I started taking care of colleague's pets in 2006 and regularly cared for 4 households' pets including, a German Shepherd, black lab, poodle, and multiple cats. I also volunteered at the Humane Society in AZ for a few years with the adoptable cats at PetSmart, cleaning their cubbies, litterboxes, and helping with socialization. I continued petsitting after finding an ad on Craigslist for a family in my area and watched their home while they traveled over the summer (for 3 years), taking care of their plants, mail, and two dogs - a husky and a greyhound. I would walk them and feed them twice a day, shop for chicken legs at the owner's request, and administered multiple medications in pill form to the husky. They introduced me to their neighbors and I watched their home when they would travel and fed and cleaned up after their English Bulldog and Yorkie at least two times a day. I also watched a friend's senior dachshund regularly when they went out of town. In Phoenix I housesat for a colleague and her partner on multiple occasions and they had 4 dogs and 2 cats. I would stay the night there to feed and care for the animals and keep an eye on the house. I simply left for work and then went there immediately after. I moved back to MN in 2020. In the fall of 2020, I helped my sister care for a family friend's hobby farm which had goats, sheep, donkeys, cats, dogs, ducks, and chickens. We mucked out the barn every day and hosed out the stable area, let the chickens out in the morning and locked them in the coop at night, fed all of the animals, moved a fence most days for the donkeys and some of the larger animals to roam outside of the regular fenced-in area. I also traveled to Champlin to watch a German shepherd and stayed there while the family went on vacation a few times. Over the Christmas holiday in 2022, I watched a friend's Vizsla/Lab mix who is 11 and took care of things around her house. I fed the pup twice a day and visited midday to take her out and spend time there from anywhere between 30 minutes to a few hours. She would then spend the night with me at my home. I took care of the mail, ran water so the pipes wouldn't freeze, cleaned up after the dog, etc. Watching an animal made me realize how much I missed pet sitting and wanted to start doing it again, so I started helping out whenever I could. Most recently, I have watched a Bernese Mtn Dog, Akita Inu, and 4 cats at one residence and regularly housesit at another when the owner is gone for work on the weekends. I also stayed up in Duluth for a week to watch a friend's home, large lab, and cat. I work in St Peter during the week and am done at noon on Mondays. The rest of the week, I work anywhere between 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. I am able to take long lunches to feed or let animals out midday and my weekends are free. I grew up with cats and now have 2 pets of my own, a Belgian Malinois/Corgi mix puppy, named Marty, and a 4-year-old munchkin cat named Elliot. My soul dog (pug) Bo crossed the rainbow bridge in June 2025.