Dear House/pet sitters currently located in or near New England:
We are seeking house/pet sitters for several day in , as well 1 or 2 longer periods of 1 to 2 weeks.
Our home is a few miles from Portsmouth Center and route 95 while also quite near Great Bay with great opportunities for swimming and kayaking in season. The house has four bedrooms with an additional small office with broadband connections, as well as kitchen, dining room, living room, semi-finished basement and two-car garage. In our neighborhood we do lack some modern amenities such as street lights on minor roads. Each house has its own well and septic system. And with only a small volunteer fire department, we need to be extremely careful to turn off any heat-making devices (clothes dryer, coffee machine) when leaving the house.
Our main requirements in seeking a house sitter (s) is that they be conscientious non-smoking, non-partyers who are experienced, knowledgeable and affectionate pet sitter(s) as well. Our dogs are getting older and, while in generally good health, are experiencing some related ailments. One dog is going deaf and increasingly needs visual commands. Both have minor arthritis. Ideally, our sitter(s) will have some experience with sick and older dogs and be physically able to scoop up a dog and bring to the vet in an emergency. We are fortunate to live in an area with 2 24 hour care centers nearby. We may also be getting a third, younger dog at some point soon. We are looking for sitters who enjoy taking good care of animals such as administering medications, giving the occasional baths, regular walks, etc.
Ideal candidates would have a lifestyle that allows them to be at home some substantial portion of the time. Overnight travel, for example, is problematic, as is a job that regularly requires long days away from home. Ideally, we are looking to engage someone who may need to go out for appts. and meetings for 3 hours at a stretch, but not longer than that on a regular basis.
At present we have 3 wonderful pets, 2 dogs and a cat, who require daily company and care. Both dogs are setters, one age 12, the other now We have an electric fence around the yard so they can sniff around on their own outside. But we can't leave them out all day and do need to leash walk them regularly as well. Furthermore, there are coyotes in the area so we need to be vigilant on that front, keeping all pets in at night and be prepared to scare off the occasional intruder, be it coyote, fox, fisher cat, or raccoon.
For walking the dogs, there are several options from walking along the streets nearby to conservation land (except in hunting season) to nearby beaches at low tide during permissible hours. Our dogs love to walk at all of these places, though one of them needs to stay on leash. Our cat is affectionate, obedient (for a cat) and very low maintenance. He is an outdoor cat who likes to go out in the am and hunt a few hours a day day, depending on weather. But again he needs to be in at night due to predators.
In addition there are the usual light house related chores such as watering plants, the occasional cutting of grass or shoveling in season, etc If you would like to discuss this further, feel free to message back with your questions. Please also include any pertinent information from previous pet/house sitting jobs or your own pet and home experiences, as well as a general sense of financial expectations. We pay sitters well because we want them to have an incentive to take the best possible care of our pets and home, and, ideally, to come back again in the future.
Finally, please note that due to the repeated and short-term nature of these sitting needs, we are interested only in candidates within a reasonable driving distance of the area, at most hours away. That would be primarly candidates from NH, MA, RI and southern or central Maine.