Animal-lover couple quit jobs to travel the world end up making career as International pet-sitters

London: In Five years, a middle aged couple from United Kingdom managed to travel nine countries without spending a dime on rent, in fact they earned money by providing house/pet sitting service to families across the globe.

They provide clients with the comfort of knowing their furry friends are getting the best care in exchange for free lodging.

Since essentially giving away all they owned to travel the world in 2017, Julie and Jonathan have lived in nine different countries, including the USA, Australia, Thailand, and Spain.

Julie and Jonathan, who are in their 50s, have provided free care for variety of pets including dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, chickens and guinea fowl, a horse, a Kunekune pig and even a 40-year-old tortoise.

And based on their calculations, the two, who own an online vacation rental company, each spend just £10,000 year.

Former property manager Jonathan, who is currently in Sydney, told media: “We are living the ideal, travelling to places we could never see without pet sitting. The animals play such a significant role in our journey as well.

The couple, who have four adult children, began full-time pet care in 2017.

Julie, a former school secretary, claims that since they no longer owned any animals of their own and were eager to
experience something new, making the decision was simple.

She explains, “We wanted to travel, so we quit our jobs in 2016 and launched our online vacation rental business in Spain. Additionally, since it was simpler to be free of attachments, we chose to sell the house,” she said.

When they took a three-month hiatus to create a business strategy in Thailand, they signed up with a company named Trusted Housesitters.

The couple paid £99 to set up a profile on the website, enabling them to marry their love of animals with their aspiration of living on the road permanently.

“It was like music to our ears to realise we could pet sit and vacation,” explains Julie.

In February 2018, they were first hired to care for a Pyrenean mountain dog named Txuri in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

There was no stopping to the couple since then. They reportedly took care of a KuneKune called Venus in Norfolk, Cornwall and Wales. Then, a horse named Patsy, and some ducks in UK.

The pair decided to expand their search after checking off 30 different residences in the UK in October 2019.

They travelled to California for three months, relocating to San Francisco, where they slept in a four-bedroom house with Mookie, a “goofy” Samoyed.

The couple left us their car so we could travel with him to all the beaches in San Francisco, Julie adds.

“We had to pinch ourselves to be sure this was really our life,” she said.

They stopped when the pandemic forced them to return to the UK in March 2020. Since their business was travel based, the couple was forced to work in supermarkets and lived in a caravan in Norfolk.

Julie told reporters: “But by the end of July, the UK had opened up a little and we resumed pet sitting in Norfolk and Scotland with some lovely little dogs.”

The pair bought a tent and spent a few months camping in Scotland when the rules changed once more before returning to work.

Reportedly, the couple are currently visiting family in Australia, they are already making additional plans to pet-sit however the industry is not the same as it was for them five-years-ago.

Dr. Hayley Stainton, the founder of a travel awareness group told the number of people travelling to care for animals has been steadily rising.

People are taking vacations that they otherwise couldn’t afford, she continues. Additionally, it gives them a more genuine experience.

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