Friday 29th October 2010 – Well, there’s a lot more to this house-sitting business than meets the eye – just taking a friend’s dog for a walk once a day is completely different from living with two of them. So far I’ve had them jumping all over local school kids, plunging into the lake for a swim and not coming back out again, running off uncontrolably, being followed all the way home by an overfriendly puppy and then having to take the puppy home again and then having to walk home again myself (an additional 5km walk!), having an old paw wound go septic and having to enlist the help of neighbours to help me get the dog to the vet and back (as I can’t take her on the motorbike!), only to discover the dog in question also has infections in both ears and having to administer a variety of medications to clear it all up. Not to mention being swarmed by locusts, flies and droganflies, having to walk in temperatures of about 30C (give or take 2 degrees), the feeding, the picking of barbs out of their paws and the pretty much 24 hour following me around that they like to do. And that’s only the dogs. There’s also the cat, the general housekeeping and all the gardening duties.

Having said that, its been a brilliant week. The animals are so loving and all the walking has improved my fitness and reduced my waistline considerably. Plus I’ve met some lovely people – like the neighbour who gave me a lift back from the Post Office the day I decided to walk into the village not realising this was a 7km walk each way!

Off to Melbourne on Monday to do it all again (this time for 4 weeks) for my friends and their 2 whippets. Can’t wait!