During the week from Christmas to New Years, we found ourselves in a delimma.  We had a one week break without any Airbnb reservations. We pondered what to do and decided we would venture out and do some pet sitting. This turned out to be an amazing and fun decision!

Our previous Arbnb host, Trudy, connected us with her dear friends, Elouise and Andre. They were going away on holiday and had been searching for someone to house and pet sit. After a short meet and greet , we were hired on the spot. WHOOHOO!!

We found ourselves in a spacious 3 story house, with 2 decks and a lovely swimming pool. And, most of all…..a BUNCH of fur babies, including 6 doggies and 3 cats. Quinn and I had both had pets in the past and had been missing the unconditional love that you receive from having animals. So this idea had been perfect!!

Over the next 7 days, we got to know each animal and each of their unique personalities.  It was so much fun!! Several of them we happily “re-named” due to their physical characteristics or their behaviors. The most loving, little 3- legged doggie we obviously re-named “Lucky”, the small rat terrier we re-named ” Grouchy Mc Grouchy Pants” as he always growled at all his brothers and sisters, and of course there was “Sargent Major” with her bushy eyebrows and adorable mustache.

The largest dog I simply referred to as “snuggles”, as he would come up , lay his head on your leg ,while leaning his entire body into you and want hugs. My favorites were the two little yorkies , Zac and Zoe. They were able to keep the names  because, well…. they were just so dang cute and their names suited them well. They pretty much lived on my lap whenever I sat.

The 3 cats kept their names. Mona- who always moaned and meowed for constant attention. Mouse- who was always hiding and never made a peep. (In fact, we rarely even saw her.) And then there was Mia- the victorious hunter. She  always had some type of creature (birds, lizards,Iguanas, etc) that she had captured to play with. Mia was so sweet and proud of her play things that she would kindly leave them in the bathtub or shower for us to see.

We also got to stay a night at the beginning and the end with Elouisse and Andre and we had a blast!  We had a Braii together, shared some vino and stories and the ladies had some mani/pedi time with Andre’s little girls.

Before we left we even took a trip with the family and all the pets out to the Farm that Andre runs.  It was a beautiful place!

One of the cool things about full-time travel is that you get to immerse yourself into people’s life and hear their stories, try their food, play some music and truly get to know a different culture.  Sometimes you hit it off, sometimes you don’t, but it’s always a great experience!  In this case, we made some life-long friends!

We had arrived eager to watch over the house to keep it safe while enjoying some pets, but left feeling like our love tanks had now been filled. Due to traveling full-time, it is not possible for us to own any pets. Instead of focusing on that aspect as negative, we simply decided that we want to be around animals more often. The solution:  we are currently developing a pet sitting profile online in hopes of doing this more often. So….spread the word, my peeps, spread the word.