Pet and House Sitting Across America

PET & HOUSE SITTING ACROSS AMERICA
A Love Your Parks Tour Trust Story by Lisa D. Smith and Nancy J. Reid, assigned by Lea Brovedani “The Trust Architect.”

BIG BLEND RADIO INTERVIEW: This episode features a conversation with Angela Laws, award-winning community manager of TrustedHousesitters. Listen to the interview podcast here in the YouTube.com player or download/listen to the podcast on Spreaker, SoundCloud or Podbean.com.

We travel full-time on the Love Your Parks Tour, a quest to visit, document, map, and share the stories of all of America’s parks and public spaces, along with its routes and trails, historic sites and cultural landmarks, natural and geological wonders, and local flavors and festive traditions. If we were to write an FAQ page about the tour, it would read something like this:

Q: You’ve traveled across the country, what’s your favorite park?

A: You know we can’t answer that; it would be like choosing a favorite child. However, whichever park was the most recent one we visited, whether a small community park or a grand national park, always creates an impact with a unique experience and story. 

Q: I know you travel full time, but where’s your home base?

A: We don’t have one, however, in  Arizona, we have a tiny storage unit and a family of good friends in Tucson and now across the country.

Q: Oh, so you’re traveling in a motorhome?

A: Heck no, no one wants us driving a big rig! Jokes aside, our radio shows and production work requires strong internet, we need personal space since we are a mother-daughter team, and we often take that crazy dirt road that pretty much always leads to somewhere amazing. Everything we travel with fits in our Toyota RAV 4. We typically stay in B&Bs, hotels, and vacation rentals, etc. However, since the 4th of July weekend in 2020, we also started pet and house sitting. It provides a balance to the hectic travel and gives us that feeling of home, and time with pets and plants which we have really missed. Plus, it’s such an immersive experience and gives a sense of what it’s like to live in various places across the country. 

Q: Wow, pet sitting? That’s got to be different in each home. What’s your favorite experience so far? 

A: Again, you know we can’t answer that – it truly is like choosing a favorite child. Each pet becomes part of our family, each pet parent becomes a new friend, each garden our new backyard, each house our current home, and each town or city our new community.  

In her latest book, “Trust Me: Restore Belief & Confidence in an Uncertain World,” leading trust expert Lea Brovedani outlines her Five Tenets of Trust. They include Caring, Commitment, Consistency, Competence, and Communication. Since we have started pet and house sitting with TrustedHousesitters.com, we have experienced all five tenets. They make up the foundation of how the whole program works. Trust is at the core of the relationship between the homeowner/pet parent and the sitter, the pet (s) and the sitter, and both the sitter and pet parent/homeowner and the TrustedHousesitters.com platform, which is easy and safe to use. It’s a win-win-win situation with everyone providing a commitment to the competent caring of pets and homes. Sitters help the pets follow their regular routines and also keep up with the home maintenance schedules. And both the sitter and owner respectfully stay in touch throughout the process.

How does it all work? Made up of both owners and sitters, TrustedHousesitters.com members pay just once a year to connect and exchange home and pet care for the chance to stay with pets in unique places. As neither member charges money, it’s a special exchange that helps owners travel with true peace of mind while pet-loving sitters get to experience life somewhere new. Plus, along with a free 24/7 vet care hotline, all sits confirmed through TrustedHousesitters are covered by an Insurance Backed Guarantee that includes property damage, theft, and public liability. With members in over 130 countries and more five-star Trustpilot reviews than any other house and pet sitting platform, TrustedHousesitters is officially the world’s largest and most trusted community of its kind. 

Through this shared and immersive experience, we have made so many new and wonderful pet and human friends, “lived” in new communities across the country, and of course, explored new parks and pet-friendly walking trails. Check out the map below to meet some of the pet friends we’ve made in our recent travels, read our reviews, and take a listen to our Big Blend Radio podcast (links above) with Angela Laws, the community manager of TrustedHousesitters. And if you love pets and travel, visit https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/. 

 

CLICK ON THE PAW PRINTS ON THE MAP TO VIEW OUR PET FRIENDS.