Profile

KATE RIDDELL: Housesitter

Now that I am retired I am enjoying travelling slowly and deepening my appreciation for this beautiful resilient world.

It is a pleasure to settle into a home with pets to care for, interesting areas to explore, and to experience new cultures from a more local perspective. I have excellent references from more than fifty homeowners with many requests for repeat sits. I return seasonally to some of my favourite pets and homeowners (and their wonderful communities and friends).

I prefer staying in an area for an extended period of time but I am sometimes available for short weekend or midweek breaks in between other commitments.

Here are just a few of the wonderful pets I have looked after (click any image to see larger pictures):

I prioritize your pets’ wellbeing at all times. I do appreciate dogs who will enjoy accompanying me on trails and hikes but I also welcome the opportunity to simply stroll along and observe the landscape.  I am content to spend quality time grooming and sharing a couch while reading, listening to music, singing or watching a film.

Work Experience

My work as head chef at a snowcat ski lodge and chef on a 20 metre charter sailboat honed my team management skills, emergency preparedness, appropriate useage of limited water and offgrid power, battery and generator maintenance, and a deep appreciation for calm seas and powder snow.

Skills Ride-on mower, gas and electric mowers and trimmers, push mowers tractors • fruit tree (apple, pear and cherry) orchard management Greenhouse propagation Pruning Gardening Irrigation systems, water collection systems Water pumps and fire hose handling experience on 20 metre boats and on land Wood burning heaters, pellet stoves, propane and kerosene heaters

Volunteer Experiences Dental clinic in Tanzania set up by a retired dentist: former client at the snowcat ski lodge Assisted with cooking classes in Vancouver school system with Project Chef Coordinated  volunteers to prepare benefit dinner for 400 Taught basic reading and writing skills: StepUp Program Film and music festivals Many community work parties including firewood cutting, splitting and stacking, general homestead maintenance.

 

Click this link to read my References