Pause of the Paws in Search of La Dolce Vita
Our petsitting adventures consistently pique people's interest. For the first time in five years, we're pausing the paws this summer and fall season. Instead, we’re searching for La Dolce Vita. Big shifts are underway. What are your upcoming Big Shifts? And....can I help you start or achieve them?
Where We've Been
This summer/fall season marks the first time in the last five years that Dora and I will not be petsitting. By this coming fall, it’ll have been a full year with no petsits. Whereas over the last five years, we’ve spent up to 42% of the year petsitting in between travel and visiting family over six months, generally summer and fall. And the other six months or so spending the winter and spring in southern Portugal. Of course, 2020 was an anomaly with the pandemic; although we did manage over a month of sits that year despite being stuck in Portugal for 14 months straight.
The reasons we've spent large chunks of the year petsitting are many. First is that we both love animals and our perpetual travel lifestyle does not allow for having a pet of our own. Second, after bouts of adventuring, like our two months in Patagonia, we crave being in a real home to relax a bit, rather than some sterile rental. Becoming proxy pet carers for weeks or months at a time gives us the furry cuddles and homey environment we crave. Third is being able to drop-in like a local and really live somewhere. The fourth reason is to maximize nomad-lifestyle economics.
| Year | Total Petsit Days | # of Petsits | % of Year Petsitting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 91 | 7 | 25% |
| 2019 | 150 | 11 | 41% |
| 2020 | 40 | 3 | 11% |
| 2021 | 141 | 6 | 39% |
| 2022 | 152 | 4 | 42% |
Arbitrage Advocates. Throughout our perpetual travel, we'd already been practicing, without knowing it, what's called geographic arbitrage in the [digital] nomad/location independent/FIRE [Financially Independent Retire Early] communities. It's the practice of taking advantage of lower costs of living or traveling in other places in the world or elsewhere within a country. I had to look up what arbitrage means: typically used in economics and finance, it's the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more markets; striking a combination of matching deals to capitalize on the difference.
And with petsitting, we've taken geographic arbitrage even further by eliminating hefty costs such as mortgage or rent and all the associated bills like utilities, insurance, taxes, and maintenance; letting our hosts bear the costs in exchange for caring for their pets and home. We even began only applying for pet sits with the use of the owner's car included, when the location necessitated having a car. Leaving only costs for groceries and going out to see local attractions. And sometimes we even had hosts who pre-shopped groceries based on our dietary preferences and stocked the fridge and cupboards for us.
Rattlesnake Ranch. Over the years we’ve done pet sits in twelve countries on three continents. We’ve sat for the usual cats and dogs. In addition to some stranger animals such as goats, geese, chickens, chinchillas, a burro, and even a llama. Not to mention the unplanned encounters with a tarantula (twice!) and a rattlesnake—while barefoot—on a remote ranch high up on a mount outside of Escondido, California. That sit was so much fun, despite the close call with the rattlesnake. Watching Dora trying to herd the goats from their pen to the pasture each day, a short distance away, was hilarious as they could jump the fence and escape. And escape they did. We also took some amazing day trips into San Diego, La Jolla, and Oceanside for quintessential Southern California experiences.
Jungle Time. Then there was the sit for two dogs we never touched or pet; not once! They were filthy jungle dogs who roamed the Costa Rican jungle for hours on end and simply had not been socialized to human touch. Also on that short, but memorable sit, we woke up with howler monkeys each morning, a scorpion in the bathroom (that I had to, unfortunately, kill for our peace of mind), a giant frog that leaped out of the toilet three mornings in a row and the piece de resistance—six bats that slept on the rafters in the bedroom and flew out each night to hunt and came back in the morning flying through the house. And yes, we had to clean up the guano on the floor every day. There are lots more tails tales to tell so subscribe and watch this tag called PetSitting for more petsitting tips, tricks, and stories.
Professional PetSitters, We Are. We've had some truly amazing pet sits, fallen in love with many pets, met some wonderful people we're proud to call friends to this day, and stayed in gorgeous homes with even more gorgeous views. We’ve also had some horrific sits with both pets and owners that were nightmares; and some challenging locations.
For the bad sits, which were somewhat early on in our petsitting career, we take responsibility for not vetting [pun intended] the sits properly because we didn't know what we were doing. Since then we’ve developed and honed a rigorous set of protocols for selecting and vetting sits that have reduced the bad sits to almost nil. As well as on-sit and post-sit checklists, protocols, and systems that ensure the pets, the house, and the hosts get the highest level of professional service, and endless cuddles for the furry family, that we've become known for.
We've reached the point now with our all 5-star reviews and solid reputation on the platform we use the most, called TrustedHouseSitters, that we only apply for sits that are lux; in their house location, size, and ‘wow’ factor, along with the types and breeds of animals we most prefer. Feel free to schedule a session with us where we'll share our secrets and answer any questions you may have about becoming a pet sitter—and avoiding the pitfalls we learned the hard way.