In September 2016 we were housesitting in Cannock Chase, England. It was our second housesit in the country and our favorite one. We were watching two dachshunds and three rescue cats.
Cannock Chase is a small, quaint town. We didn’t have a car, and the house was in a super residential area not close to anything, so we either walked everywhere or took Ubers. If we wanted to venture into a bigger city, we’d take an Uber to the train station. The house was cute. It ended up being one of our more stay-at-home-and-cook stays, which was fine by me.
These dachshunds were completely food-obsessed but well trained. They’d do anything you asked if there was a treat involved. Ralphie always needed to be carried most of the walk because he had bad hips, and our son loved it. It’s been almost ten years. I can only remember Ralphie and the other dog my husband nicknamed chocolate dog.
It was also the first time we really started watching Sky News. We even found RT, Russian TV, and Shawn became obsessed with comparing news from around the world. Reuters, Sky, RT, all of them. He’d flip between channels to see how each one covered the same story.
One of the cats was an inside-outside cat. She didn’t come home one night. We called and searched for her for hours. The next morning, my husband and son found her dead on the side of the highway after a neighbor told us he thought he saw where she landed.
This was our second pet incident while traveling, but our first pet death while housesitting.
We had to message the homeowners while they were on vacation to tell them. She was crushed. But she didn’t blame us. They lived a block off the highway and animals were killed on it all the time. She knew it could happen. She just wanted this rescue to live her happiest live, hunting and prowling the way cats do.
Shawn and I had to deal with the body. She wanted us to save her so she could bury her when she got home in a few days.
That’s the part of housesitting nobody warns you about. We’d hoped this would be the last incident… but it wasn’t. I’ll save that story for another day.
Here’s the review she left us on TrustedHousesitters.
One day Shawn and I were at the local grocery store and found something in the deli section we’d never seen before.
Scotch eggs. The deli person told us you eat them cold.
So that’s how we tried them… watch the video.
Oh, and the scotch eggs? I just made a batch today. My keto version, no flour, no breading. Anytime I want a high-protein snack and remember these, I make them. Here’s my Scotch Egg Recipe if you want to try them.
Let me know if you make the recipe or if you have questions about housesitting for Free Travel housing.
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