Part 1 of our Traveling Pet Sitter Series.
Wanna Move?
“What do you think about moving out of the country?” And that’s how it started.
At the end of 2016, John came home from running errands and asked the question. I was taken a little off guard as we had just moved into our home and were completing the remodel. We were now retired and had the time but, move out of the country? Well we compromised and decided to rent our home out for a year and go “live” in another country. Mind you, we had never done anything like this before. Up until this time, we had just been the normal American couple, we worked our 9-5 jobs and went on a 2-3 week vacation every year.
Pet Sitting?
In searching on how to become temporary expats, I stumbled on TrustedHousesitters. It was perfect! We could travel to several countries and see more of the world while enjoying the company of pets, kinda like an Airbnb with pets. I researched the legitimacy of TrustedHousesitters as well as a couple other pet sitting sites such as House Carers and Mind My House. When I was satisfied that these sites weren’t a scam, I signed us up. The sign up process for all these sites was easy, some had yearly membership fees and some were free.
In upcoming posts, we’ll share what we did to make ourselves stand out among all the other pet sitters. We’ll get into what personality traits are essential for being a traveling pet sitter. We will also share what we feel are red flags and what to look for from a host before applying to a pet sit.
Life is Short, Rent It!
But before we could start applying to pet sits we had one major issue to resolve. We needed to rent our home in order to afford the year long trip. Retirement gives you the time to travel but not always the funds to travel.
We were lucky enough to find a wonderful couple to rent our home for a year. They were friends of friends. By renting our home, it covered all our domestic expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, etc). It also meant that there was someone in our home in case of any issues and they took care of all the outdoor maintenance (mowing, weeding, trash, etc) We asked our neighbor to be our “property manager” which meant they were available if any questions or issues came up, and they did (new furnace, new HVAC system)
Now that the house rental was out of the way, it was time to start applying to pet sits!
You’re Off To Great Places!
We had two areas in mind that we wanted to see. Central/South America and Europe. I searched the sites for interesting pet sits in both parts of the world and started sending out applications. We decided whoever came back first, that would be where we went.
We received our first invite to a pet sit within a month. A wonderful woman in Edinburgh Scotland took a chance on us and invited us to stay with Phillip the Cat for 4 weeks! We were on our way to Europe! Exciting yes but also a bit daunting. The idea of pet sitting wasn’t the issue, even though we had no prior experience with pet sitting other than taking care of our friend’s pets and fostering for our local pet shelter. We now knew there was no turning back. We accepted a sit and our responsibility was to arrive and complete the pet sit. Our job now was to book flights and start to line up other pet sits in Europe.
As first time pet sitters and only once visiting relatives in the UK, we had a lot to learn about moving around Europe and the ins and outs of pet sitting. It was definitely a crash course on the job training opportunity! We’ll get more into details in an upcoming post but it is essential that you are organized and detail oriented. If you opt to travel for long periods of time like we do, you spend many hours coordinating pet sits, understanding logistics and looking at modes of transportation, just to name a few tasks.
Wrap It Up!
We completed 13 pet sits throughout Europe that year. We actually only did pet sitting the first 6 months, by choice. The remainder of the time we spent mostly in Eastern Europe. We “lived” in Romania for 3 months. We stayed in Budapest for a month. We then went to Prague and eventually met up there with a dear friend who traveled with us to Poland and London before we ended our trip and flew back home. Pet sitting gave us the opportunity and along with renting our home, the affordability of extensive travel.
And that’s how we became traveling pet sitters.
Since then, we have completed over 50 pet sits and have received the highest rating, 5 stars, on all our reviews. We now work exclusively with TrustedHousesitters. We have been invited back multiple times for pet sits and we have made many new friends along the way. We have traveled to so many amazing places. The best part? Enjoying the company of so many amazing and wonderful pets.
Next up in our traveling pet sitter series: Do you have what it takes?
So For Now...
We have so much more to talk about! Please follow us to learn more about our adventures, how we do what we do and many money saving tips. Is there a subject you would like to cover? Leave us a comment!
Is traveling the world while pet sitting something you’re interested in? Join TrustedHousesitters and get 25% off your first year membership!
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