Housesitting Country Style

Ever wanted to take that dream holiday but couldn’t due to the responsibilities of your property or household pets?

GreenFields shareholder Helen McFarlane and her daughter Lisa realised there was a real gap in the market for experienced house sitters to homesit lifestyle properties and have set up Town & Country Homesit Ltd, providing an extensive live in home, property care and pet minding service for both city and rural properties in the Canterbury area.

Town & Country Homesit Ltd can match clients with experienced sitters for short or long term assignments sometimes even at short notice.

The service also includes exercising dogs if necessary and any medication of pets, collection of mail, forwarding of messages and plant watering right down to lawn mowing and gardening which may also be arranged.

Helen says a lot of work goes into ensuring her employees are of an exceptional standard and can cope with a diverse range of tasks.

“The sitters are thoroughly police & reference screened so owners have peace of mind while they are away. We ensure that the sitters are responsible, mature, reliable and proficient in animal c are. Our sitters have looked after llamas, donkeys, turtles, kune kunes etc as well as the usual range of animals.”

The sitters maintain an appearance in the owners absence discouraging potential intruders and keeping pets in a secure and familiar environment and farm animals fed, watered and cared for.

“We meet clients at their home, discuss requirements and then they are matched with a suitable sitter whom they meet with before the sit commences. We have Legal Terms & Conditions that the sitters abide by and to safeguard the owners,” says Helen.

The McFarlane’s have an extensive rural background. Helen and her husband Bruce farmed in partnership for 18 years in South Canterbury and have been farming in Canterbury for the past 13 years.

Up until recently Helen owned a country Garden Centre/Florist business, she has bred Birman cats in the past and now breeds Border Collies. Daughter Lisa was ‘farm raised’ and has previously been in Recruitment and HR for investment banks in London so is very experienced with the recruitment of sitters and of matching sitters to clients and their needs.