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Hello, I'm Michelle.I'll be the one on your sofa.

I'm a nurse by training and I work from home for a health and safety company in construction, so I'm in the house most of the day. Coco, my black poodle, comes with me on every sit.

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Michelle Norton smiling in a garden on a house sit

Warlingham, August

The dogs I've looked after this year

Every dog on this page kept their own routine while I was there.

Coco, a black standard poodle, standing on a grassy bank
Coco, my black poodle. She comes on every sit.
Michelle in a red coat beside a grey dog at a waterfall in Washington State
Bellingham, Washington State. A waterfall walk.
Michelle on the sofa with Finn, a border terrier, on her lap
Wye, Kent. Finn on my lap.
Hippo and Tiggy, two wire-haired dachshunds, on Michelle's lap
Marlborough. Hippo and Tiggy in for a cuddle.
Indie, a border collie, wading in a stream under a brick bridge
Kettering. Indie. Show me a collie who doesn't love water.
Michelle on the sofa with Dessi, a black and white spaniel
Havant. Dessi likes to stay close.
Chewie, a vizsla, sitting on a log in a stubble field waiting for a ball to be thrown
Warlingham. Chewie, waiting for the ball.
Thomas, a yellow Labrador, standing in a mud puddle beside a path
Washington, Tyne and Wear. Thomas, 12, who found every mud puddle in the county.
Jackson, a black and white springer, tongue out on the canal towpath
Cambridge. Jackson, who never tired of fetch.
Bernie, an old black dog, on a muddy path
Winster. Bernie, 14 and still loves her walks. The first dog I looked after who pooped like a horse and just kept moving. Picking that up was a skill.

Why I do this

I absolutely love meeting other people's dogs. Every sit there's a new character to work out: what they're scared of, what they'll do anything for, which end of the sofa is theirs. By day three we have our routine, and on the last day I'm sorry to hand them back.

The other half is the country, and the corners of it I'd never have found on my own. At Kettering I learnt about the ridge and furrow fields, and the medieval fish ponds they flooded on purpose to keep the village in fish. At Warlingham there was Kings Wood, ancient woodland and common land right on the edge of London, and I had no idea it was there.

Havant surprised me most. If I ever moved anywhere it might be here. The walks are beautiful, the sea is close, the trains into London are easy, and the town centre is the kind you remember, a green in the middle and the shops round a pedestrian square.

Different dog, different walk, every month.
Jackson and Coco on the canal towpath at Cambridge in low winter sun

Where I've come from

  • 10 years

    NHS A&E nurse

    Ten years in A&E. I stay calm when something goes wrong and I get on with sorting it.

  • Since 2010

    Airbnb Superhost

    I've hosted guests in my own home since 2010 and I look after other people's Airbnb properties too. I know what a home should look like when someone walks back into it.

  • Now

    Health and safety, construction

    I work from home for a health and safety company in the construction industry. It's a job for someone diligent and pragmatic, and it means I'm around the house most of the day.

  • Always

    Coco's owner

    Walking a dog every day, whatever the weather. Coco makes every home we go into our home, and she and your pets become firm friends.

Day to day, in your home

Michelle cooking at a kitchen counter

I cook

I've become expert at using different appliances.

Michelle pegging white sheets on a washing line in a walled garden at Wye

I keep the house

You come home to it the way you left it.

Coco and one of the dachshunds on their walk at Marlborough

I walk

Every day, whatever the weather. Long ones if your dog is up for it, short ones if they're not.

Michelle in a striped top stroking two horses in a barn at Wye

It's not just dogs

Horses, cats, chickens, whatever lives there gets looked after. I'm quiet company too. No parties, no drama, no difficulties.

“She was very reliable, tidy, organised and self sufficient. Our house and pet were in wonderful hands.”Matthew and May, Warlingham

Want to meet me properly?

Send your dates and I'll suggest a video call.

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Your pets stay home. I move in.  
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