Jan & Wal

Hi,
**Update** Thank you for your understanding after the recent death of my dear father. We are being kept very busy dealing with everything needing to be done as well as moving house. As soon as we are able to housesit again we will open our bookings again. We are looking forward to caring for all your adorable pets again.
Kindest regards, Jan

We look forward to meeting you. We are retired natural therapists who adore animals. When our beloved 13 year old Samoyed passed away we missed him terribly. Our beautiful cats had already passed away. The house seemed so empty without them. Having petsat for friends and family, we were inspired to register for petsitting online. We have been having a wonderful time on our housesitting adventures ever since.

Our first official petsitting experience was caring for an elderly little dog who had a history of separation anxiety. We cared for him for 6 weeks while his people were overseas on holiday. We had a wonderful time together and by our second sit with him, we had become such good friends, he showed no signs of anxiety at all. He had remembered all the training and fun tricks that had helped to build his confidence. This makes my heart happy. It's wonderful to be of service helping in the community in this way and we love the opportunity to make new friends and care for some adorable pets while exploring this beautiful country.

Over the years we have been blessed with many animal companions including 8 adorable cats (3 of which were Siamese) and 3 dogs. A gorgeous Border Collie was my first dog. Our largest dog was a fun-loving 75kg Alaskan Malamute who required a lot of grooming, as did our beautiful, smiling Samoyed. We took obedience training with our dogs, and this practical experience is invaluable when it comes to caring for dogs. We are familiar with the work of various animal whisperers and animal communicators. For me, it's all about building trust and communication, lots of play to make learning fun. Leading with kindness.

As natural therapists we bring many skills which may come in handy like energy therapies and muscle relaxation techniques which can be very helpful for elderly, arthritic pets or to help calm anxiety. We have built plenty of experience caring for dogs and cats of all ages.

Loving our animal companions as we have, with all our hearts, we know how much they mean to you and want you to know that we will love and care for them as we would our own.

We had a wonderful time with a gorgeous 15 year old Golden Retriever. Amazing for his age, we discovered he was a natural at treasure-hunting, sniffing out a toy. He was so proud of himself when he found the toy, his face lit up with a big happy grin. We have been caring for a beautiful family of Burmese cats for the last 8 years. The 2 youngest Burmese have such a wonderful time playing with me and exploring cat toys from my little collection. Their older sister loves to ride on my husband's shoulders. Along with all the fun and games, we truly cherish our peaceful, purring times together. Two Border Collies were super keen on chasing a ball. The elderly Great Dane we cared for played like a little puppy dog with us and loved snuggling up on the sofa together with her big beautiful head on my lap. She enjoyed learning some new tricks too. Isn't it absolute nonsense "you can't teach an old dogs new tricks!" What a joy it is to see our animal companions having so much fun. Your pets miss you while you are away, but we do our very best to give them a lovely holiday with us with lots of fun and love.

In memory of Cruz, our Samoyed, we help support a charity called SaveASam dot org run by a small team of dedicated volunteers who rescue Samoyeds as well as other breeds. Some are rescued from horrendous conditions in countries where dogs and cats are still eaten as meat. It makes my heart happy to see the smiling faces and wagging tails on the SaveASam website and facebook pages when the dogs are given loving homes for the first time in their lives. Some of the rescued dogs have gone on to become therapy dogs. (I stopped donating to the big charities, disillusioned when I discovered that such small percentage of donations reached the animals, with most going to fundraising and paying massive salaries for CEO's. 100% of donations made to SaveASam are spent on the dogs. Transport, vet care, food, etc.. It's so heartwarming to follow the rescues on facebook and see the wonderful transformations of the dogs as they heal and blossom and are found loving forever homes. Sadly, donations (understandably) have plummeted during Covid but every little helps. If you can spare a small donation, perhaps together we can still make a difference. Thank you.

Being retired, and on a budget, a little holiday is such a treat. We worked hard to become homeowners ourselves, so we will care for your home as if it were our own. You can have peace of mind that your house and gardens are being beautifully maintained, according to your instructions, while your pets are being lovingly cared for. My husband is very handy around the house and gardens. We are both non-smokers.

We have plenty of experience caring for cats and dogs, fish and chickens. Favorite pastimes include walks in nature, meditation, homemade vegetarian meals, photography, reading and writing. Hubby likes to watch the cricket. We are also grandma and grandpa to 4 gorgeous grandchildren.

Because we love peace and quiet and being in nature, we may not be a good match for sits close to the city. Our preferred areas are places with sea breezes. Favourite places include Victor Harbor, Port Elliot, Hayborough, Middleton, Goolwa.

We would love to hear from you and invite you to make contact if you think we could be the sitters you are looking for. For sits in South Australia, we would be delighted to visit to meet you and your pets to see if we are a good match for each other. Plenty of written references and phone referees available. Thank you.