I grew up on a farm and have had and been around animals my whole life. Myself and my family have had cats, dogs, rats, a chinchilla, a parrot, fish, chickens, rabbits, and goats. Outside of those, I've also cared for horses, bearded dragons, guinea pigs. My experience ranges all over from kittens/puppies to senior pets and pets with health problems or special needs. One of my dogs was severely epileptic and needed round the clock care and medication. I've also cared for a coworker's cat for many years who was diabetic and needed insulin shots. My chinchilla came to us from the shelter with a severe hairball blocking his entire digestive tract which required specialty care round the clock for weeks until it broke up and was passed. I've also cared for a rooster who was attacked by a neighbor's dog and needed antibiotics and wound cleaning while he healed. I've been pet sitting for years, at this point, and am sort of the unofficial "office pet sitter" for my day job. For two of my coworkers, I've been respectively taking care of one's cats for 6+ years and the other's dogs for 4-5+ years. I take care of a family friend's dogs, bearded dragon, fish, parakeet, and chickens periodically for a few years. There are a few others that I work with on a more sporadic basis, as well. As a bonus, I can also take care of houseplants / gardens, bringing in the mail, taking out the trash, etc. When housesitting, it is my priority to respect your home and your belongings. I do prefer to have at least one in-person meeting before taking over care of the pet(s) so that we can discuss "ground rules," go through specifics relating to pet care / household care, discuss emergency contacts, ask / answer questions, etc. I do also request that the specifics be written down somewhere so I have a point of reference in case I have questions. Because I do most of my work for my day job from home / remotely, this does also mean I am available to take care of animals during the day most of the time, also (approximately 80/20 in-office and some sporadic travel). I honestly started pet sitting purely because I love animals and pet sitting gives me the opportunity to interact with more animals and their families. I ultimately decided to start offering my help more widely after I started realizing there was a genuine need for it in the area and it was recommended to me by one of my coworkers (one of the ones I've done pet and house sitting for for years).