehicle whilst you are away should be very cheap.