My wife and I live in Warrenville, IL
.warrenville.il.us/c_city-profile.aspx
It has been way too long since we have both been to visit my family in England, therefore we are going to be away for almost three weeks starting October 16th, returning November 5th. The primary reason that we are looking for sitters (this will be the first time we have done this...) is because we simply a) don't want to, and b) can't afford to, board our 2 miniature dachshunds and 1 decidedly-not-miniature cat for three weeks. So it is essential to us that the individual or couple we pick to sit for us gives the animals what they want... Which is food, water and access to the lawn (cat is 100% indoor) for business! In other words, you would be free to be out and about for up to 6 hours at a time, and if you can drive 5-speed and needed a car you'd be welcome to use ours. Within 40 minutes you can be in the center of Chicago, or the center of the Midwest countryside. We do have some lovely places to visit fairly close by, e.g.
cantigny / (just minutes away longgroveonline just over an hour away starvedrockstatepark minutes away)
Our home is in a quiet neighborhood of small, closely packed and friendly single family attached houses. In England, these would be called 'link-detached'. It is an area where we have never felt in the slightest unsafe. We have a lot of very close friends in the community through our connection with the church we attend, and one or more of those friends would have a key and complete authority to visit our home while we are away (with a 15 minute warning phone call, of course!) We would expect you to meet these friends before we leave, which is why we would like the assignment to start a few days before we fly to England. We would of course pay for a hotel in the area for up to three nights if you like, although we could accommodate you at home. Of note, our town is on the Illinois Prairie Path network, giving you wonderful walking or cycling options. Within a short walk from home we have fast food, a lovely family restaurant, a local grocery store and other retail. Within a few minutes drive you of course have all the bewildering options of Chicagoland at your wallet-tips.
Our two dogs are nervous little things, especially Sydney who is deadly afraid of thunderstorms, and Bitsy, who is deadly afraid of pretty much everything but still tries to get her own way all the time! They are crated at night, and know (and obey) basic commands such as "go night-night", and... well, that's about it! Our home has a tiny lawn out front by the quiet street. The dogs are used to going out there unleashed, and only ever try to zoom off when they see a cat. They do still bark at everyone, even our next door neighbor who is great with them if you ever needed help! Out back, we have a deck that is enclosed where they can spend time unsupervised in the fresh air. The deck opens on to a large communal lawn. One of them (Bitsy) is not totally house trained. We rescued them 2.5 years ago - they were making babies in a puppy mill for six years before that. :(
Gingersnap the rescue cat is large, mean (not really) and nervous around new people. She is used to sleeping with us (not my choice) but will definitely take a while to warm up to you.
The most unusual part of this situation is that we may still have my 85 yr old father in law living with us at the time. However if he is, we will probably fly him down to Florida to visit family for at least part of the time we are gone. Other that that, he still works 4 days per week and is totally independent (doesn't need care of any sort), but is slow moving. This could be a deal breaker, but we cannot leave him in charge of the animals because he simply is unable to deal with any issues that need swift movement. Please don't let this put you off if you would otherwise be interested - like I said we will fly him to Florida for a couple of weeks, and we could then have him stay in a motel or with friends for the rest of the time you would be here. But if you don't mind the idea of a house guest while you're sitting, then let us know!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read all this.