Location
Taos New Mexico United States
Sit Dates Oct-12-22
- Oct-29-22
I spent over two weeks at Kitty and Joe's house in Arroyo Seco, near Taos, New Mexico, walking/feeding Guido, their 12-14 year old Labrador Retriever twice daily, watering plants and minding the house.
Their house is lovely and spacious, in a beautiful location, and has a well-stocked kitchen, good internet (30+ MB/s upload speed on speedtest.net. I was able to run two simultaneous computers videoconferencing on Zoom for a group presentation without problems) and good TV reception. The town of Taos is about 15-20 minutes away, as is Taos Ski Valley. They live on a dirt/gravel road about two miles from the center of Arroyo Seco, which has an attractive small town with organic cafe, market, and much more.The road has a few potholes but was easily navigable for my low-clearance Tesla.
Duties included watering the plants, taking out trash, picking up mail, pet care (meds, walks, feeding, play, dog poop)... Kitty and Joe are very kind and friendly, and have clear and detailed typed instructions with names and phone numbers of neighbors, repair and service people, and the maintenance items for the house. They have a well stocked garage and tool shed, as well.
They communicated well, and we texted or spoke every 2-3 days while they were gone, answering questions of mine or asking me to check something for them.
When it snows significantly (a foot or so), another duty is to shovel snow from the flat part of the roof. I climbed up twice on the roof to do minor repairs (weather station and check stove pipe) - the roof is very flat and has a raised area around the perimeter. It did not snow enough for me to need to do any shoveling this first time, though I expect to do so when I am there during the winter months.
Guido is aging and still playful - likes to fetch toys and sticks, and enjoys his walks. He is well-behaved and walks without needing a leash (though I would always bring one with in case vehicles or other dogs showed up on the road that we would walk along)
They invited me to come a day early and to stay with them the day before they left, which made it much easier to orient to the house, the routine, and very much eased the transition for all of us.
I found the entire experience quite enjoyable, and am planning to housesit for two more periods this winter for them.
