Trustworthy, comfy and lickable surrogate human

About this sitter

Hello! I'm Lesley, a 59-year-old Scotswoman who has lived here in Yorkshire, England for over 20 years. I'm a self-employed wordsmith, sound designer, salsa dancer and plant mama, amongst other things, and I've recently started a YouTube channel about lifelong learning and doing all the creative things I've had on the back burner for way too long.

As a Mind My House newbie, I'd like to break myself in gently in a single-pet household that's relatively easy to get to from the nearest airport. Baby steps.

Why they want to house sit

I'd like to see more of the world in a feel-good way, to get an idea of what it's really like to live in different places rather than be a whistle-stop tourist, and I'm hoping that house-sitting will enable me to encounter good souls of the two-legged and four-legged variety all around the globe who will clue me up on the best places to go in their locale - whether that be the hippest cafés or the most aromatic lamp posts!

The added bonus would be to find myself spending time in picturesque places with adorable animals I can attempt to capture in pencil and paint in my sketchbooks.

Their experience

While I don't have any pets of my own, I have very happily been 'understudy human' for my friend's Staffordshire bull terrier on various occasions and, I'm very pleased to say, dear old Trent is still very much alive and well.

I have other friends whose cats are comfortable using me as a sleeping mat and bonus source of free head massage and fur strokes.

As a youngster, I desperately wanted a) a horse and b) an Alsatian (as
German Shepherds were known back in the 1970s). Given that we lived in a small upstairs flat, my parents had to put me straight on a few things. They got me a) a goldfish and b) a gerbil.

Being here on Mind My House gives me the opportunity to catch up on all the pet care I didn't get to do as a child, LOL! I'll be delighted to take your fur babies under my wing while you're away, and if you also have green family members who live in pots, I'll certainly make sure they're fed and watered too.

Recently, I've been binge-watching Rocky Kanaka's 'Sitting with Dogs' channel on YouTube. Have you seen it? Oh my gosh, every episode tugs on my heartstrings! It makes me want to drive straight round to my nearest rescue centre, but I'm sad to say, some things haven't changed for me. I now live in a rented multi-storey flat and my tenancy agreement doesn't permit pets.

Why am I telling you this? Just so you know your family fauna will get lots of love and affection from me while you're on holiday or working away from home.

What can they bring to the assignment

I'm a level-headed, clean-living, careful, neat and tidy mature woman who will look after your home as if it were my own - which means you can expect me to be security-conscious and respectful of your property and considerate to your neighbours.

I'm the kind of person who, upon buying a new product, will read the instructions from cover to cover. In other words, you can rely on me to study your household manual and your pet-care routine and follow them to the letter.

All of which portrays me as a rather uptight old matron. Au contraire, I'm very friendly and easy-going, and I find that both humans and animals are generally able to sniff that my vibes are good.

Languages-wise, I speak a bit of Spanish, and a smattering of French and German too. That makes me sound like quite the polyglot, but I'm afraid I often find myself mid-sentence, struggling to remember a word, and suddenly find myself speaking Spangermench. D'oh! Google Translate is definitely my friend.