‘‘We had been desperate to visit our family, especially as we had a baby grandson’’

In January 2021, Julie and Jonathan were blessed with a lovely grandson - Franklin. Desperate to meet their new family member, the travel restrictions due to Covid meant that all Julie and Jonathan could do was wait to meet him. 

“We had been desperate to visit our family, especially as we had a baby Grandson, Franklin, born in January 2021 we were craving to meet. He was now heading towards being a one year old.  Facetimes have been great but we were desperate to hold him.”

11 months later, entry restrictions to Australia finally eased, so Julie and Jonathan jumped at the chance to hold their new grandson in person! The only thing that stood in their way was the expense of Manly accommodation - they wanted a decent stretch of time in Australia to bond with Franklin, after all.

“High season summer rental rates to stay in Manly for this long would be impossible on our budget without house sitting.”

And that’s where our community of animal lovers came in - Julie and Jonathan were able to find a charming home to sit and adorable pup, Charcoal, to look after while his pet parents were away. It was perfect - Julie and Jonathan had secured a free stay in Australia, and Charcoal’s pet parents had found loving sitters they could wholeheartedly trust.

“House sitting has allowed us both, who travel on a small budget, to experience something we could have only dreamed about, staying in Australia for 3 months, accommodation free, allowing us to really bond with our new Grandson and spend quality time with him.”

So before they knew it, Julie and Jonathan were in Sydney, catching up on cuddles with Franklin with Charcoal right by their side. And Charcoal LOVED his new foster family.

“For almost 2 months we have had the furry love of little Charcoal, he’s definitely been a massive bonus for us. We knew from his owners how sociable and easy Charcoal was so that we could take him everywhere with us, he was great with meeting everyone and all our family loved him [...]

Charcoal loved visiting our family, he adored little grandson, Franklin, and playing with their dog Moose, they became best pals and we often took them out together to the doggie parks. Charcoal adored Moose the Groodle. [...]

From day one when letting him off leash in the dog friendly parks and beach areas, he knew exactly who his temporary owners were and came back to us every time.  In fact he would run and chase any other dogs that approached us, it was really funny,  – get away from my foster parents haha!”

Charcoal made for the perfect travel buddy - he loved trotting about Sydney with his new foster parents.

“We’ve explored all of Manly with Charcoal [...] We even took him to Sydney on the Manly Ferry and he was our pawfect tour guide as we visited all the star attractions. Dogs normally have to sit in a crate on the ferry, but Charcoal went in his large toy bag and was as good as gold, needless to say he got lots of loving attention from other passengers.”

It’s safe to say that little Charcoal made a pawsome impact on Jonathan and Julie…

“We’ll never forget his cute little waddle, he can really shake his booty! [...] It was really sad for us to say bye bye to sweet little Charcoal, after 7 weeks with him, he really did feel like our own.  No doubt we will be talking about him for weeks to come and will definitely miss him. Thank you Richard, Gabbie and Charcoal for making our stay in Manly so memorable. We hope we will meet up with you all again on our next visit to the Sydney area.”

What a lovely story! To hear more about Julie and Jonathan's pet sitting adventures, check them out at The Global Pet Sitters.