Michelle

Hi! My name is Michelle, and I'm a responsible, reliable, but free-spirited adult who loves to travel, and adores other people's animals and kids, because while I LOVE kids and animals (and they usually love me) I'm just not up for the long term parental/pet owner commitment thing, myself. But, I pet-sit, house-sit, and baby-sit pretty frequently, and I can provide glowing references upon request.

Consequently, I'm everybody's favorite fun aunt and pet sitter when they need to get away for awhile, which works out GREAT! I get my temporary kids fix (furry & non), and then I'm back to my non-tied down life. I love it, and my friends & family get someone who can confidently handle any situation, provide all the TLC their pets need, and provide them the sure knowledge they won't come home to find their house rented out to a lovely family from Norway, and their pets and furniture sold in a wildly successful pop-up yard sale.

I'm also fairly neat, so you'll come home to an "as good or better than you left it" situation. Gardening is not something I do much of, but I'm great at following directions, and I have a brother in law who excels at all things green, and loves to give advice.

At the moment (June 2022), I'm taking a break from work, and I'm traveling and visiting my extended family & friends all over the U.S, I'm currently in the middle of my 4th (lifetime) cross-country journey (a northern route, this time...usually I take the southern...never tire of that breathtaking Highway 101 experience), and after hearing about this website from one of my favorite cozy mystery writers (Sue Ann Jaffarian), I decided to give it a shot. It definitely seems interesting! It also seems like a super fun way to avoid paying hotel bills, and I am 100% down with that!

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Ok, some random, somewhat relevant details about me, so you can (hopefully) get a sense of what I'm like, in no particular order:

I have a great sense of humor, and really appreciate that in others. You should only ever take me seriously about 75% of the time. Except about my reliability and love of pets & kids. You can count on that 100%.

You'll be happy to know I have a 100% non-fatality/injury/illness rate with my furry charges, and a 97% non-stomach distress causing rate with my non-furry charges. In my defense, I was given ambiguous directions about a newfangled baby cereal dispensing apparatus, which resulted in a temporarily undiscovered, but distressingly high cereal density/viscosity, which then resulted in a pretty rough 24 hours for my infant niece and me. However, I'm thrilled to report my niece is now a happy, healthy, radiant 11 year old, none the worse for wear, who seems to bear me no ill will.

I'm a pop culture freak (especially as regards books, art, tv & film), and a voracious reader. Really loving British television shows, right now...feel free to share your faves, as I love to find new ones!

I love the art of food, and the wonderful diversity of cuisine I get to experience while traveling, but I hate to cook...mainly because I'm terrible at it. So, as long as you have a microwave, fridge, and wifi (for ordering delivery and streaming Netflix), I'm good. As a bonus, that means you're much less likely to come home to a smoking pile of rubble, and a hastily scribbled apology note. Yay!

I have some experience with farm animals from my childhood in the country, and some experience with fish, birds, Guinea pigs, hamsters, snakes, iguanas, and lots of experience with dogs and cats. I also have an aunt who's a vet tech, and usually takes my calls, so that comes in handy. Under no circumstances will I pet-sit spiders, though. Logically, I know they're important, and largely harmless, but...I just can't.

I will walk your dogs as often as you like, wherever you like. One of the things I hate about not having my own, is they're a great way to get my own exercise, and there is absolutely NO getting out of it. If your dog is like most dogs I've pet-sit, it's not putting up with any of my couch potato nonsense, which I LOVE!

I'm a non-smoker, and except for the occasional visit with certain relatives, a non-drinker, so you WILL come home to a house that smells the same as it did when you left, AND a fully intact liquor cabinet. IMPORTANT: I really don't do well with cigarette/cigar smoke, so I'm afraid I will have to decline if you are not a cig/cigar smoke-free home. I should clarify that while I'm not a pot smoker, myself, that kind of smoke doesn't seem to bother me. So...oddly...I CAN handle that smell. In other words, seeing the bong you forgot to hide won't make me clutch my pearls in horror, and the slight aroma that sticks around in the homes of heavy pot smokers doesn't kill me. PLEASE don't feel the need to Febreze, Glade Plug-in, or otherwise deodorize....that actually will kill me. I'm the girl who can't walk down the laundry aisle at the grocery store, unfortunately. Instant headache.

Ok. That's all for now. I'll cheerfully answer any questions you have when we FaceTime, Zoom, or phone. I look forward to hearing from you! I promise, your pets will love me, and I can honestly say my human clients (in all my varied work endeavors) adore me about 99.9% of the time.