Reliable and responsible married couple looking to see the world

About this sitter

Kia ora, hi there!

We're Kathryn (46) and Chet (47), a married couple from New Zealand. We are experienced housesitters, who love the opportunity to experience new places, people and cultures.

We have been housesitters privately for many years. However in 2016 we joined mind my house and we have been fortunate to look after a number of homes and pets around the world through this website and other connections. We have had a wonderful time getting to meet new people and make new friends. We have two great passions, animals and travel and we see this as a great way to join the two together in order to meet and help people and discover the world.

In April this year we commenced a new travel adventure which will see us travelling worldwide until mid January 2025. We have just spent two months in South Africa volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation centre, before arriving in Europe to complete a number of housesitting assignments.

From 18 August 2024 we will be available for further housesitting, throughout the UK, Europe and North/Central/South America, Ultimately, this means we are quite flexible and open to any consideration of short or long-term housesitting opportunities worldwide. So if you would like to discuss any options you may have, then we would love to hear from you.

Why they want to house sit

While we are seasoned travelers already, we feel that housesitting is a wonderful way to experience life as a local and its culture rather than a tourist constantly on the move. In addition, we recognise what a special privilege it is for homeowners to open their homes up to strangers and we have been able to make some great friendships through these experiences. House sitting through this website also appeals from the perspective that we get to look after homeowners beloved pets.

Their experience

We have been house sitting for approximately 25 years through direct contacts and referrals mainly in New Zealand and Australia. During this time we looked after cats, dogs, birds, mice and farm animals and really enjoyed it. In 2016 we decided to travel the world for a year and found this website and realised that we could housesit worldwide. It has been a wonderful discovery and since then we have been fortunate enough to look after a number of lovely cats and dogs in South Africa, Switzerland, England, Spain and the USA.

Kathryn was raised on a farm and we have both had our own pets as well. We are both huge animal lovers so in terms of experience with animals, your pets would be in safe hands. We have both been surrounded by pets our whole lives and have in recent years lost our cat and dog to old age so we are well accustomed to looking after older animals too and giving medication if required. We also volunteer at our local SPCA (Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) working with cats, dogs and small animals such as birds, rabbits, mice and rats. We also foster sick, injured and orphaned cats and kittens at home.

In addition, we have completed a number of trips to South Africa to volunteer at various wildlife centres over the years.

What can they bring to the assignment

We are enthusiastic, friendly, very reliable, honest and trust worthy individuals. We are also non-smokers, and have up to date covid boosters as well. We also have credit and criminal checks as well as references that are available upon request.

We will communicate with you as much or as little as you require while you are away and we are not scared of putting in a bit of hard work if required and we enjoy gardening, so we are happy to take care of lawns, gardens etc. Chet is a mechanic by trade so he has a lot of transferable skills that can be used if needed during a housesit, for the maintenance or care of machinery, vehicles, swimming pools etc.

We have completely renovated our last two homes and we treat our home with pride so we can ensure you that your house will be well looked after as well.

We are massive animal lovers and well experienced with a wide range of animals including big dogs, farm animals etc. Our pets Casper (cat) and Blush (dog in photo) passed away of age related illnesses, but during their later years we became very familiar with giving them medicine so we would be comfortable if you needed this help with your pets. Our pets were the most important thing in our lives so we would expect that yours are too and would treat them with extra care and lots of love.