Confessions of House Sitters!

House and Pet Sitting, Short Anecdotes from Our Experiences as Professional House Sitters.

The GOOD house sitting experiences:

A retired homeowner couple with no family, for whom we had worked on several occasions, who said they had left instructions for their substantial country home to be left to us in their will in the event of a dual fatality! I think they were joking. . . maybe one day we’ll find out!

The chap from Ireland, a racehorse trainer, who was so delighted at the service we rendered to him and his wife in a family emergency, that he stuffed about £300 worth of €20 notes into the top pocket of my coat before we drove off, saying that we should enjoy ‘a drink’ on his kind hospitality. I had to raise an invoice for that amount, in order that the benefit was declared for income tax, which hurt, but thanks again, Richard, you’re a lovely man!!

A client told us that she would be unable to ever go away on holiday again if we ever quit the pet sitting business. Sorry, Margaret, I hope you find someone as trustworthy as us through this website!

The couple who lost an enormous fortune on the stock market whilst they were away, returned from their three month world trip. They owed us a few hundred pounds in expenses. So embarrassed at being unable to pay, being unable to raise any money at all from their bank, they offered to give us their car to sell, and asked if we would honourably return the balance of the money to them! Their Range Rover, house and dog were about the only assets they would manage to retain after selling all the antiques, family silver and even the horses to cover their losses. We couldn’t leave them without transport, and I refused. However, their garage was full of acceptable champagne and lots of ‘Pimms’ from their daughter’s recent marquee-in-the garden wedding. We loaded a trailer with so much posh fizz it lasted us for months!

 

The BAD house sitters experiences:

A man so close to his money, whom we encountered at a pre-assignment meeting, suggested that he would not use his mobile phone to send me a text message (let alone make a voice call) in order to inform us of when he would arrive at Birmingham airport, and therefore would be ready for his transport home.  Instead, he asked that I would sit parked-up in a disused industrial estate half a mile from Terminal 2 on his scheduled arrival day. Then he asked that I phone him every 15 minutes from a given time, because his mobile was for 'emergencies only' When he was ready to be collected he would then answer his phone.  Unsurprisingly, we elected not to enrol him as a client!

Veterinary Insurance Cover: We met a woman, who, when asked about Pet Care or Veterinary Insurance for her dog, said that if the vet bill was likely to be over €250 or GBP equivalent, that there was a ‘shotgun in the stable’ and to use only one cartridge if possible (!) then bury the poor animal in the orchard.

 

The UGLY (or weird) house sitting experiences:

DOG TV Time: Being requested, nay, instructed, to put two dogs on their respective sofas at a certain time of day on particular days so that the dogs could watch their favourite movie channel. (Yes, it’s true!)

Avoid Teenagers:  One couple asked us to look after their two teen-aged daughters for three weeks over the school Summer holidays whilst they, mother and father, escaped to rural France!  (I’d rather have sawn my own foot off.)

Proper Pampered Pets: Cats who can only eat wild line-caught Salmon delivered from Fortnum and Mason!! Can you believe the neglect those poor pusses would suffer?

Overly Strict Routines: A man who told us that the mail delivery person (the postie) should not be allowed past the gate to the property unless he or she arrived between 10.30 and 11am, Monday thru Saturday. Outside of those times, mail deliveries should be refused!

Road Kills R US: The woman whose pantry was filled with cans and jars of food from the 1970’s, and FOUR chest freezers full of un-gutted, un-cleaned road-kill intended for her consumption ‘sometime in the future, if times get hard’! “Help yourself from the freezers” she said. OK, Yeah, thanks. . .