Let Us Care for Your Home and Animals

About this sitter

My husband Jim and I are happily retired from business careers and enjoy traveling and house/pet sitting around the U.S. and internationally. We try to mix it up with city visits, small towns and rural locations -- each having their own charms. We're energetic and inquisitive travelers, but are also easily entertained by good books, country hiking, city walks, historical sites and museums. Walking an hour or so day is a regular part of our routine. We live now in a small town in Indiana, after many years in CA.

Why they want to house sit

House sitting affords us even more opportunity to indulge in our favorite activity of traveling. Unfortunately, the downside is that we are now unable to have pets of our own since we are gone so often. Our lives have been greatly enriched through the years by the dogs and cats who have been our companions, and we miss having those loving housemates. So we have volunteered at our animal shelter and been trained as large dog handlers, walking and socializing homeless dogs. We have also served on the cat team, and have fostered damaged or terminally ill cats. We appreciate the opportunity to care for and enjoy the wonderful pets of others.

Their experience

In addition to our testimonials, we have the following reference letters from before joining MMH.

1). "When my family and I went to Brazil for two weeks, I arranged for Jim and Geri to housesit for us, primarily to care for our very intelligent, high-energy dog Elle, the love.of our life. They came early to get acquainted and hit it off with her right away, as well as picking up the chores required for swimming pool monitoring and maintenance.

We returned to a clean house and pool, and an Elle who had become quite attached to the very long walks they provided. We realized that she had become so attached to Jim, particularly, that she seemed to grieve for a while after they left, and would look eagerly to the door when anyone came, hoping it was he returning.

Before that, the Pilgrims occasionally helped me with logistics for large charitable events I was involved with (multi-day walks and bike rides). They traveled throughout the country to do so when called upon, and were dependable, interacted well with the clients, and were resourceful when things went wrong. They have my recommendation."

Sincerely,
Dixie Jones
Napa, California

2) "The Pilgrims have asked us to provide a letter of recommendation, which we are glad to do. They came to stay at our house on several occasions to look after our 95 lb. American Bulldog, Curly, and our door-dodger cat, Bart, while we went on vacation. We go away during our Chicago area winters, so Curly was not too interested in going on official walks. But he did want to go in and out frequently, and Bart usually tried to streak out the door after him, so vigilance was called for.

They performed all tasks asked of them. Everything in the house was always in good order when we returned, and the animals, the primary responsibility, were in good health and happy."

Michelle Cooper
Palos Park, Illinois

What can they bring to the assignment

We bring a love for "all creatures great and small", had the cursory exposure to horses/farm animals that one gets growing up in Oklahoma, plus the array of turtles, gerbils, lizards, guinea pigs, birds, fish, rabbits, etc. from our daughter's shifting menagerie as she grew up. Together with dogs and cats, we’ve cared for chickens and ducks in France, and housesat in Texas on a ranch that included cattle, chickens, a horse, two donkeys, plus a dog and cat. We both drive stick shifts and Jim keeps an international drivers' license current. We are tidy, flexible, conscientious, responsible, and dependable -- don't smoke or drink and are vegetarians. We would care for your animals and your home as if it were our own.