Professional Pet Sitter, Home & Property Steward ready to care for your animals and home!

About this sitter

I'm 45 years old, a life-long animal lover, and I recently left a 5 year long role in live-in mental health support. The intensive nature of my previous job is something I'm still integrating and I'm taking this time to travel, explore and contemplate my next chapter. I've returned to pet-sitting, something I did previously. I am looking for either rural, or urban housesits, with or without animals, anywhere from 1 week, to 1 year in length. I love clear instructions from owners about what is required for care of their home and animals. Written instructions are especially helpful! I am ecologically minded, compost, recycle, reuse and try to minimize my footprint wherever I am and am mindful of turning off lights, minimizing resource use, i.e. heat, water, etc. I have some allergies and prefer to not stay in scent heavy places/places with a lot of fragrance. Essential oils/natural fragrances are fine, but homes that have plug-ins, fragrance burners, or homes that have been heavily sprayed with Febreeze, won't work for me:/

Why they want to house sit

I love to travel and haven't been able to do much of it over the last five years. Now that I'm no longer in my live-in mental health support role, I have the opportunity to travel more and excited about seeing some new places. I was previously a professional house and petsitter and love getting to stay in an actual home and be with animals while travelling, it feels more inviting than a hotel or hostel, and offers a window into how people live in a particular part of the world. I also enjoy the daily rhythm of waking up and caring for a space and its inhabitants, whether watering a garden, plants, feeding, chickens, walking dogs; these tasks add some comforting structure that I appreciate, especially while being in a new place.

Their experience

Yes! In addition to 20+ years of pet and house sitting experience caring for dogs, cats, rabbits chickens, ducks and fish. I've also done the following:
-Professional landscaping, trail work/erosion control & gardening experience
-Managed a vacation rental for friends for six months while they traveled abroad; scheduling reservations, inspecting property before & after guests, attending to maintenance issues, or scheduling vendors as needed, cleaning, turning over property between guests.

Have worked in hospitality in multiple roles, including:
-Innkeeper for a high-end, LEED Platinum certified inn, managing reservations, responding to maintenance and facility issues, monitoring biodiesel heating system, cleaning to an exacting standard using non toxic products,
-Additionally, Innkeeper at a separate, 10 room luxury inn showcasing a well-known home furnishings line requiring special care, checking in/out guests, providing info to local points of interest preparing and serving daily breakfast to guests, turning over/cleaning rooms daily
-I have 17 years of professional cleaning experience in a variety of settings: resorts, retreat centers, private homes, residential programs, and upscale inns
-Caretaker for a rural 8 acre farm, managing crops in a large greenhouse, and several indoor growing spaces, growing plants from cuttings, monitoring light, soil conditions, air quality, making plant food and soil amendment mixtures, watering, pruning and harvesting, performing minor maintenance around the property, demo-ing and helping to replace an old deck, building storage shelving for one of the barns,

What can they bring to the assignment

In addition to my years of experience tending to different spaces, homes and animals, I bring a deep sense of care and respect to animals and homes in my care. I love having the opportunity to connect with animals while their owners are away and prioritize making sure their needs are met, that they're happy and that the owners feel comfortable knowing they'll return to a clean, well-maintained space, and content, healthy animals.