everybody has a story madolline gourley cat-sits her way around the world.
A few years back, someone I worked with said there was a lady upstairs who was from somewhere in the UK. She didn’t own or rent a house in Australia – she’d been able to house-sit her way around Brisbane for 10 years. I thought it must be a bit of a thing, so I googled house-sitting and Trustedhousesitters was the first website that came up.
My first house- and cat-sit was in December 2017. Earlier that year, I went on a trip to America with a friend and we stayed in San Francisco for three nights. I really liked San Francisco, but we didn’t get enough time to see everything. So, when I saw a sit available there, it seemed like a perfect opportunity. At the time, I didn’t think I would be doing it again or so often – it was just free accommodation at Christmas.
When I came home after completing that sit, I went back on the website to look at other USA listings, but I filtered the results by animal type. I wouldn’t have wanted to look after dogs, birds or fish, because I’ve never owned any of them myself. From there, cat-sitting kind of did become a thing for me, because I got another job a couple of months later in Boston. After that, I came back to Australia for two months, then took off on a two-and-a-half-month trip, doing back-to-back house- and cat-sits in America. I’m a contractor and I’m often in between jobs – if I had a full-time job, I wouldn’t be able to do this as much.
Most people just need you to come home at night and feed their cat, but I’ve seen ads where the cat has separation anxiety, so you need to be home the whole day. Each cat has its own personality and they’re all memorable for various reasons. There are some I’ve liked and grown more attached to than others. One of the ladies I sat for in Colorado emailed me later to say her cat had passed away, and that was really sad. I only looked after her for two weeks, but it made me tear up.
Pretty much all the cats I’ve taken care of have been rescued or adopted. There was a three-legged cat called Bonnie in New York City, and Zoey, a cat with one eye in Birmingham, Alabama. Some of them don’t have water bowls – they drink out of their own glass or mug! I like having the cats to come home to each night. Even though I travel by myself by choice, it would be a bit lonely without a pet when I’m away for months at a time.
I have my own cat at home, so I’m used to having them on my things, or in my things, or in my face. I haven’t experienced any downsides of cat-sitting yet, but at any time the cat could get sick, it might die, or someone might even break into the house. One of my friends said the people I sit for could be serial killers, or there could be cameras – it’s usually a foreign country and you don’t know what will happen to you. I appreciate the concern, but thankfully, nothing bad has ever happened. It’s just like Airbnb, but I’m not paying to stay in the person’s house. It’s also way less gross than other accommodation – they don’t have people constantly coming and going like a hotel.
It’s interesting to observe other people’s ways, but while I like seeing how other people live, which products they use and what they eat, I don’t go snooping through their stuff. I actually even feel a bit guilty going through kitchen drawers to get rubbish bags, or navigating the bathroom, trying to find first aid stuff or toilet paper.
I wouldn’t have booked flights for any of the trips I’ve taken if I wasn’t able to secure a house-sit to offset some of the costs. One downfall of travelling by yourself is not being able to split the price of accommodation – I don’t even want to think how much I would have spent if I’d stayed in a hotel in each of the cities where I’ve cat-sat. House- and cat-sitting can also mean free trips to and from the airport, free food, free public transport… There are more things you can save on than just a place to stay.
I keep going back to America – I think I’ve done six trips over the past two and a half years. I was actually in New York and Charleston early last year cat-sitting, and I feel fortunate I was able to take that trip before stuff blew up. Some of the people I’ve sat for have expressed interest in house- and pet-sitting their way around the world, and they’ve come to me for advice. There are a lot of people on house-sitting Facebook groups, but most of them seem to be retired older folk. There aren’t so many people like me, but the more I talk about it, the more young people get interested in it.
I look after people’s cats as a cheaper way to travel, and I have my own cat, but I’m not cat-obsessed. My work desk isn’t decked out with cat things, I don’t own one of every item of clothing in leopard print, and I don’t have a Hello Kitty bedspread. So yes, I like cats – but cats aren’t my life!