Rocco

We had the opportunity to do our first official TrustedHousesitters dog sit.  While we have had many pet sits in the past, they have all been through referrals or meeting people. 

Technically, we were recommended for sitting Rocco too as our nomadic friends Tim and Amy (from the Facebook GoLite Nomad Group) had pet sat Rocco in Spain and recommended us to sit for Rocco in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  Jim and Lou, Rocco's owners, have been locating between Europe in the summer months and Mexico in the winter months and as we knew Amy and were living in Guadalajara at the time, it was a natural recommendation.

We watched Rocco from Nov 2 - 7, 2022 although we got there Oct 31 and stayed with them for an extra day and a half so we could avoid any holiday concerns and get a chance to meet them and go through Rocco's routine first hand.  We also stayed an extra evening and went back the following morning in case there was any delay situations from Jim and Lou returning on time.

Rocco was a Pug and such a wonderful boy.  He was very loving and mellow.  He never pulled, he just wanted to be with his people and he loved pets and snuggling.  His routine was very straight forward.

One nice feature was that in Puerto Vallarta they have a "country club" for dogs called Ruffy's.  It was only about 10 minutes walk from their place and we went there every single day except our last because they were closed that day.  Rocco loved it.  It was open air but shaded and had artificial grass so the dogs could run around the fenced off area while the humans got to sit around in chairs, have some food or drinks and socialize as well.

Rocco got a lot of socialization there and exercise.   We would typically take him in the afternoon for about two hours or unless we got an indication he was tired and ready to go.  The rest of the day we either followed his walking routine or just hung out with him at their place.  We had been to Puerto Vallarta many times and so there was no need to go anywhere other than some restaurants which we could also bring him.

Rocco was such a fun pet sit and we miss him a lot.

Lucy

While we were living in Guadalajara, Mexico, we took the bus four hours to Bucerias, Mexico and did a five week house and dog sit for Wayne and Lisa Elliot.  We didn’t know them; it was a referral through a friend of a friend, and we had to do interviews, send references and finally let Lisa peruse our Facebook page before they were comfortable with us.

It was their first-time using strangers to house sit. They have a rescue dog, Lucy, that was two years old.  She is a dachshund mix, very sweet.  She required no medication but had a very specific meat only diet that we learned on the first day there.  She was one of the easiest dogs we have ever sat for.  While it was hot and humid at the coast at this time of the year and rained a lot, we managed to get nearly all her walks in and even took her on a couple of outings.

We mostly just spent the time with her at the house during the five weeks.  I bonded with her instantly and she shadowed me a lot.  Jeanne was ever the mom for her with towels at the ready after a wet walk, or a shower if she was getting dirty, or some nail trimming if it was bothering her.

It was a wonderful experience being with Lucy and we still miss her a lot.  For the home, we had a hurricane come through during our stay.  Damage was minimal; mostly just some clay tiles that had fallen off their awning by the pool and I cleaned that up along with protecting and replacing all their potted plants during the event.  We had some satellite and power issues that I worked with Wayne on addressing but other than that, we managed quite well.

Jose

Jose Cuervo was a mini-Schnauzer mix who was a rescue dog from Tequila, Mexico.  He was found on the streets and rescued.  He was probably around two when we first started watching him.  Marlena and Marlin Sampson are Jose’s owners, and they would bring Jose over to our apartment when they traveled.  We first met them through a Facebook request for a last-minute dog sitting need.  As we love pets and didn't have anything going on, we first watched Jose back in September 2019 and continued to watch him at our home in Guadalajara, Mexico many times during 2019 and 2020.

Jose was a lovely little guy who loved getting lots of pets and belly rubs. He loved his walks, and we would walk him four times per day; two of those for at least 30-40 minutes.  He was the only pet we have had in our apartment in Guadalajara.  Marlena said that we were the only sitters that he would come back from without stress.  He had some challenges eating because during the course of our long period of stays, it was discovered he had a bullet in his stomach that got removed.  After that healed, he ate like normal.  

He was such a sweet dog for the trauma he must have endured on the streets in Tequila.  Jose never liked thunder and lightning or loud fireworks and there were times we had him when these would occur.  Jeanne even had to snuggle in with him under our bathroom counters during one really loud storm.  We watched him from time to time over the course of two years until they moved away to Puerto Vallarta.  Even then, we came and stayed at their house there for a visit/vacation, so we got to see Jose there as well.  We just loved watching Jose.

Molly, Musa and Luki

We sat for a Swedish family when we lived in the South of Spain.  Krister (their owner) used to breed champion dogs for show, and he was very particular on who he would allow to watch his dogs because he could recognize right away if the dogs were not treated well after their summer holiday. 

We started watching their villa and dogs in the summer of 2015.

They would go back to Sweden for 3-4 weeks each summer.  They lived in a villa that was about 6 miles up in the mountains.  As we didn’t have a car at the time, we used one of their secondary cars to get groceries and take the dogs out for their morning walk.

Two of their three dogs (Molly and Musa) were medium to larger size dogs.  Molly was a Spanish Hunting dog that was a rescue dog.  She was incredibly fast and very smart.  She was wary of strangers, but she warmed up once you earned her trust.  Musa was a combination of a Spanish Hunting Dog with Golden Retriever.  He was very fast too but was also a bit of a boy scout.  He would tell us if the other two were getting into trouble.  Their third dog was Luki who was a small black mini-schnauzer mix.  Luki was older but he would try and keep up with the other two and had a penchant for being the trouble instigator.  All three were so much fun to be with.  We miss seeing them.

Their villa had a pool and large patio with many plants and the dogs even had a lower acreage that they could go into if we opened the gate for them.  We mostly took them out for a mountain run every morning. These were challenging because Krister preferred they be allowed to run off leash in the remoter parts of the mountain.  That required us to take them early morning, usually around 7am, and load them into the car to drive them up some challenging dirt roads to a quiet place where we could walk and let them run.  They would run and explore quite a ways and we had to be very diligent to ensure they didn't stray too far and that should a car, people or other animals also be on the road or nearby, we had them under control and behaving.

We kept the pool clean, watered the flowers and plants and maintained their gas and water while there.  We always left the villa cleaner than when we got there, and they appreciated that.  Over the years we were treated like family, and they were sad when we left Spain.  They never allowed anyone else other than family to watch their dogs once we left even though we tried to provide some trusted friends to take our place.  We really enjoyed the summers of 2015 through 2018 with them.

Tiffany and Lily

We dog and house sat for two mini-schnauzers, Tiffany and Lily for Stuart and Ann McKie in La Herradura, Spain at their beach villa. 

Being pure bred mini-Schnuazers, they were a handful if you didn’t keep them from barking or looking for trouble, but we spent the days with them just in their villa and they were quite happy to enjoy some pets or cuddles.

We had a lot of fun sitting with them and miss them so.