Holly & Kera

Kera and I have been housesitting and travelling for the past eight and a half years throughout Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland. We have been friends for 23 years and spent 3 months backpacking Europe together in 2012 before starting our big travels in 2016. We like house-sitting because it gives us the opportunity to truly experience living in different countries. Over the past nearly nine years, we have done more than 100 wonderful pet/farm-sits and have cared for and grown very attached to some wonderful animals. We have had the opportunity to look after dogs, cats, fish, small birds, parrots, chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, peafowl, rabbits, a gerbil, degus, hedgehogs, pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, ponies, horses, cows, a water buffalo, alpacas, deer, terrapins, stick insects, and even camels! We also looked after a privately owned wildlife rehabilitation sanctuary in Australia where we cared for injured and orphaned animals including two eastern grey kangaroo joeys, a swamp wallaby joey, and a wombat joey in addition to several birds. While on our travels we have also had the opportunity to volunteer with various animals. In 2019, we volunteered for 5 weeks at Devil's at Cradle in Tasmania. It was an amazing experience and we loved seeing wombats, pademelons, quolls and our beloved Tasmanian Devils everyday! We also volunteered with Orana Wildlife Park in Christchurch for 7 months and did a short internship with the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra. We helped a lady who rescues hedgehogs by feeding them, bathing them, treating wounds, and cleaning cages whenever we had free time. In Scotland, we volunteered at Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue. Between the two of us, you can rest assured that your beloved fur babies will be well taken care of and your homes will be treated with the utmost respect. We would be very excited to have some four legged friends to explore the outdoors with and would treat your home as we would our own. We understand that we are younger than many people on the website but we hope this does not deter you from considering us.

Here is a bit more about us...

Holly:

I was born in England but moved to Canada with my parents in 1999. In 2018, I worked as a supervisor for Animates in Auckland for 8 months. I learned heaps about animals and really expanded my fish knowledge. In Winnipeg, I worked full time for a financial institution as a supervisor and part time for a shoe store as a stock person. I graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in psychology. I volunteered with youth from low income families who were at risk of getting involved with gangs or drugs from 2010 to 2013. I also volunteered on a crisis and suicide line for a year in 2014. In the future, I would like to have a career as a zookeeper. I have grown up with dogs but love all animals. My family currently has a 14 year old Labrador/Rottweiler cross named Chance who we rescued at age 3. Our dogs have always been larger breeds but I have experience with all sizes of dogs and love all breeds. Aside from travelling, my main hobbies include hiking, hot yoga, and reading. Friends and family would describe me as independent, caring, responsible, hard-working and reliable.

Kera:

I graduated from University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies. I completed a three month practicum for my degree in Tanzania, spent a month volunteering in British Columbia doing Orca whale conservation work, and worked full-time for the Winnipeg Police Service doing administrative and security work. I was always very excited when the Canine unit came to visit! While working for the Police, I also worked as a part-time volunteer coordinator at the non-profit organization, Manitoba Harvest (the City's food distribution and training Centre). In the past, I have volunteered as a dog walker and also at our local Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, where most notably I got to help care for an orphaned beaver and took part in releasing four young raccoons back into the wild. I grew up with a cat named Goofy and a few hamsters, and also had some experience with horses and cows. My sister owns a horse and during visits home (in 2018 and 2022), I took the opportunity to get some riding in, which was great! I absolutely love animals and would be excited to look after pretty much anything! Similarly to Holly, my main hobbies are hiking, kinstretch, reading, and of course, travelling!

In 2018, I spent a few months working as an animal care co-ordinator at Central Bark (Doggy Daycare, Pet Hotel, and Grooming facility) in Auckland. I was responsible for monitoring groups of up to 50 small/medium dogs and up to 32 large breed dogs, cleaning up after the dogs and cats, bathing and drying dogs, walking dogs, preparing meals and administering any medications for the overnight guests. I was also interning as a marine researcher with Auckland Whale and Dolphin Safari on the weekends, which was fantastic! More recently, I had the chance to work (as a server/cleaner) up North in Manitoba at a fly-in lodge for Churchill Wild, which operates walking safaris with Polar Bears. I had the chance to tag along on some of the excursions with guest and it was absolutely incredible! After that, I took on a position working at Wooftopia (Dog Training and Recreation Centre) as a Doggy Daycamp attendant. It's was phenomenal working with dogs again and I hope some similar opportunities present themselves in the future!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch! We would be more than happy to speak to you and to provide references.

Thanks for taking a look at our profile! Hope to hear from you :)