Kathy & Dale

We have lived in Ontario, Canada for 35 years in the lovely Ottawa Valley. Our home is on 2 acres about an hour from Ottawa. We live on a wooded lot with a large lawn, vegetable garden and several large flower gardens. We are gardeners and hikers by nature. When at home, we often walk , bike or canoe to get around town.
Dale had a career as a financial controller for a small Canadian agricultural company then switched to teaching high school students with disabilities, later in life. Kathy was a teacher of the Deaf for 30 years.

Sadly ,We don't have pets currently because of travel , but had a bearded collie , Tucker and a medium haired black cat , Snoopy.....both were loved with abundance. We are lucky to have many friends and family who graciously share their furry friends with us when ever they are away. Our home is always open to neighbors and their pets for long comfortable visits.

Since our three children have grown and scattered across the globe , we have switched our focus from having our own pets .....to carrying for pets of others while we travel. We have a daughter and son living in New Zealand . Our oldest son and his family are in Vancouver. We are interested in these areas for house sitting , but are really itching to see many different locations around the world. We would rather see the world through the experiences of local home stays with the company of a furry companion.
We enjoy daily walks, long hikes , cycling , golf and tennis. We have rented and owned a variety of houses in urban and rural areas. As home owners we are able to maintain our homes and are handy at home maintenance and repairs as well as gardening and yard work. We both like to keep busy , so we both enjoy any tasks that keep us on the move throughout the day. In our spare time we serve on the board of Rideau Hill Camp . We help to maintain the camp to provide camp experiences for children in our area.


While our children were young we always had pets as part of our family. Tucker our lovely devoted bearded collie spent his every moment with our family, providing great times and humor with his clown like busy antics. Snoopy our medium haired black cat would often stalk us in the back paths behind our house and jump into view when we called his name.
Now that our children are grown and we have retired, we would love to travel and continue to spend time and share our daily walks with pets .

We have been involved with house and pet sitting for several years and have a varied skill set. Dale and I have experience owning several different homes in both urban and rural setting in both Canada and the US. We do the majority of our own home repairs and property maintenance. We also help to maintain a children's outdoor camp.

Having had our own pets we are used to feeding schedules , vet visits , medications as well as exercise and play needs of pets. Dale and I are both fit enough for the exercise needs and have the time and patience to care for an older pet.

We have house sat for an elderly couple during our years teaching. Their home was located close to our school district and they would winter in Florida while we cared for their home for three months each year . From this experience, we branched out to house sit for several friends . Two of our neighbors have required house sitters . One neighbor, Rob owned an island summer cottage on the St. Lawerence River . We cared for his two Labradors Luke and Tag. It was a great experience.
We also regularly care for our neighbor' Leigh's chickens and ducks . Dale built their chicken coup and cares for their birds while they are away at their trailer on the Lake during the summer.

We have both been fully vaccinated and respect all COVID regulations and masking recommendations at home and wherever we may travel.

We are happy to provide further references on request.
We are able to provide references within New Zealand as well.
Cheers, Kathy and Dale