Our membership has now lapsed but the year we joined Mind My House as sitters in Spain we were amazed by the amount of contacts we had.
From just house sitting, to some maintenance work and from being off-grid and very remote to city centre flats with cats. We had a last minute, almost panicky phone call, for the two days ahead. Most of those contacting us had animals and in the end the only house sit we did that particular summer was for three rather large dogs down inland near Malaga.
Property care, house checks, maintenance, gardening and plant watering is a norm in our daily life in the wilds of Jaen in northern Andalucia. But going away to housesit is a different experience altogether.
It's always a joy heading to new parts and then trying to locate the exact abode. When we arrived at our new home for the week, the gate opened and we saw three large dogs hanging over the back of a sofa watching us through the window. Excited for the greeting which, when the door opened almost bowled us over.
A labrador, a german shepherd and a bulldog burst out, all three trying to get out of the door at the same time. Our greeting was friendly and a little overpowering! Our own dogs have always been small to medium-sized, not able-to-put-paws-on-your-shoulder size.
One of the great things about meeting the animals is meeting their owners too! It's always a pleasure to arrive a night before if they are leaving in the morning, or in the morning if they are leaving later in the day to learn about what is and isn't wanted from us.
As important as it is that the animals and owners are happy the carer needs to be happy that they understand what is required from them. Then a relaxing, enjoyable time can be had by all.
So while at this moment in time we aren't members, we do still mind houses in a more relaxed way. We can be contacted privately rather than a deluge of requests, all which had us wanting to pack the car and discover a different part of Spain.
Unfortunately I lost all my photos of those gorgeous beasts along with my laptop the following year.
