International Cat Sitters; a New Chapter

What a difference from our last postcard. Last week we were mad tourists, sampling the best of what New Zealand has to offer. Today we are back to caring for pets. While in Queenstown we applied for a house sit nearby. A big advantage of this is it gave us the opportunity to meet the pet owners, or more importantly, they had the opportunity to size up the people that would be living in their beautiful home and responsible for their animals. This is a rarity for us, actually the first time it has happened. All other introductions are over video calls. These folks recommended us to some other neighbors, who we also met. Viola…we have two scheduled housesits. Both of these are right smack in the middle of the Central Otago wine area. Literally homes in the middle of vineyards. Three or four winery cellar doors are less than a five minute walk. Walks we will be making.

You know us, we are dog lovers. Our entire motivation for house sitting is to get a dose of dog time. The rest has been unexpected gravy: meeting great people, living more like locals, and experiencing some off-the-beaten-path experiences. We like the farm animals too…and a few cats. We like cats, but they are harder to house sit. They don’t take to us unquestionably like dogs do; so they become invisible and give us lots of worries. 

This current house sit is going to tip the balance. It is going to be a challenging assignment: one older sweet dog, 14 chooks, and 21 show cats. Devon Rex is the breed; you may have seen them, sometimes these cats are hairless. Big ears, bulging eyes, and the kittens have a distinct Yoda appearance. There is no doubt George Lucas has seen these kittens and that they inspired the character.

Ugly some would say, but they are rapidly growing on us. Most have luxurious wavy coats of soft fur; very similar to the schnauzers we just cared for. After several days, we noticed something else special about these cats’ fur: it does not shed. We have no idea how valuable these animals are, we do not want to know. Most of the herd (or pride, or whatever do you call a group of cats?) live in a posh cattery. Heating, music, exercise yard, all equipped. All we do is check on them a few times a day, feed and yes, litter. There is lots of that. One cat requires a daily jab (that’s an injection), and some of the kittens are on antibiotics. We are getting better at delivering meds to cats; it is an acquired skill. 

The house is large and with huge dueling fireplaces in the opposing lounge rooms, cozy. There is a spa that we can sit in to view the stars, just in time for the blood moon lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, it is really cold. The frost on the ground in the morning stays all day. After several days there is frost on top of the previous day’s frost, on everything: white trees, buildings, mountains.

This is called Hoar Frost; it is beautiful. Getting the chicken’s water to melt is an engineering puzzle; it is frozen solid. Of course, so are all the water taps. We are bringing hot water from the house to give to the chickens a couple times a day; it is just warm by the time we get to the hens, and they seem to like it. They repay us with a few eggs. 

Tonight we have been invited to dinner by the folks from the other house sit. How fun. It sounds like I have volunteered for a project. A local charity runs a program of horse therapy for children. They are asking me to design a sensory garden. This is not the first landscape design that follows house sitting. I like providing my expertise this way and it gives me a lasting link to the area. A sensory garden will be particularly interesting.