About

Non smoking couple, 66,72 happily pet cuddling in retirement. In our 17th year now full time sitting with many repeat requests.

Before retirement was professionally employed, Laurie worked 46 years at Norwich Uni, then supplemented pension by working for Hertz Car Rental a further 10 years plus gardening.
I worked many jobs including Metroplitan Police, Security and Blue Chip companies for 40 plus years, having no children.

We both worked very hard for over 50 years and now we are time rich, cash poor, we found this to be a great way to travel and improve our lifestyle. Better to be cuddling fur in the sun than clutching blankets for half the year in cold damp UK.

5 star referenced across several sites including the biggest well known where verification and vetting checks have been conducted. We are fully traceable.

We have a page on Facebook "InSafeHands " which has photos of our beautiful pets we have cared for. For discretion and secuirty, never of the homes.

We endeavour to offer a professional care for your pets and home.

We do need use of a car to get around for shopping, taking dogs to parks, beaches and in the event of emergency vet treatment.

Thanks for considering us.

We are listed on other sites with many five star references. Have many happy repeats. Already repeat booked for 2024.

We are Anita, 65, Laurie 72, non smokers now in our 15th year of pet and house sitting. The last 5 full time with
rare gaps . We have many references but also many happy repeat clients who re book us well in advance. We have a good reputation and many people recommend us to their friends and colleagues.

We enjoy re visiting the lovely pets we have enjoyed minding and bonding with. Photos of some of them can be seen on our Facebook page"Insafehands".

We are free at the moment for your dates and would like to offer to sit for you. We are Brits but we spend half the year in Cairns every year and have done so for 20 years. Cairns is home to us. As such we are not tourists but return to live the Cairns lifestyle we love so much.

Dedicated pet care is our priority. We retired from professional careers and approach pet sitting with the same professionalism. We do this completely full time even back home despite owning our own home.

We have regular clients including a finance director at the council, a doctor in Kewarra, along with others in Clifton Beach, Kewarra Beach, Trinity Beach and others.

Please get in contact if you would like us to sit for you.








Kind regards, Anita and Laurie



To whom it may concern 

It is a pleasure to supply a housesitter reference for Anita and Laurie.

Anita and Laurie have looked after our Cairns home, garden and pets for two years now (6 wks in 2023 and for 7 wks in 2024).  And we have booked them again for 2025 for 3 months!

We can't speak highly enough of their professionalism and care for our home.  

We had an elderly cat on their first visit, who required special attention and awareness.   He was happier, sleeker and more chirpy with them than us.  They sent regular photos of him and he was obviously enjoying their attention.  They both have a real love and affinity for animals, Laurie even managed to make friends easily with our very cranky chihuahua and neurotic toy poodle.  We completely trust Anita and Laurie with our fur babies.  They are very aware of the safety and health issues with pets e.g. gates being kept closed, hygiene,  exercise and feeding.

We are very house and garden proud enjoying a well kept home and tropical lush garden with lots of plants needing to be cared for.  Anita and Laurie kept and left everything immaculate.   It was a real pleasure to come home to a spotless, well-ordered home and garden.

We love our garden which requires regular and intentional care e.g. watering, mowing and whipper snippering.  Laurie kept everything "ship shape" and in good order even though the 2024 Spring was particularly dry.

They are excellent communicators with regular and timely emails regarding mail, deliveries and general community news.  Having many years of housesitting experience they know how to handle unexpected events.  Both Anita and Laurie have professional careers in the past and have many skill sets to draw upon.

We feel totally confident leaving our home, garden and pets with this lovely couple.

We wish Laurie and Anita all the best and highly recommend them as housesitters as they are all-round lovely people.

Suzi and Rob Shennan 

Holloways Beach Sept/Oct 24

We came across Anita and Laurie by chance, after a panicked fb post needing a dog and house sitter for five weeks during December 2024. We are so so lucky Anita responded, as who knows who we could have ended up with. We are beyond grateful to the care they showed our home and even more so our little fluffy boy, Ruffy. This was our first real time away from him, but we knew from our first meeting these guys were the right ones for us. Ruffy just loved them, asking for love and attention, within the first few minutes, which isn’t usual for him. This love and attention was returned to him straight away and we could see from the photos while we were away, he was so happy. Being away during the wet and storm season was a worry, but it didn’t need to be. Anita and Laurie dealt the with downpours of rain, loss of power, looked after our pool and mowed our lawns. Even after finding out our mower needed repair, Laurie was onto it and the lawns looked great when we returned. Communication from them was great. The perfect amount. Making sure we knew what was going on, without overly bothering us while we were enjoying our time away. When we returned the house was so clean and we can see it was looked after. Our only problem now is that Ruffy is missing them and we can see he’s waiting for them to return, also sitting at the base of the bed they used. We would use Anita and Laurie again and would recommend them to anyone who is looking for someone to care for their home and treat their pets like family. We are so grateful to have found them, it made our overseas holiday so much more enjoyable, knowing everything was ok at home.

Catherine
Kewarra Beach, Queensland Australia

Oct 10 2024

Hi Anita and Laurie,
I just wanted to send a heartfelt thanks for caring for Molly and Lexie so well. It was so good to get home and see them happy and healthy. It certainly puts us at ease knowing that the girls will be so well cared for while we are not here. We are also very grateful to you for taking care of the house and garden. It all looks great. We look forward to having you over for a meal when we get ourselves sorted.
Thanks once again,

Lisa and Bryan.


Anita and Laurie were wonderful house sitters and delightful and completely trustworthy couple. We returned from our vacation to find our cat well pampered and the house was immaculate with fresh sheets on the beds and fresh flowers.

The garden was regularly watered and Laurie mowed our lawns too and attended to some well overdue garden cleanup in our absence. Anita and Laurie also left food in the fridge such as an evening meal, bread and milk on our return which was so thoughtful. Anita kept us updated regularly, which was reassuring. Highly recommended.

VIKKI AND LARRY (Freshwater QLD, May 2019 - 7 weeks)

Anita and Laurence were outstanding, a truly wonderful pair. We are new to Cairns and were extremely anxious about leaving our beautiful boys even just for 1 night. The moment I met them, I felt comfortable instantly and could see how experienced they are with animals, our boys took a liking to them straight away and the house sit was a huge success. My partner and I recieved photos and updates a and returned home to find our dogs very happy, very relaxed, they were clearly well pampered and cared for well. Would love to hzve them sit for us again, if they are available.

ALICE (Kewarra Beach QLD, Aug 2017 - 1 week 1 day)
 
Thank you for looking after our property and our cat. We have a large house and garden and as such it is a huge responsibility, and Laurie and Anita maintained it all very well. We would be happy to have them sit for us again.

JO AND KEITH (Clifton Beach QLD, Jan 2017 - 2 months 2 weeks)


Hi Laurie- before you migrate to warmer climes for the winter- we wanted to thank you so very much for taking such good care of Lily & Mabel, the chicks and the fish tank for us while we were away. Thank you also for the peace of mind you gave us with the regular photos!- much appreciated. The house was immaculate too- your attention to detail was above & beyond anything we could have imagined. John has contacted Trusted Housesitters to see how to leave feedback . Give our best wishes to Anita- enjoy your travels and hopefully we will see you later next year again . Thank you again John & Sally


I just wanted to say how extremely happy we were with Anita & Laurie whilst they looked after our dogs and house in Cairns over the 2017 Xmas period. I was feeling quiet hesitant being a first time using of a house sitting website. Upon meeting both Anita & Laurie I could see how much love they had for animals. They were both so easy going and approachable and answered all my questions and concerns and put my mind at ease.
Our dogs took to them straight away.
While away we were kept up to date with photos of our dogs. We came home to a very clean and tidy house and two very happy dogs.
I would highly recommend both Anita & Laurie and hope to have them back in the future.
Happy for anyone to get in contact if they have any further questions.
Regards Carolyn

SIT DATE: May 2019 - 7 weeks

Anita and Laurie were wonderful house sitters and delightful and completely trustworthy couple. We returned from our vacation to find our cat well pampered and the house was immaculate with fresh sheets on the beds and fresh flowers. The garden was regularly watered and Laurie mowed our lawns too and attended to some well overdue garden cleanup in our absence. Anita and Laurie also left food in the fridge such as an evening meal, bread and milk on our return which was so thoughtful. Anita kept us updated throughout our vacation with photos of our cat and a report on the house- Great communication. Highly recommend this couple who clearly love animals and take pride in looking after other peoples houses. Would definitely invite them back. Thanks Anita and Laurie.

CHARLIE IN BADALONA, JULY 2019

Anita sat for us previously in our last flat, so when she applied for this sit, we accepted instantly!!

SIT DATE Jan 2023-16 days

Anita and Laurie were the perfect house sitters. We had complete peace of mind while we were away that our pets and home were in safe hands, it was lovely to receive regular updates with photos of our pets and garden while we were away, and to come back to a lovely clean home. We would love to have Anita and Laurie house sit for us again.

Anita returned a 4th time to sit for us.
Charlie was so excited to see her and we knew that he was in good hands. Anita is very organised, likeable, reliable and we were happy to have her visit again after her adventures in Australia! We came back to a lovely clean, tidy house and happy dog. Thank you Anita. Highly recommended.

Cathy - Badalona, Spain

19 - 21 Jul 2019

We were so pleased that Anita agreed to stay in Badalona a few extra days to do another short sit - which turned out to be slightly longer than we expected! Add flexible to the long list of good qualities! When we had to fly back a day later than planned, Anita stayed longer than was originally agreed to make sure our dog, Charlie, wasn't upset at being left. When we arrived home, not only did we find a happy dog and a lovely clean, tidy house, but all of the bedding had been washed and hung out to dry as well. Thank you so much!


Hi Anita and Laurie

Just want to thank you for the fantastic job you did house sitting for us.

For nearly five weeks you looked after our house and pets which included cats , birds and fish.

The photos of the cats you sent to us while we were are away were much appreciated.

We returned home to a clean and tidy house, and cats that had obviously been well looked after and spoiled.

We would have no hesitation in recommending you as housesitters to any future clients, and hopefully when go on our next holiday, you will be available to house sit for us again.

Thank you again
Steve and Maureen Giradi, Bentley Park, QLD


Hi Anita and Laurie.

I just wanted to say thank you for doing such a good job house sitting for me while I was overseas. The place was immaculate when I returned, including the garden so thank you for doing that as well. The dogs were obviously well looked after and I am so grateful to you for that. It is always a worry when you have dogs what to do with them and knowing that they would be in safe hands allowed me to relax and enjoy my holiday.

Although I have no plans to go away in the near future I would have no hesitation in asking you again in the hope that you were available.

Please feel free to give my details to anyone who requires a reference for future house sits.

Thank you

Jean Wilkinson, Rip and Mac, Bentley Park, QLD

•  Recently had Laurie and Anita house sit for us while we traveled overseas. We had 2 dogs and 2 cats to care for so not a small ask!! We had regular updates from our babies which was much appreciated and our babies were spoilt rotten. Our house and gardens were also well cared for. Have no hesitation in recommending them for any sit that you require them for..

BRYAN AND KIM (Smithfield QLD, Sep 2017 - 3 weeks)
 Anita and Laurie were wonderful house sitters and delightful and completely trustworthy couple. We returned from our vacation to find our cat well pampered and the house was immaculate with fresh sheets on the beds and fresh flowers. The garden was regularly watered and Laurie mowed our lawns too and attended to some well overdue garden cleanup in our absence. Anita and Laurie also left food in the fridge such as an evening meal, bread and milk on our return which was so thoughtful.

VIKKI AND LARRY (Freshwater QLD, May 2019 - 7 weeks)


•  Anita and Lawrence were outstanding, a truly wonderful pair. We are new to Cairns and were extremely anxious about leaving our beautiful boys even just for 1 night. The moment I met them, I felt comfortable instantly and could see how experienced they are with animals, our boys took a liking to them straight away and the house sit was a huge success. My partner and I recieved photos and updates a and returned home to find our dogs very happy, very relaxed, they were clearly well pampered .

ALICE (Kewarra Beach QLD, Aug 2017 - 1 week 1 day)

•  Thank you for looking after our property and our cat. We have a large house and garden and as such it is a huge responsibility, and Laurie and Anita maintained it all very well. We would be happy to have them sit for us again.

JO AND KEITH (Clifton Beach QLD, Jan 2017 - 2 months 2 weeks) ( We returned for 3 months over 4 times)

Liz - Kewarra Beach QLD
SIT DATE: Apr 2023 - 5 days

 Anita and Laurie are a great team. House was spotless, bed linen was washed and on the line and the cat and dog looked relaxed and not overfed. Pet bowls were washed and cat litter was clean. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone wanting peace of mind when leaving beloved pets behind.

Julie - Earlville QLD
SIT DATE: Jan 2023 - 3 weeks

 We have returned from our holiday and so far can recommend Anita and Laurie. The house was Spick and span and our cat and dog both happy and well. Thanks so much to Laurie and Anita - much appreciate you taking us on at short notice - our home and pets were in safe hands. Laurie and Anita will do a great house sit for you and your pets.


Wendy - Palm Cove QLD
SIT DATE: Oct 2023 - 15 days

 THEIR REVIEW OF YOU: Anita and Laurie are the perfect housesitters. I would higly recommend them. We came home to a spotlessly clean home and a happy dog. They sent us photos of our dog while we were away. They responded very quickly if we contacted them. They even picked us up from the airport on our return. We would use them again. A big thank you to you both.

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