We are looking for a responsible, non-smoking, mature cat-loving adult or couple to housesit for us for a bit less than two weeks over the Xmas and New Year, starting on 19 December 2014 and finishing around 2 January 2015 although the actual end date may be a day either side of that but we can confirm a precise date prior to commencement of the housesit. By 'mature', we don't mean old - we're not concerned with age, more that you clean, responsible and considerate of others, including of course our neighbours. Basically someone who we would welcome as a guest in our home (although of course we wont actually be here to spoil you as we would a guest:)). Given the time of year, this would probably suit an interstate individual or couple who fancy spending the Xmas/NY period exploring Canberra.
The house is a three bedroom cottage set on a large block in the inner city Canberra suburb of Ainslie. The house is an old double brick place which stays comfortably cool in summer. Access to broadband internet is provided. There's no bath unfortunately but otherwise the house has most mod-cons, including dishwasher, well-equipped kitchen, washing machine, dryer etc, as well as a reasonably eclectic book, dvd and cd collection. We keep the house reasonably clean. There's a robotic vac thing that helps keeps the cat fur and leaf litter under wraps, as well as an upright vac if you feel I've giving it the once over.
Location of the house is within easy walking distance of Ainslie shops if you fancy take away fish and chips, coffee or a beer at Edgar's Inn, or need something from the local chemist or IGA. Bus stop is about 200 meters from the front door of the house with buses going into the city and Belconnen. Dickson, including Canberra's version of a China Town, is about a 15 minute easy walk. The coffee shops etc of Braddon about 20 minutes walk and the shopping precinct of the Canberra Centre and the Dendy Cinema is about 25 minute walk, or a five minute drive. Our part of Ainslie and the surrounding suburbs are relatively flat and great for cycling.
The housesit would include sharing the place and generally being the responsible adult for two mature, fluffy pedigree cats. By 'mature' here we mean that they're well past the entertaining but often annoying kitten stage. The cats are pretty easy going. There's no catdoor but there is a kitty litter tray for their use at night. They're both pretty straight forward in terms of feeding. Their water bucket and dry food bowl needs to be checked daily and refreshed as needed. Otherwise they get fed a small can of soft food once a day and a small amount of cat milk every second day. The kitty litter tray needs changing once a week with the collection/removal of solid 'deposits' every day or two. They will probably want to cuddle up with you at night once they get used to you, and they enjoy interaction like chin rubs, back rubs etc hence why its essential that you be someone who like cats.
In terms of garden maintenance, we have a few potted plants on our veranda that will need watering a couple of times a week while we are away but other than that, no garden watering or other garden maintenance is required. Other than that, we'd appreciate it if you can collect the mail from our letterbox daily. We'll leave a good supply of cat food, litre, cat milk etc so we don't expect that you'll face any expenses regarding the housesit.