Dear House/pet sitters currently located in or
near New England:
We are seeking house/pet sitters for several 3-5
day in 2009-2010, 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 10.
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
2-3 hours away. That would be primarly
candidates from NH, MA, RI and southern or
central Maine.
|
