How could we resist the chance to spend some time house sitting on the South Coast in Fareham, dog sitting a manic (or should that be maniac?) Border Collie, aptly named Maddie, and pet sitting, a no less crazy rabbit, called Poppy? Asked to arrive an hour before the homeowner departed for Spain, we discovered most of the hour was needed to detail the eccentric behaviour of both dog and rabbit. Maddie was a gorgeous, lovely natured, Border Collie who, like most of her breed, desperately needed a job to do. One of her many self-imposed, obsessive tasks was ridding the house of all flying insects, especially flies. As it was Summer, sunny and warm, we had most windows and doors open, so she
Having had a Westie ourselves, we were quick to say, 'Yes' when asked by an extremely nice couple to go house sitting and dog sitting in a small village just outside Royal Tunbridge Wells to look after their aging Westie called Bruce. 'Only thing is', said the lady owner, 'He's 16 years old, doesn't quite have full bladder control and his willy weeps a bit'. 'He needs to go out a lot, does leak a bit in his sleep, as well as, occasionally, whilst making his way around the house'. Somewhat more ominously, she added, 'He does let you know when he wants to go out but you don't have long to get the door open!' The house sitting was in a comfortable, spotlessly clean, two bedroom home and, luc
Mid-July we took to the hills... the Chiltern Hills, for a house sitting assignment in a small village, dogsitting two rescue dogs and five chickens. Having parked alongside the 'bursting at the seams' vegetable garden, we headed for the door to be confronted by the biggest collection of running shoes I've ever seen away from a sports shoe shop. He was an IT specialist, ex-Army NCO in the Signals Corps, while she was a self-employed event organiser. They both looked glowingly fit, exuded boundless good health and had countless athletics medals hanging off the bottom bannister of the stairs. Clearly, the top brand running shoes were not merely fashion accessories. Dizzy and Boo were delig
