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Couple uses caretaker opportunities to vacation

Pet-sitting allows couple to travel the globe

Glenna and Bernie Fisher (CQ) sit in their home Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Middletown. The Fishers have discovered that house and pet sitting is a way to save money on vacations in their retirement.

Staff photo by Nick Graham Glenna and Bernie Fisher (CQ) sit in their home Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Middletown. The Fishers have discovered that house and pet sitting is a way to save money on vacations in their retirement.

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By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer 9:14 PM Sunday, November 1, 2009

MIDDLETOWN — Taking care of someone else’s cat or dog this summer may just earn you a low-cost vacation.

Middletown residents Bernie and Glenna Fisher were recently featured in the Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine for their ultra low-cost vacations to destinations like France, Nova Scotia, Maine and Texas by working as pet-sitters for other travelers.

It began after Glenna had to make a frantic search to find someone to watch her cats for a weekend trip.

During an online search she stumbled across the Caretaker Gazette, an online and print publication that posts ads for people looking for pet- and house-sitters across the world.

“I thought it was just so fascinating,” she said.

After two years of subscribing, she replied to an ad and got a job pet-sitting five cats and two dogs in Maine. It was a handful, with seven litter boxes to clean, two dogs to walk and special food requirements. But the small-town comforts of the remote Maine location and the “breath-takingly beautiful view” of waking up to the ocean just across the road sold her.

The process can be extensive. Posters have asked for as little as a list of references to as much as a background check and contacts at vets and past employers before giving the Fishers the job.

In exchange for taking care of the owner’s animals and household chores, the sitter can usually stay for free and get use of appliances.

While a sitting job may equate to an inexpensive vacation — saving what the Fishers estimated on average of $200 a night in France for their six-week stay there — it does require some work.

“Most of these people have multiple animals. You have to be prepared to live in their home, you can’t be too dainty about it and you might be out of your comfort zone,” she said.

Good communication is key to a good experience and residents should know the lingo before they go.

Staying at a home in the process of a renovation could mean a home without walls or utilities and a large garden could mean a small farm.

The Fishers avoid anything mentioning animals beyond dogs and cats since they don’t have the experience.

But the opportunity to travel abroad and watching a World War II liberation ceremony in France Bernie called “amazing and touching” has them eager for their next trip: taking care of a cat in northern China in January.

“It’s not for everybody. I have met a lot of good people that I consider my friends but its not for everyone,” Glenna said. “If you feel that you are an honest person and you are going to do what you need to do then you shouldn’t have any hesitancy with that.”

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I have also used www.caretaker.org for years and accepted a long-term housesitting assignment from the Caretaker Gazette - so I gave up my $865/month rent payments and love rent-free living in a beautiful home!
Carol

Carol Williamson
9:30 AM, 11/2/2009

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Great idea! and if you need a cat sitter again, look me up! I would be happy to help out! I have 8 of my own and know its hard to find someone... enjoy China!

catluvr2
10:43 PM, 11/1/2009

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