This may be early, but I'm looking for a sitter for May 2025 Please Non-smokers only

House Sitter Needed for Username: Doglover136255   

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Posted or Updated: Oct 29,2024   Applications: 1

Location
Central New Mexico, Albuquerque
Bernalillo,New Mexico United States

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Availability
From: Apr 28,25  
To:      Jun 7,25
Days:  41, Short Medium Term Dates are a little flexible

Hello from Albuquerque, New Mexico!!

I am in search of a special person/s willing to stay in my home and care for my 4 large dogs, 1 tiny bird, 1 feral cat and put water in the pond for my fish for the month of May and the first week of June ’25 (so about 5 weeks).  Oh, and also water my indoor plants!

Let me first tell you about the living conditions should we decide you are the right person/s for the job!

I live in a four bedroom, 2 bath house.  Two of the bedrooms are actually set up as bedrooms.  One is set up as an “exercise” room (nothing really fancy—a treadmill and a chair for chair yoga) and one bedroom will be used as  a storage area for the items I remove from my closet and other areas to allow you more space.  Additionally, I have a large garage.  I have quite a bit of stuff stored in it, but there is plenty of room for my car and yours if you have one.

There is a room that I call the “den” which has my dining table, a chair, the grooming table for my dogs and the bird cage.  There is a another large room that is my “studio”.  I teach piano out of my home and this room is my office/studio.  It can also serve as a family room as it has a couch with recliners—so it offers a bit more seating than the den.  If you happen to play the piano, I have a beautiful baby grand piano (I’ll tell you the history on it if you are interested) that you are welcome to play and a large assortment of music if you’d like to take advantage of some of that.  I will ask that you take special care to not put anything on it that might leak or scratch the finish.  But, I’m sure that is not something you would ever do.  The room also has my desk—which you can adjust to a standing desk if you like.  You look into this room from the kitchen.  (See pictures).

The kitchen is fully equipped-with relatively new appliances.  There is also a laundry room with a large capacity washer and dryer.

My backyard has a 180 degree view—from the Sandia mountains in the east over to  the arroyo to the south and then over to the volcanoes in the west.  The backyard has synthetic grass, so no need to worry about mowing a lawn!  There is a covered patio that can be quite pleasant when the weather is nice and a lovely spot to enjoy our famous sunsets!   There is a side area that is planted with flowers, but in May they probably will just be beginning to come up.  It is automatically watered.

The house is situated in a quiet neighborhood called the Tuscany Development.  It is a safe area in which to walk.  I have never had any issues with feeling unsafe and I have lived here 12 years.

If you do not have a car, there is city bus service available, I don’t know much about it but you would have to walk a few blocks to take advantage of it.  Of course, we also have Lyft if you want to use it.

There are fast food restaurants, a couple of grocery stores and a hospital located relatively close to my house.

During Covid I took advantage of having groceries delivered to my house from Walmart.  It is a service I pay for yearly and you would be welcome to use it as long as you order at least $35 worth of items.  Of course, you would need to pay for your own groceries, but the service is free for you to use.  We can talk about that if you decide you’d like to take advantage of it.

I have high speed internet and subscriptions to multiple streaming services.  There are TVs in every room.  You are more than welcome to use them!  I only ask that if you order a movie that is a pay per view, you pay for that.

Now for the most important part!  My pets!

As I mentioned earlier, I have 4 large dogs.  Two are yellow lab/golden retriever crosses  (Jessa and Flame)  and two are full bred Bernese Mountain dogs (Bella and Luna).  As you can imagine, that means a lot of shedding.  That may be the most time consuming part of what would be required.  I find that I need to vacuum at least once a day.  Now sometimes I cheat and let the Roomba do the work, but I have multiple vacuums, brooms, push brooms, etc. that are available to make the task as easy as possible (as I am basically lazy!).  The girls are all pretty much couch potatoes (although they aren’t allowed on the couch or the chair or my bed!).  I don’t take them for walks, but I’m sure they would love it if you wanted to do that.  As a matter of fact, if they see you even touch a leash they will get excited!  They have a doggie door and come and go as they please.  So no need to take them out to toilet.  The poop does need to be picked up on a daily basis or it can get a bit overwhelming.  I also have something that you can spray on the lawn to assist with the smell of urine.

The Berners are barkers.  I am not a fan of the barking, but I got them when they were a year and a half old so that habit was already ingrained.  It can usually be calmed down by showing them the water spray bottle.

I have had the Labs since they were eight weeks old.  Both were bred to be service dogs, but failed to complete the training.  I can give you all the details on that if you are interested.  But, as a result of having them since they were young, they don’t really bark.  I’ll be happy to tell you more about their personalities later.

All four of the girls are lovers and I have never seen any of them be aggressive toward each other or toward any human.  They can be a bit overwhelming with their exuberance when meeting new people, but it is not aggression.  They calm down pretty quickly.

The girls are fed twice a day.  I keep their water dish full but they sometimes would rather drink from the pond.  That’s OK with me and another reason that you sometimes have to add water to the pond.

If you are so inclined, the girls LOVE to have their hair brushed.  As a matter to fact it is almost a struggle to keep them off the table and only go one at a time.  I have a hydraulic grooming table as they are too heavy for me to lift and I don’t want them jumping up or down.  Grooming them also assists with keeping the shedding down a bit.

All four are kennel trained and are quite good about going to their kennel when told.  Of course, their compliance is always rewarded with a treat!

They are used to spending the night in their kennels and can sometimes be bit annoying when they decide it is time to go to bed!

The feral cat (Spooky) lives in my garage.  She comes and goes as she pleases.  The only care for her is to make sure that she has food and water (no litter box!).  She has been living in my garage about 4 years.  It took three years for her to allow me to pick her up and when she does allow it, she doesn’t allow it for long.  So, don’t expect her to be very social.

Last but not least, is the parakeet.  His name is Autumn and he mostly eats, drinks and poops.  To my great disappointment, he doesn’t talk or want too much to do with humans.  His care involves simply checking food and water levels and to change the paper in the bottom of the cage every couple of days.

The other thing that I would ask you to do is to water my indoor plants.  As you can probably see from the pictures, I have quite a few.  I only water them once a week though, so it isn’t too big of a deal.  Of course, you are welcome to do it your way, but I’ll be happy to share the way that I have found works best for me.

Finally a bit about the area.  New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment and as a native New Mexican I can tell you that there is an amazing spectrum of things to do. (Of course, I may be a bit biased!)   In Albuquerque alone there are multiple museums, hiking trails, opportunities to attend live performances of all sorts, an absolutely lovely zoo, an aquarium and a lovely botanical garden.

Within an hour or so, you can reach Santa Fe with all it’s history and Hispanic heritage to explore.  If you go, be sure to see the Loretto Chapel!   There is the New Mexico Rail Runner Express that will take you from Albuquerque right into Santa Fe for a lovely day trip!

If you have transportation, to the west you can explore the Native American culture that so heavily influences New Mexico.  Acoma Pueblo Sky City is not to be missed!  To the south, you can visit Roswell (famous for the Roswell UFO Incident) or if you are more interested in the old west, Lincoln (known for Billy the Kid) is a wonderful place to visit.  And of course, Carlsbad Caverns is spectacular!  So many things to explore!!!!

There are multiple casinos within the vicinity if you would like to take advantage of that.

I also have spoken to my next door neighbors (a lovely couple) and they have said that if you would like to get away for an overnight excursion once or twice, they would be happy to take care of the girls.

As I have never done this, I’m sure that I have probably left off lots of things that you would like to know.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have!

I look forward to talking to you!

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