Home and pet sitting is the answer when your retirement development doesn’t allow pets

Posted on 3 July, 2019

Image by Franz Bachinger from Pixabay

Retirees Sheila and Graham Jackson from Banbury in Oxfordshire have been home and pet sitting through Homesitters Ltd for just over a year.

Previously, the couple both had careers in the NHS. Sheila was a nurse and Graham worked as a healthcare assistant in a critical care unit until they both retired at the age of 60.

The couple also decided to downsize, sold their house and moved into a retirement development – they were attracted to the benefits of living in a retirement complex such as the fact it would suit them when they were older, it would be secure and there would be other people to socialise with. The downside for animal lovers Sheila and Graham was that pets were not permitted in their new home.

The couple learned about home and pet sitting when they met a lady on a bus who’d just come back from looking after a cat; she was employed through Homesitters and Sheila and Graham thought that this may be something they’d like to try too. However they didn’t think any more about it until they went to look after their daughter’s cats while she was on holiday and realised how much they missed being with animals.

Graham researched various companies online and thought the Homesitters’ website was the most professional. As the couple don’t own a car they wanted to know if they would be able to travel to their assignments by public transport, and if they’d be able to homesit as a couple, so they phoned the company for more information.

Sheila says, “The lady we spoke to at Homesitters was very helpful and answered all our questions, she explained that we could go on assignments together and that it wouldn’t matter that we don’t have a car as we lived in a well-connected part of the country, and so sent us an application form.

“We went for an interview which lasted four hours, which pleased us because we felt the company was taking a lot of care to make sure that we were right for the role.

“Since we were taken on by Homesitters we haven’t looked back! We’ve done a lot of homesits in London, as Banbury has good transport links to London. When we get to London we have no difficulty getting around – in fact in many parts of town it’s an advantage not having a car as it can be difficult to park. With the home owner’s permission we usually order our food shopping online to be delivered like we do at home which is very convenient.

“We’ve stayed in some fantastic places from a beautiful modern townhouse in Richmond right next to the river where we looked after five cats who were such fun to look after, to a large period house full of antique furniture, old master paintings and suits of armour where we cared for a dog.

“Homesitters is always supportive and calls us regularly when we’re on assignment to check that we’re ok. The company is very flexible and doesn’t pressurise us to take on assignments that aren’t right for us. They are extremely efficient, right down to sending us our payslips and payment on time – and they’re very nice to deal with, we’d thoroughly recommend them to anyone else considering home and pet sitting.”

The main reason the couple decided to become homesitters was to spend time with animals but they also wanted to do something together, to explore new places together and have joint responsibility for the animals and properties they look after.

Sheila says, “We often join the local library wherever we’re staying which is very easy, it’s a good way of finding out what’s going on in the local area such as walks and museums, and we borrow audio books which we enjoy listening to together in the evenings. I also enjoy knitting and sewing so tend to take portable projects with me like quilting to keep me busy.”

Graham describes home and pet sitting as like a holiday with responsibilities, saying, “We love going to new places and exploring interesting areas; in fact not having a car keeps us fit and gets us off the beaten track.

“We also really enjoy spending time with the animals, on one memorable occasion the dog we were looking after suddenly jumped onto the children’s trampoline in the garden and started jumping up and down just like in the John Lewis advert, it did make us laugh!”

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