I want to earn money house/cat sitting Christmas and New Year

[Toomanysleepycats]

I am divorcing and still living with my STBXH in the family home. I am giving Xmas and NY a miss this year.

So I am thinking I would do some cat sitting over this period, but I don’t want to do it for free (I know, I am such a cheeky fucker). How much do you pay?

As cat owners how do you find sitters? What websites do you use? How would you vet sitters? I love love cats and as far as I’m concerned the more the merrier. Could I set up my own website? I’m not on social media at all. I know there’s a village what’s app, is this the way to go? Do I need references?

I don’t want to travel too far so I’d be in the Bournemouth, Salisbury, Basingstoke triangle. I don’t want to do dogs, I’ve had too many years of trudging around cold, wet lonely fields on Christmas Day for that. I guess I could travel to London if someone wanted to pay serious money.

Once I’ve divorced and got my own place, there’s a very good chance I’ll make it a permanent thing. At the moment I’m busy doing up my house to sell, but reckon I can take the holiday period off.

P.s I’ve had cats all my life, but they have all died of old age, and luckily I didn’t get anymore while I was worried about the longevity of my marriage.

Id be grateful for any suggestions even if they’re a bit ‘off the wall’. Thanks.

I pay £12 for a half hour visit. My cat sitter is a small company. She has insurance, pet first aid certificates, back up systems in case the allocated cat sitter is ill, relationships with local vets in case it's needed, will do medication if necessary and provides an update with photos of each visit. So a lot more than 'pop in and play with cats' I pay an expensive rate for peace of mind.

You are going to need some insurance for that, I'd guess.

Thanks @helpfulperson That’s very useful, thanks. I assume she’s very local to you. I also have experience of insulin injections for my old diabetic cat.

How did you choose her, did you just Google and felt you liked her website?

I paid £12.50 for 45 mins twice a day (£25 a day) when I was on holiday.

Same as the previous poster, my cat lady is a registered small business owner, insured, lots of recommendations and reviews. She also works as a vet part time. She can medicate my cat and also provides photos from each visit. I found her just via social media. We had friends in common and she is well known in this area as a great cat and dog sitter. I really think social media will be your friend with this sort of business.

My cat sitter charges £9 per visit. We found her by asking at the vets - she used to be a vet nurse there before setting up her business. Like the others - we get a WhatsApp photo/video after every visit. Other potential places to advertise would be a local pet shop or cats protection league shop.

Thankyou for that, I will look up insurance.

As I’m not on social media (I’m an older female introvert) which ironically probably makes me ideal as a cat sitter. But if I suddenly make a face book/Twitter/instagram account with no previous history to advertise my cat sitting services, won’t most people feel a bit suspicious. The modern world of social media not my natural home.

And we chose her because she came to visit and our cats liked her - they are usually scared of strangers but not her. And we liked her too but the cats’ reaction was most important.

If you're just thinking of doing it over Xmas etc, and so don't want to sort out your own insurance, something like catinaflat.co.uk might work? You register, create a profile and it will recommend you to local cat owners, but they take care of the insurance etc side of things I believe (I've only used it as an owner, not sitter). You set your own cost (approx £10 per visit here) and I assume the website takes a cut for the insurance.

Cat In A Flat - if you are booked through their website you are covered by their insurance too.

I've hired sitters a few times through there, including one who has now sat for us a few times. I usually pay around £12-15 for two visits a days, one visit a day is usually around £8.

Thanks for that. I was also thinking about the actual thing when you go and stay overnight at their house, so maybe do two/three whole overnights.

But it looks like most people are happy just to have visits once or twice a day, so maybe that’s where I should look first.

Thanks all.

We use the Catinaflat website too

I think you'd only be asked to stay overnights if there was a dog as well. Cats are generally fine on their own and just need feeding/checking/bit of a fuss for half an hour.

You could look at Pawshake, which is where I found a pet sitter. I don't know if it covers insurance. I needed someone to stay in the house, typically the cost is c£30 per 24 hours.

Think about references - who could provide you with a character reference to vouch for your honesty, reliability and care for animals.

Don't necessarily out other pets - it's not all cats and dogs.

Thanks for that everyone, lots of ideas to go with.

I think you need to look at house sitting which will likely include cats but will be with you in residence.

We would need house sitters for our cats, orientals that love humans and do not do well on their own so there is market. I do think general house sitting is what you need to look for. I would say going into Berkshire and Surrey would increase your opportunities.

I would create an account with ROVER. Me and my partner have used it for our dogs/cats and boarded dogs with it also at our house. They have insurance which covers you and people will be absolutely dying for people with space over Christmas as most places will be fully booked already.
I'd definitely give it a go.

We made upwards of 4K during the summer boarding/house sitting dogs & cats.

I'm a dog walker/pet sitter.

My questions would be - what experience do you have? Are you insured? Do you have first aid training and would you know what to do if any of the animals got sick or injured in your care?