Overnight sitting and house sitting

For animals who should not be left alone at night, and houses that are better off looking lived in. I stay at yours, so nothing changes for them except who is filling the bowl.

What is included

• I arrive at a time that suits you and stay the night
• Evening and morning routines done exactly the way you do them
• A late walk and a first-thing walk for dogs
• Company through the evening, rather than an empty house and a closed door
• Feeding, medication, litter trays, letting out
• The house kept as you left it: post, bins, curtains, plants, heating

Why this is not boarding, and why that matters

Your animals never leave their own home. I come to them.

That is worth saying plainly, because home boarding and dog day care are licensed activities, because the animals go and stay at the carer's house, and the council inspects it. Overnight sitting works the other way round. Yours stay in their own bed, in their own house, with their own smells and their own garden, and the only new thing in the equation is me.

Who it suits

• Dogs who cannot be left, or who find kennels genuinely miserable
• Puppies, and elderly dogs who need letting out in the night
• Animals on medication that has to be given at a set time
• Houses that should not stand obviously empty for a fortnight
• Nervous cats who hide from anybody new. With someone in the house they usually come round by the second day

House sitting without animals

Sometimes there is nothing to feed and it is the house itself that needs somebody in it: lights going on at sensible times, a car on the drive, curtains that move, post off the mat. That is a booking in its own right and it costs less than the animal version.

What I will need

Somewhere to sleep, the wifi code, and your routine written down. I bring my own bedding, so there is no washing waiting for you when you get back.

I am not a house guest. I will not have people round, I do not bring anybody with me, and I will leave it as I found it.