Cat Sitting in Colonies Village Vance Jackson

Steven

Our review is written by Steven (house owner, host + my father) + also by Kim (the daughter).

Written by Kim: This was our first house sit since the passing of my mother in late Dec 2023.  I was helping my father Steven (whose profile it is) manage all the emails + try + find a great house sitter + came along Gretchen’s profile! Not only is she a cool cat + someone you might want to get to know, I found myself quickly talking to her. I shortly found out her profile is just a glimpse of how interesting she is but talking to her was so much better!  She is a world traveler with many experiences + stories to share. We quickly became conversationalists who could talk forever + probably will continue to do so! Thank you TH! 

She is easy to communicate with + continued the consistent communication all along our journey of having her as our *first* guest after my mom’s passing. It was clearly a time filled with anxiety + sensitivity so there were some sensitive topics to go over + Gretchen got it right away.  A few of our rooms in the house were off-limits (as they housed my mom’s things) but we reassured her the house has ample space for her to enjoy + there are many lovely outdoor spaces to boot!  When she arrived she felt she was in paradise + really relished in the outdoor beauty + the indoor coziness. We were happy to share it with someone who appreciated it so much! 

She also was very understanding with the fact that both my dad + I would both be involved as we both handled different parts of the stay. Me, writing + setting up the Welcome Guide + would go over the situation but then upon her arrival my dad would take over + answer any questions mostly during her sit. The good part of having 2 people is she had accessibility to us both, in the case she needed it + sometimes it came up! She juggled all the communication oh so well.  My mom usually handled most of the logistics so this being our first time we were nervous something would come up we might not know but it didn’t!  It was new territory for us + we wanted to make sure she had everything. 

Gretchen handled it all with such ease, seamlessly, really respecting our wishes/desires + taking all the information into her hands + making it seem easy on her end to do so. 

She was easy to coordinate schedules with!  There was a gap in her 1st + 2nd sit but everything went seamlessly even when my flight had a day long delay. She was able to coordinate schedules with me arriving in between, then leaving, my dad arriving different days + us extending the trip too. It all worked out! We were all a good team!

She absolutely loved our older cat, Benny + he fast + furiously fell in love with her oh so easily. When I saw him, he looked oh so loved + after saying hi to me went over to ‘her’ bed + slept there waiting for her to come back. She sent many pictures, videos + even cute creations + toys she made for our Benny + it was obvious the house + our Benny were her first priority. 

She even asked us if she could help prune our flowers/shrubs, something my mom used to do + honestly it was an honor to hear her ask that. She was welcome to set up her art studio + play away. She was very communicative when our house cleaner, landscape gardener + house manager showered up for different reasons. When I arrived back for a short stint before she came back the 2nd time our mail was so well organized it was an assembly line! She also offered to take down our xmas tree (as we were a bit behind in taking down our xmas decorations) + she was sensitive to the fact that we were adjusting to a new normal. 
Thank you so much Gretchen! You made our first sit in a long time so seamless + such a relief that we are ready now to host again. We only wish we could have more Gretchen’s! (She’s also a super talented artist!)

Written by Steven: Overall, Gretchen has been an absolute treasure.  She has fulfilled our goals for a house sitter perfectly - she took good care of the house, great care of our treasured pet, Mr. Benny + took care of the grounds such as watering a few plants + trees.  She excelled in all the above + is welcome back anytime I will be out of town in the future.

katie

Best house and pet sitters we've ever had! They definitely gave our cat and dog plenty of love and attention.

Bill & Kathy

We were so pleased to meet John and Trisha! We had them come in a day before we left and enjoyed a nice meal with them and they got to meet Delilah (even if she didn’t seem interested) but she soon warmed up to them - except for the Cat Videos - she wasn’t very interested 🤣 When we returned our home was so clean (probably cleaner than we left it)! We got frequent pics and updates on our Princess! They also left us with a Progress Report with Delilah’s activities and what they did at the house before they left.
We would highly recommend John & Trisha if you are lucky enough to have them apply for a House Sitters job!

Bill, Kathy & Delilah 🐈‍⬛❤️

joby

Amanda is truly our trusted sitter "find"!  She comes back regularly, so much so that our kitties think she is their secondary owner!  Always reliable, clean, responsible and most of all loves our cats as much as we do!  Good communicator, self reliant - all in all a perfect "10"!

Sean

Kimberly was a wonderful sitter who watched our two cats for us while we were out. She was willing to come a day early to help acclimate herself with the animals, and this was exceedingly helpful in making sure the cats would be comfortable with her during our absence. I would highly recommend Kimberly if you're looking for a responsible, caring sitter.

Heather

We literally cannot say enough positive things about Susan and Miranda! They are the best! From start to finish, they did an amazing job communicating with us, giving our 3 (somewhat needy) cats extremely high quality care and tons of attention, and keeping our house clean and plants watered. They took adorable pictures of the cats and sent them to us several times a day, played with them and gave them so much love and affection, and when we got home the house was even cleaner than when we left. We even asked them for some tips on how they were caring for the cats because our cats seemed happier and more relaxed than ever when we returned home to them! This was by far our best cat/house sitter experience to date. We hope Susan and Miranda are available again in the future to sit for us and would invite them back without hesitation.

Carrie

Oh wow! Everyone should be so lucky to have Nicholas and Veerle watch their house and pets. These lovely people are pros! They communicated early and often, were super accommodating to some last minute changes (it was originally going to be only our cats to watch but we decided to keep the dog home as well so that added to the schedule and care needs) and they left the house spotless and all set up for another sitter who came in after them. 

We didn’t get the chance to meet because my departure and arrival times but I dearly hope I get to in the future because they were just great! I even heard how nice they were from My neighbors who say them out walking our dog. :-)

They also sent regular pictures of the pets which look like pro-photography! 

Cannot recommend this couple enough! Your pets and house will be in good hands!

Will

Jinnie was an excellent house sitter for me and my cat Felix.  Completely responsible and reliable and helpfully flexible.  She was willing to work with me as I dithered on whether I was actually going to go on my trip (which was dependent on good weather), and when I finally decided on making my trip one day shorter.  House was clean and organized on my return, and, more importantly, my cat was calm and relaxed on my return.  I would happily have Jinnie come sit for me and Felix again.

Natalie

Ann Marie was an excellent house sitter who went above and beyond. She flew in a day early and stayed at a local hotel so we she could meet my cat and get the keys before my early flight the next morning. 

When I returned, she and Tryke were best friends and the house was immaculate. She even washed the sheets and towels, and remade the bed. I strongly recommend Ann Marie for any future sits!

Heather

Jose was a wonderful pet/house sitter for us recently. We highly recommend him. He was wonderfully reliable and responsible and took such good care of our two pets.  

On short notice Jose drove down from Grass Valley to the East Bay for a bit of a quiet get-away while working a really hard job teaching online.  We know how hard that is firsthand and partly why we needed our own get-away for a last-minute backpacking trip.

We have a recently rescued pit bull and a rescued cat that we're still introducing to each other to make sure the dog doesn't eat the cat (as he seems to want to), and the cat doesn't blind the dog (as she would if he tried to eat her). That might be more background than is needed in a review but Jose made us feel comfortable about everything because of how conscientious and responsible he clearly is. We could tell when we talked to him that he was genuinely kind and eminently trustworthy.

We are very grateful and hope Jose was happy with everything too because we know what a value his care was to us. Jose truly deserves any and all house-sitting gigs that strike his interest. Ours was not the easiest and he was amazing.  Get him if you can.