Australia House Sitting Photography travel

House Sitting Australia

20160722-australia-03182
Some animals just have a way of getting a hold of your heart. We were very fortunate to be able to look after Bentley on two seperate occasions.

To be honest it should be called pet sitting. I understand once in a while people just watch over a house, but for us it has always involved animals. And I’m glad it has. In our 12 months in Australia we have completed 11 house sits in 10 different homes. This included 10 dogs, 4 cats, more than 25 birds and at least 18 fish. Sometimes you lose count when they are constantly moving.

20160717-australia-03140
There were always plenty of wild creatures that happily took care of themselves around the many properties.
20160812-australia-03352
A kookaburra watching over our laundry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are thinking,”Geez, this house sitting sounds like a cool idea.” You are right, it is. As long as you are open to quickly adapting to the unique requirements of a wide variety of animals and their owners, it is awesome. Sometimes people question being in other peoples homes and trust issues. If this is a serious concern for you, don’t do it. We have found that the type of people who love their pets so much they can’t imagine putting them in “Pet hotels” are some of the warmest, trusting humans you will meet. Their primary concern is their pet or pets and if that is your main concern things will be just fine.

20151111-australia-00373
Zoe was our first cat and quickly demonstrated to us how much fun a cat can be.
20151116-australia-00399
These two poodles were our introduction to the very popular Australian dog food of raw chicken. Nothing like the crunching of chicken necks coming from a little poodle.

 

20151109-australia-00342
And of learning to work with animals with disabilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20151228-australia-00693
When we had a family emergency and Karen had to return home for a couple of weeks I was lucky enough to have Lulu Belle to watch. She had more than enough love to help lift my spirits.

Flexibility is probably one of the greatest assets when house sitting full time. Being able to adjust to changes in home owners schedules and finding something fun to do when you are without a home to live in. We were able to fit in a couple of diving trips to the Great Barrier Reef, as well as exploring the Great Ocean Road and the City of Sydney when we were free from sitting.

20160110-australia-00766
A wonderfully friendly cat, Sam.
20160110-australia-00756
And Sam’s significantly less friendly companion, Vader. Vader came around in time though.

 

 

20160121-australia-01144
A rare moment of quiet with these wonderful 1 year old siblings Simba and Nala.
20160227-australia-01397
Pippin was a wonderful companion and kept an eye on me as I learned the finer point of pool maintenance at this house sit.
20160807-australia-03282
Barney helped us learn the beauty of older dogs. All they want is love and raw chicken legs.

 

20160502-australia-02190
The experience is a kaleidoscope of breeds. We truly learned to enjoy the fantastic personalities.
20160416-australia-02182
The one consistent trait was “It is dinner time….isn’t it?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20160425-australia-02146
The uniqueness of looking after beautiful birds and their interesting personality traits.

 

 

 

 

 

20160420-australia-02134
I also started to learn the fascination of fish. Certainly easy to look after.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been years since we have had our own dog, but being able to parachute into different homes and look after other people’s pets certainly reminds us why we loved having dogs. Their simple desire to be loved and played with is a good reminder of the responsibility they carry and what they give to the relationship.

20151128-f84a6309
Charlie was an outside dog that was just tickled if you would throw that ball for hours.
20151203-australia-00609
And Mia was happy to watch Charlie run back and forth all day.

 

20151129-f84a6331
And of course Ernie and Bert reminded me of the old guys in the Muppets watching over everything and commenting to each other.

Our saddest time when it came to animals was when we were watching over an injured wild lorikeet which unfortunately died while we were at the house. I never thought I would be sad over a bird passing away, but it had such an intense personality and when it passed there were no lack of tears in the house.

20160523-australia-02680
A free wild lorikeet visiting the injured one we were watching over. Stumpy was fun to interact with but obviously not meant to survive.
20160705-australia-03083
Lots of energetic finches.
20160705-australia-03080
Bossy canaries

 

20160705-australia-03096
And quiet quails.
20160705-australia-03053
One of many new experiences was looking after chickens, or “chooks” as they are called here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20160720-australia-03166-edit
Some of the other serendipities were things like learning how to make a proper cup of coffee.
20160811-australia-03343
And being able to hold the original Melbourne Cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20160831-australia-03558
Rosie was our final house sit and a pleasure. A great representative of larger breeds.

We feel we have only just scratched the surface of this vast country. We never made it far from the east coast and even then, I feel there are many places to explore in these regions as well as reaching west. It is safe to say we will be back within a few years to continue exploring Australia.

In the mean time, it is time to start packing for Asia. Life is good.

 

Welcome to our travel blog. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to say, "I'm out of here?" Well we did, and in 2013 we made it a reality. We sold or gave away all of our possessions other than what fit in our luggage and we set off on an endless adventure. Part of our goal is to share our experiences with others and hopefully provide some information, motivation, or just a moments escape. The general idea was to look for a place that would be ideal to settle down in. However in the meantime it is about experiencing life in different countries amongst different cultures and learning how to understand and appreciate each other. A large part of our time is spent housesitting which provides an excellent opportunity to experience more of the "normal" neighbourhoods as opposed to the tourist locales. Though we make sure to enjoy those as well. So through plenty of photographs and a running commentary come and share with us our life on the road.

2 comments on “House Sitting Australia

  1. Bryce Sherman

    Very well said, written and closed off for the time being.

    To be continued Id hope!?

    Cheers and kind regards,

    Bryce Sherman

    On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 10:47 AM, Peter & Karen Pecksen wrote:

    > peterpecksen posted: ” To be honest it should be called pet sitting. I > understand once in a while people just watch over a house, but for us it > has always involved animals. And I’m glad it has. In our 12 months in > Australia we have completed 11 house sits in 10 different home” >

  2. Peter O'Dwyer

    If Asia doesn’t work out there’s a house back here in April 2017 ….just saying. Have fun on the next phase of your adventure.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: