Unusual jobs – the Pet Sitter

Andrea: Welcome to "People and Places" – where we meet interesting people and find
out about more about them – right here on [bad word]  Hello, I'm
Andrea Rose.
Catherine Brown
My name is Catherine Brown and I run a business called Happy Hounds and Cooler Cats
which is a dog walking and pet care business.
Andrea: Catherine Brown has a very different job. She spends most of her day working
with animals, because she is a pet sitter. Yes, just like parents get someone to
look after their children when they go out in the evenings, a baby sitter,
Catherine does something similar but for dogs and cats. She walks them and
looks after or cares for them. But it’s often the owners who are harder work
than the animals.
Catherine Brown
Quite often you are reassuring the owners much more than you are the animals. So if you've
got particularly needy owners that need a lot of reassurance then that’s what you have to give.
The animals to be honest are often easier than the owners.
Andrea: Catherine says that the owners are often harder to deal with than the animals.
They sometimes need reassurance. They need to be told again and again that
everything will be ok with their pet. Another word for someone who needs a
lot of reassurance is ‘needy’. Catherine says that ‘to be honest’ the pets are
easier to deal with.
Catherine Brown
Quite often you are reassuring the owners much more than you are the animals. So if you've
got particularly needy owners that need a lot of reassurance then that’s what you have to give.
The animals to be honest are often easier than the owners.
Andrea: So what kind of experience or qualification does one need to be a pet sitter?
Catherine Brown
We do a lot of training with anyone who comes and works with us. Generally they are
complete animal lovers anyway otherwise they wouldn’t be interested in it. They come out
with us for about 2 or 3 weeks walking. We show them basic training. We never take out
more than 4 - 5 dogs anyway. But no, you don’t need a qualification or anything like that.
Andrea: You don’t need a qualification to be a pet sitter. You just need to be an animal
lover. Catherine and her team give new pet sitters basic training for 2 or 3
weeks and they take out 4 or 5 dogs at a time. So really you just need to love
animals.
But how about animals that aren’t just cats or dogs. Has Catherine ever looked
after some more unusual pets?
Catherine Brown
Ferrets – we’ve looked after ferrets. We were expecting when we started that we were going
to get pythons and tarantulas and all that kind of stuff. But no – it’s been pretty much gerbils
and guinea pigs and things like that. So it’s all been pretty harmless to be honest.
Andrea: Did you catch all the animals that Catherine talked about? Have a listen
again and see if you can hear all the animals she mentioned.
Catherine Brown
Ferrets – we’ve looked after ferrets. We were expecting when we started that we were going
to get pythons and tarantulas and all that kind of stuff. But no – it’s been pretty much gerbils
and guinea pigs and things like that. So it’s all been pretty harmless to be honest.
Andrea: Catherine has had to look after animals other than dogs and cats. These include
ferrets, gerbils and guinea pigs. But luckily they’ve all been harmless. They
haven’t been dangerous. She thought they might get pythons and tarantulas.
But so far so good!
I think it sounds like fun. Let’s quickly recap of some of the language
Catherine used:
reassurance
needy
to be honest
animal lover
qualification
ferrets, pythons, tarantulas, gerbils & guinea pigs
harmless
Until the next time, it’s goodbye from [bad word]