ExchangeHomesBlog.com » Pets and Home Exchange

Home Exchange and Take Your Pet Along

Anne — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:30:46 +0000

Another huge advantage of home exchange vacationing is the opportunity to take your pet with you. This is a definite possibility worth considering if you will be traveling by car or train to your home exchange destination, and even if you will be flying, it’s not out of the question.

Pet boarding facilities are always expensive and most dogs and cats don’t like them. They would prefer to be with their owners. Having said that, make sure your exchange partners are 100% happy with the arrangement; never take a pet without first receiving written permission. Also, don’t take a pet on vacation with you if you’re likely to be busy sightseeing for most of the time. You need to have your pet in an environment where it will be in your company for a good part of the day so that it’s vacation will be enjoyable as well.

Prior to departure make sure that all your pet’s shots are current and check with your vet whether any special shots would be advisable for the area you will be traveling to. Also, have a nametag made displaying your exchange home’s address and phone number and attach it to your pet’s collar IN ADDITION to his regular tag. If your pet is a cat, it’s a good idea to fit it with a cat-harness, should it escape a cat wearing a harness is much easier to grab hold of. A word of warning—don’t buy a cheap harness, cats escape from them!

Home Exchange When You Have Pets

Anne — Sun, 25 May 2008 14:58:59 +0000

Many members successfully arrange home exchanges to include their pets. For a lot of families, caring for each other’s pets is an enhancement to the arrangement, especially if they have children. However, I cannot stress emphatically enough that no-one should ever demand pet car of their home exchange partners. Many people don’t like pets, have never kept a pet, and simply would not be comfortable looking after one. Not only that, if they have no experience with animals, it’s definitely not a good idea to expect them to suddenly care for one properly. Such an arrangement could lead to disaster.

Look at it this way, you’re already saving a small fortune on hotel or vacation rental costs, so if your exchange partners are in any way reluctant to care for your pets, either place them in a good boarding facility, or with more willing and experienced friends or family. If you opt for a boarding kennel, make sure your pet is current on all its required shots before you actually drop it off otherwise that could be another recipe for a last minute disaster!

Even if your home exchange partners are perfectly happy to look after your pets, it’s really not fair or realistic to expect them to be tied to your home throughout the duration of their vacation. Far better to set up an arrangement with a local professional pet sitting service so that they will be “on call” to your exchange partners and able to visit your home to feed and generally care for your pets should they take a day trip or stay away overnight.

Reputable pet sitters will be registered with either of the following:

Pets and Your Home Exchange – More!

Anne — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:32:59 +0000

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the pros and cons of agreeing to care for your exchange partner’s pets. I pointed out that while caring for their cats is not generally too much of a tie, dogs are a different proposition. All dogs need to be allowed out to take care of business a minimum of three or four times a day.

In my earlier post I suggested that the owning exchange partner could arrange to have his/her dog kenneled for just a limited time should the guests in the house wish to travel away for a full day or overnight. However, I’ve now come up with a much better alternative. Pet sitters.

A professional pet sitter can arrange to visit your home during any period of time when your guests may wish to travel further afield. A professional pet sitter is often licensed, always insured and will charge anything between $12 (£6) – $20 (£10) per visit. An extremely good deal.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to talk with a lady who has been a pet sitter for 10+ years. She is dedicated to her business, to her clients and most especially to the animals she cares for.

It had never crossed my mind to suggest integrating the services of a pet sitter, but it really makes sense, and allows both home swap parties to enjoy the best of both worlds. Your pets can remain in their familiar home surroundings yet your exchange partners need never feel tied to the house.

The one further suggestion I would make, is for the visiting partners to let the home owner know the dates and times when they plan to travel away. As the pet sitter I spoke with pointed out to me, during the summer months and over holiday periods she is often booked solid several weeks in advance.

Pet sitters usually leave business cards in veterinarians offices. You can also search for those local to you on the following web sites:

National Association of Pet Sitters
Pet Sit Center
VetClick

Plus you can always check your local Yellow Pages, or Google the term “pet sitter”.

Caring For Pets On A Home Swap

Anne — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:08:07 +0000

Home Exchange Blog
Many members of ExchangeHomes.com indicate in their listings that they would appreciate having their pets cared for by their exchange partners and that they are happy to reciprocate.

Before accepting this responsibility, home exchangers need to be fully aware of the task they are undertaking. Cats and similar small pets are usually fine, but if they agree to take care of a dog, they will need to return to house at least once during the day to allow him to go outside and take care of business. Just this simple necessity will restrict their activities and very probably mean no day-trips away from their exchange home.

Sometimes the pet owner is able to incorporate the help of a neighbor or friend who can pop in during the day. Another alternative is that they make arrangements for you to drop the dog off at a local kennel just for short periods on the days you’ll be traveling away.

Just make sure both parties think through all the implications ahead of time and NEVER agree to any sort of pet care you’re not 100% comfortable with.

Over the years I’ve heard of some really great stories involving home exchange pets. Geese, goats, llamas, pot bellied pigs, ponies, horses, birds – all have delighted their visitors. I also heard about a parrot that swore like a sailor and a dog that refused to let the family back into the house.

If there are children in the exchange party, taking care of new pets can make the trip especially memorable for them. It can also require an enormous amount of tact from parents when little Joey wants to take Bengi home with him at the end of the vacation!

A Tale of Two Cats

Anne — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:17:17 +0000

Home Exchange Blog
ExchangeHomes heard last week from long-time member “Marylee”, who was eager to tell us she had just completed her twenty-fifth home exchange. What’s so special about that you may ask, to which we would reply – everything!

Marylee joined ExchangeHomes.com back in January 1996. She lived in Atlanta, Georgia and was dreading the impending disruption to her day to day living promised by the upcoming Summer Olympic Games. She wanted to leave Atlanta for the entire month of July and first week of August, but her retirement income put hotels and rental properties way beyond her budget.

She had read articles on home exchanging a couple of times and she phoned us wanting to know more. We talked for what must have been thirty minutes, but at the end of that first conversation she was far from convinced that turning over her home, her car, and her beloved cat, Tigger to the care of a complete stranger for more than a month was a good idea.

A week later she called again. The lure of escaping the Olympic razzmatazz was clearly tugging just as hard, but her reservations remained. We were all touched by a new thought that had occurred to her – while she was anxious to get well away from Atlanta, there were quite probably many other people equally as anxious to be there, to be part of it. Maybe (as she put it), she should stop letting her uncertainties prevent someone else from enjoying themselves.

At that point she still didn’t join, in fact several weeks passed before we heard from Marylee again. Her third call to us was at the beginning of March and its timing was almost uncanny; we had just opening the incoming mail and in it was a new membership from a couple in New England who were seeking an exchange to Atlanta DURING THE SUMMER OLYMPICS!

To cut a long story short, when Marylee heard that she could spend the duration of the Olympics sitting on a beach on Cape Cod she was sold. She joined our home exchange organization, contacted the members in Dennis Port, and after several phone calls, exchange of photographs and long letters, made a firm commitment.

A week later she got cold feet and started phoning daily with a wide scenario of “what ifs”. We began to despair of her; the idea of home exchanging always raises many questions and doubts from new participants, but Marylee imagined more possible situations of disaster than could be humanly possible.

Then an idea struck me. What if she first tested the waters with a “quickie” weekend exchange to a location much closer to home? Next Monday morning when she phoned (as expected), I put the idea to her and, surprise, surprise, she jumped at it. She searched the listings and contacted fellow members in Miami, New Orleans, and Virginia Beach and eventually arranged a Friday through Sunday exchange with a lady in New Orleans

We awaited the outcome with bated breath. Marylee had become a part of our day to day lives and the success of her very first home exchange was as important to us as it was to her. Marylee just HAD to enjoy her springtime trip to Louisiana

She did. Her next phone call was full of praise for her exchange partner. She sent us pictures of the Mississippi scenery she had enjoyed and began planning her trip to Cape Cod in a new-found, positive frame of mind.

That was eleven years ago. Marylee completed her “Olympic Exchange”, as she called it, and subsequently her entire life seemed revolve around home exchange vacationing – she’s either away somewhere exploring a new found corner of the world, or at home planning to do so.

Abroad, she’s been to England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Mexico and Canada. Within the US she’s exchanged with Louisiana, Massachusetts, Florida (several times), California, Washington, Hawaii (several times), Wisconsin, Texas and Arizona.

Tigger passed away three years ago and Marylee didn’t plan on replacing him until she met Bailey a stray cat her exchange partners in Florida had been feeding. It had been love at first sight and he flew home to Atlanta with her.

Marylee is well into her seventies, we’ve never met her, but we love receiving her phone calls and we hope to continue hearing of her adventures for years to come.