Category: Dogs

The Dog & Cats With The Fringe

9/12/2016

It was time to spice things up for the summer of 2016. We had already completed a dog sit in France followed by a cat sit (well four cats to be precise) in Austria. What would make the most sense for our next port of call? Scotland, it turns out. And, just for fun, it was time now to have both cats and a dog under the same roof. So back in the car we jumped for the long drive to Scotland’s jewel of a capital city, Edinburgh. Despite the distance to cover we actually had a chance to make a few stops in places like Dumfries and Glasgow.

Somewhere in Glasgow at 3 am

Now, for those of you who have visited Glasgow (or are from there) you may be surprised that I even remember that stay. You see, Glaswegians are the friendliest of people and always up for a good time. A night out with them means each move from place to place involves another pint of beer or shot of whisky, sometimes both. The Horseshoe Bar’s karaoke night will never be the same after Blair made his debut, and, if Terry is performing his card tricks at the Blue Dog, it’s definitely worth a visit for a drink and some live music. I’m sure the night would have gone on until the sun came up, the only things that saved us were declaring ourselves lightweights at 3:00 am and sampling one of the local delicacies, deep fried pizza, on the way "home". And so started our Scottish adventure. Off to Edinburgh we go!

Leith Links

On this occasion, we were sitting for a family in Leith, the historic waterside docks area of Edinburgh within walking distance of everything (yes, we like to walk, which is a blessing given all the doggies we look after). What we hadn’t realised when we agreed to the sit a few weeks earlier was that the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival was on at the same time and actually started on the day we arrived. What a bonus! Anyone who has been in Edinburgh during August will know what I mean. The city is buzzing with shows, people, just life in general. This welcome twist truly exemplifies the joys of house sitting. While you have serious responsibilities where pets are involved in a house sit - and they take absolute priority - there are always new discoveries and fantastic experiences to be found, and Edinburgh shared these with us in abundance over that long weekend.

We divvied up the responsibilities and developed our routine. I should explain that Blair has a theatrical background so I took primary responsibility for walking Midge, the Jack Russell, twice a day and Blair for feeding Emu and Sparrow, the two cats, and attending to their litter tray (God bless him). That gave him the time to attend at least double the number of Fringe events as me (our bank account has yet to recover)

Midge is a nervous dog, shy with new people until you get her outside. Then she transforms and, whenever I got her lead on, she would come into her own on the nearby Leith Links open space or during the more extended walks down to and along the waterfront.

Midge after a walk

The culprit

It was all going so well until she stopped very abruptly early one morning about as far from the house as I had ever taken her. This sharp halt caused her leather collar to snap in half. Worried that she would quickly take the freedom initiative and vanish down the street, I scooped her up into my arms and cradled her all the way home to strange looks from passers by. Unfortunately, with only two arms and a bewildered canine I had to get back home safely, Midge was all I scooped. I forgot to mention that the reason Midge stopped so suddenly was that nature called. So my deepest apologies to the wonderful people of Edinburgh for what we left behind and which had already been removed by the time I went back to look for it later.

On the Links

In the alcove

On Nicolo

Putting the always unpredictable Scottish weather to one side, Edinburgh is a fantastic city to visit, and if you haven’t been you should go. With both dog and Festival walking including going back and forth to Leith from the Festival events to check on Emu, Midge, and Sparrow, we have never covered so many miles in so few days. Or so many stairs for that matter. Getting to many of the Festival events required climbing up the hill on the top of which beautiful Edinburgh Castle is perched. Then when we got home we would go up and down the stairs of this three floored townhouse searching for the two cats, one of whom in particular loved to play hide and seek when not sleeping on top of me while reading a book. The other would often to be found gracefully “resting” in the adopted feline alcove. The house had so many fun nooks and crannies for cats to hide it was like exploring an Escher painting.

There was just one problem with this house sit. It was too short. If our gracious host family ever decides to invite us back and are reading this, two requests please:
1) Edinburgh Fringe 2017 would be great timing, and
2) feel free to stay away longer next time.

Our bright red car now has its nose pointed towards “south of the border”. For the first time as official house sitters, England, here we come!

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The Adventure Starts In Normandy, France

9/8/2016

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Inside Eurotunnel

It was with just a little trepidation that we set off from England for Normandy where our first official housesit would take place. All that stood between us and our destination was the English Channel , one Eurotunnel ride, and a few hundred kilometers of French country roads. While it was true that we had looked after other people's homes and pets before, they had been friends or family members that we already knew well. This time, we were walking - well rather driving - into something sight unseen.

We were excited though. We were heading to France. Being July it was the height of summer. We had already met one of homeowners on Skype a few weeks earlier. She was funny and charming and seemed to be as excited and nervous as us about the whole thing. The house in the photos looked wonderful. The sun was shining. We were off on an adventure. Not our first adventure of course, we have done quite a bit of International travel in the past, but a flavor nonetheless new.

You see we are an Anglo-American couple. The Anglo being me, Nicolo. Well, in case you are wondering about the name, half English through my father and half Italian through my mother. The all-American being Blair, my husband. We have travelled in our spare time for years. We’ve been to the deserts of Mexico, the cities of India, the canals of Amsterdam, the beaches of Australia. Now life has led us to a place where we are both free from the constraints of the 9-to-5 to explore the world as we see fit, and as luck would have it, a relative introduced us to the world of house sitting at the same time.

So that’s how we ended up on this adventure, but how would it go? Would people really be so willing to hand over the keys to their home and the care of their pets to people they had only met online? As we drove down the narrow, curving country roads on the final stretch we acknowledged the beauty of this part of northern France with its timber framed 'Colombage' style houses and rolling countryside. Then, as we left the road and went down a long driveway, the house came into sight. And it wasn’t a disappointment. The photos we had seen were not “real estate agent” photoshopped, in fact, they didn’t really do it justice. We were not prepared for this beautiful house in a charming, tranquil setting.

Our spectacular home for the next ten days

Bubbles

One by one we met the fantastic family of four who made us feel so welcome and at home. I’m not saying we were expecting them to line up and announce themselves like the Von Trapp children, but we were quite surprised and relieved by how casual the whole affair was. As with any home with two teenage boys, there was a certain amount of excitement and energy. You see, they were off the next morning to check out universities in England and everyone was trying to make sure everything was ready. Despite all of this going on they found time as a family to prepare a delicious meal of grilled local fish to share while we got to know them and, even more importantly, as we met Bubbles the dog, who we would be sharing our lives with for the next week and a half.

We had been warned Bubbles could be a little temperamental with new people. She was a little uneasy with us at first, as you would be too if two tall strangers showed up one day and took the place of your loving people. But a few feedings later and she was as happy as a dog could be. Whether darting around the large garden after her toy rabbit, going for long walks to buy amazing fresh baguettes, or snuggling up next to us on the sofa, she was an absolute delight. Bubbles is the kind of dog we all crave. Energetic when outside, calm when inside, and privately undertaking her “other business” hidden from humans in the bushes and woods at the edge of the garden so we never had to pick up after her. In fact, you couldn’t. She would disappear for a minute or two each day and come back relieved and ready for play.

With her (fake) pet rabbit

We bonded. Within a couple of days my “little helper” followed me everywhere. If we went outside for a glass of the famous (and delicious) local cider, she would follow. When we sat on the sofa to watch television or read a book in the evening, she would join us. When we went to bed, she would climb the stairs with us then settle into her bed next door and sleep all night (except on the one occasion when she very kindly (and very thankfully) woke me to say “I need to pee desperately”). When we went to the bathroom…. okay, well she didn’t follow there. The only thing she didn’t like? Wearing a harness. She was happy to let you know that putting the leash on her collar would be just fine, thank you very much.

What a joy this first house sit turned out to be. We were able to see and experience so much during our time. The Normandy American Cemetery, for a day of reflection. A journey along The Cider Route where we found the most delicious pear cider (and bought 18 bottles of it). The market at Honfleur with its sounds and colors! We could have stayed on for weeks more. We were actually a little sad when the host family came back. And it’s not because we were not looking forward to seeing them all again, we just knew that we would miss our new home and our new furry friend. And that, it has to be said, is the only small downside of house and pet sitting. You become a foster parent. You bond. You quickly settle into a life and don’t want to say goodbye so soon. But like most feelings the sadness passed while we spent the evening sharing our respective French and English experiences over wine and food. As we jumped in the car the next day I looked back in the mirror and spotted Bubbles with her permanent family waving us goodbye and for a moment I had to reflect on the experience that seems to have gone by in an instant and but changed so much about our lives from there on out. Still, we just knew we would see her again one day, for we bonded not just with her, but with the whole family. But mostly we knew this because they asked us if we would sit for them again the next summer in France! The only thing to say to that is “Yes!”

So forget sadness, after having such a great time in France, we were ready to see if this experience was a fluke or if this house sitting thing was really as good as it seems. We pointed the car in the direction of Austria. Our next adventure was about to begin.

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The Adventure Starts In Normandy, France