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A question I get asked more and more these days is, “What’s been your favourite housesit?”

Try as I might, I never have a good and/or definitive answer for this. There are just too many variants: location, number of animals, sociability of those animals, comfort level of accommodation, TV and media choices in the home, and so and so and so.

I can honestly not pick one.

However, there are other metrics I can easily use to pick ‘The Most Something’ of a housesit and this is one. Namely, it’s been the shortest!

Initially intended to be a little over 24 hours, this short housesit at Wynnum West ended up falling about five hours short of two whole days. The family had forgotten that they had a Saturday morning obligation or two for their kids, and so rather than meandering slowly back from the Gold Coast on a pleasant Saturday morning/afternoon, they came barrelling back up the M1 early, and I’d barely (in two senses of the word) stepped out of the shower when they were back.

25 minutes later I was on the westbound platform at Lindum train station!

The brevity of the stay was not a problem. I had a week or so in between housesits and, as usual, was hanging out at the Brisbane City YHA. So this just neatly broke that time up and gave me a couple of days in my own space, with access to Fox Sports and Netflix*.

* I was looking forward to seeing the last three episodes of Fargo Series 3 on Netflix, but had to smile wryly to myself when I was asked for a PIN code to get around the child protection lock, so I left that to another day.

My main companion was a lovely old Labrador who was content to sit around most of the day and catch up on some Zs, however we did wander over to the local dog park on both afternoons. I’d been to this particular dog park briefly earlier in the year when I’d done my mammoth Saturday exploring about eight or nine parks and ending up on Sandgate Beach at low tide. At that time, I’d mentally rated the Evelyn Street dog park pretty lowly amongst its peers, and so it proved to be.

Devoid of shade wasn’t really a problem in the middle of winter, but it was also bereft of other canines and homo sapiens. We saw exactly one other person plus child plus dog, and they gave us a cursory ‘hello’ before scarpering up the other end of the park. So, doggo and I amused ourselves for as long as we could and then loped back home.

The bearded dragons were a nice break from the ordinary run of cats and dogs, even if their movements were rare and glacially slow. One took the time to look around the living area and would then make for a spot out of sight under the TV cabinet. The other was happy enough to sit on my arm and keep an eye on affairs of state from there.

All in all, a very easy care option!

Like I said, blink and you’d miss this housesit, but it served its purpose for all concerned and the pack leaders provided me with this lovely reference:

We had the please of having Bill look after our home and beloved pets while we went away, and couldn’t be happier.

If you are looking for a friendly, down to earth person who will look after your home as if it were his own, and take great care of your pets as well (he looked after our Labrador and Lizards), leaving you to holiday without worry, then Bill is your man.

Great job Bill!

Rhiannon, Wynnum West