We're looking for someone to look after our house and walk, feed and medicate our 3 dogs while we're away this summer. Must love dogs and be responsible, non-smoking, and preferably an older couple.
We have two female greyhounds (13 years old) and a female lurcher (2½ years old). The old girls have a short walk in the morning and afternoon and spend the rest of the time sleeping - in the garden if the weather's nice or indoors if not. They have the run of the house downstairs but aren’t allowed upstairs or on any of the furniture, and the greyhounds have been trained to use a toilet area in the garden (gravel pit), which is easy to clean and keeps the rest of the garden nice. The lurcher needs more exercise so she gets an extra stretch after all three have had their shared morning walk along the beach. She also needs a quick trip to the beach last thing at night as she won't use the pit in the garden. All dogs are fed twice a day (morning and evening, which is when the old girls get their medication).
The grass will need cutting once or twice and pot plants watered while we're away (which also makes the garden nicer to be in). The back garden gets quite a bit of sun until late afternoon and is a lovely quiet space to enjoy good weather. If it's not so nice the garden room is bright on even the dullest day. Indoors, pot plants will need to be watered and some general cleaning done to keep the place pleasant. There's a TV in the sitting room and WiFi throughout the house.
The house is a few minutes walk from an extensive sandy beach with views out over the Firth of Forth (the end of the street is marked with an orange spot on the photo of the beach). Portobello is a vibrant neighbourhood a 20-minute bus ride from the city centre, with good local shops (including an award-winning butcher), family-run restaurants, cafes and pubs. The house itself is a stone cottage built in 1865, with a secluded back garden on a quiet residential street just off the High Street.It's ideally placed to enjoy everything that the city of Edinburgh has to offer (galleries, museums, theatre, architecture, shops, etc.), while being a great starting point for trips out into the surrounding countryside. Visitors always say how lucky we are to live in such a great place!