Skip to Content

House Sitters Available: Friendly, responsible, non-smoking, pet loving couple


Do you need a trustworthy couple to look after your home & pets?

You are in luck.

Hello! We are Meg and Tom, a happy couple in our thirties.

As responsible, non-smoking, full-time housesitters we’ll ensure your pets get the love they deserve and your home, pool & garden are cared for as if they were our own.

 

Our Story

Us with Bau at the Dog Cafe, Seoul

Tom & Meg with Bau at the Dog Cafe, Seoul

We are friendly couple who love meeting new people – and pets – and will take care of your home and your pets as if they were our own. We are both very clean, like to keep a tidy home and have never had any problems with being accepted as tenants or getting our rental deposits returned on homes.

We were previously living in Brisbane, Australia but sold everything to travel the world indefinitely. We are now pursuing a life as Location Independent Professionals – In plain English, we work online to earn money with the freedom to choose where we work from.

Before we became digital nomads in 2013, Tom was – and still is, on occasion – a professional musician with over 14 years experience working weddings, functions, lounges and international cruise ships.

Meg was a Travel Agent specialising in cruise ship sales, (a job she landed after also working entertainment for an international cruise line – any guesses how we met?).

Recently we have spent a lot of time travelling around around Asia, Europe and now Mexico and always especially loved spending time at homes that had pets. Some of them had some awesome personalities, and were happy to give us poor, cuddle deprived travellers some affection ;-) .

We both grew up with pets and miss not having them whilst on the road.

Megsy has a 11 year old cat, Tamika, in Australia that she rescued from an animal shelter when Tamika was 5 years old. She lives with Meg’s parents and we often enjoy Skype conversations with the whole family – Tamika included. Butch, a beagle cross, has been in Meagen’s family for 7 years and we have often looked after him whilst house sitting for them. Before Tamika and Butch there was Tabbatha (a tabby cat, of course) and Jet (border collie).

Tom grew up with many cats in the family. Pippin, Spot (yes, Spot was a cat – my brother was responsible for the naming!), Cleo, were all rescue cats from the RSPCA in the UK. Tom’s father was always a “home grown” is best sort of guy. As such Tom gained an education in taking care of all the fruit and veg growing.


Puppy Cafe06

 

About Our Travels

We both quit our jobs in 2013 and have been running our travel blog Food Fun Travel while visiting destinations like – Myanmar, China, Georgia (country), Greece and many more. In fact we’ve been to over 85+ countries combines. So if you would like to learn more about us feel free to checkout all of our pictures and articles about our travels right here on our site

Why Choose Us to House Sit for you?

There are plenty of house sitters out there but you need someone who is the right fit for you and your pets. Get to know our style below so you can decide if we are right for you.

Our attitude to housesitting

Letting someone into your home can be a daunting experience. Rest assured, we consider house sitting like a job. We maintain a friendly yet professional attitude to all assignments. As online publishers, we understand how crucial good references/reviews are to maintaining a house sitting profile.

Trust, credibility and reliability are of utmost importance. We work hard to make sure every client, and pet, has the best possible experience.

There is no need to place your pets in an expensive kennel where they don’t know their surroundings and may not get along with the other animals. We are happy to give your pets all of the affection and personalised care they deserve while you are away – because we enjoy doing so. Leaving you to have a worry free trip with no concern for your pets or home as we will take care of everything.

About our House Sitting Experience and Abilities

Before starting our most recent trip we have both had experience with house sitting and pet care and are now ready to get back into it. For references, please see our profile on Trusted House Sitters.

Animals we have experience caring for:

  • Cats
  • Dogs
  • Poultry
  • Caged birds/parrots etc.
  • Guinea Pigs
  • Lizards
  • Fish (inc. tank cleaning)
  • Other rodent (Mice, Rats, Gerbils, hamsters etc.)

We are not able to care for large farm animals such as Horses, Cows, Pigs etc. We also do not care for snakes or tarantulas.

Other House caring skills:

  • General cleaning and caretaking
  • Gardening – food crops and flowers/shrubs.
  • House plants
  • Pool care & maintenance

Tom made Jam for house owners in Canada who had a bumper crop of strawberries during that assignment. So don’t be surprised if we leave some tasty treats for you on your return.

 

What are Our House Sitting Needs?

House sitting is a reciprocal agreement, of course. We have just a short list of requirements that make it possible for us to take up your assignment.

  • Broadband Internet. Our income is generated online. If we don’t have reliable internet, we can’t work and therefore cannot support our travels or housesitting work. Really slow internet connections, such as dial-up, just aren’t suitable to our type of work.
  • Utility bills. These should be covered by the house owner for all assignments of less than 1 month. For longer assignments we are happy to negotiate a fair contribution in advance.
  • Collection from local bus stop or train station. If you live in a rural area we will normally require local collection if you will be present for the handover.
  • Double Bed. We are always more than happy to take the guest room but as a couple we do expect a double bed.
  • Pet Food. We request that pet food is stocked up in advance. For longer sits, we are happy to replenish stocks and the receipts will be kept so we can be refunded on your return or by online bank transfer.

 

Optional Preferences

  • Minimum 7 days per assignment. Although we are happy to consider shorter assignments, they would have to coincide closely with our travel plans. Our preference is for longer assignments of 2 weeks to 6 months.
  • Transport. We will generally arrive by public transport. If you live away from civilisation then access to a car, scooter or even bicycle is always appreciated. We are happy to cover any extra insurance costs.

 

Why We House Sit

For 2017 onwards we are slowing down our travel pace, to stay in places longer, get to meet the locals and really experience what it’s like living in a foreign country, rather than just travelling through. As we are not able to keep pets of our own as we travel, looking after other people’s pets is an awesome alternative.

We are quite active in both the Couchsurfing and Airbnb communities and house sitting is yet another great way to get a local perspective on where we travel – as in us actually feeling like we are living as one of the locals in a new city or country. Who knows, maybe we will fall in love with a country and find a place of our own.

We also love food and Tom is a pretty awesome cook. Staying in hotels doesn’t allow us the freedom to cook for ourselves and eat delicious homemade meals. Having a kitchen is great – Tom may even treat you to fresh homemade pizza on a handover day :-)

Toffee and Coco HK Beach

Coco got a little excited about rolling in the sand at the dog beach in Hong Kong.

FAQs

Do you charge for Pet/House Sitting?

No. We don’t charge a fee for the service but we expect all associated costs incurred by pet/house care to be covered by the home owner. For example, pet food costs, emergency electrician/plumbing

Will you stay in our home?

Yes. This is the primary requirement for our service. Free accommodation is our main payment for House sitting.

Do you have police clearances?

Meagen’s most recent police clearance is available on request. Tom has recently completed his Australian residency application (we are not currently in Australia though, we are available to house sit in Europe), which is impossible to do without a thorough criminal record check – so we can provide evidence to support his crime free history, if needed.

Can we meet you first?

If we happen to be near your location we’d be happy to meet. It’s normally more realistic to meet using internet video chat (Skype, Gmail chat, etc.). Otherwise we can simply communicate by email.

What about the Handover?

It’s best for us to arrive before you leave so that:

  1. You can introduce us to your pets and home
  2. You can give us a full orientation and explain all the task we’ll be responsible for
  3. You can collect us from the local transport hub
  4. If you need to be dropped at the local airport or station we can drop you off – saving you money on taxis/airport parking etc.

If a handover in person is impossible, it’s best that we communicate in advance the full instructions for the house sit by email, rather than only leaving a note inside the house.

What happens if there are problems?

Provide us a list of preferred services – Plumbers, Vets, Electricians, etc. in advance. It’s best to have an account setup with these providers so that they can take payments from you directly, rather than us having to recoup the money from you or authorise a payment whilst you are abroad.

We’ll contact you as soon as possible if an urgent problem arises that needs your permission to be sorted.

Will you be keeping in contact with me with updates?

We can send you weekly updates by email. If there are any emergencies we’ll contact you asap. We are happy to contact you more or less often, just let us know. Otherwise, we’ll leave you to enjoy your holiday with peace of mind that we have it all under control.

Do you use our linen and food?

Food: We ask that we can use the basic staple items such as herbs, spices, oil etc. We’ll by our own food and replace any other non basics that we use. We will be using your pots and pans etc. of course.

Linen: We request the use of your linen. We will launder any linen used before we leave.

Do you use our home telephone?

We use skype, so have no need to use the home phone. If you want us to answer the phone for your calls, please leave us a short message to tell callers about where you are and how they can reach you.

Do you Drink/Smoke?

We definitely don’t smoke. We do drink.

We understand the importance of being responsible around your home and pets. We consider house sitting to be a job as well as a lifestyle, so it is always important for us to take each assignment seriously.

That said, we won’t be going T-total. Most people like a drink. We like to have fun, when we travel. But, we won’t let a few drinks cause any problems and we certainly won’t be inviting anyone to your home for a party.

Housesitting couple France

Meg with Alfie, the Maltese Terrier, in the south of France

———————

CONTACT US NOW

If you have any other questions or want to make a house sitting request, feel free to email us using the form at the bottom right of this page. Or you can contact us directly at [email protected]

We look forward to hearing from you!