Why us?
Going away and require professionals to look after your business, house and pets?
Experienced Professionals
We are experienced with big old country houses, city houses, apartments and villas with pools. We are open to travel globally and stay for short or long periods of time. We have already helped our clients avoid costly damage from flooding, roof leaks and digging clients cars out of gravel! We provide a Cattery Management Service where we manage end to end your business so you can take a break and relax in the knowledge everything is under control and cared for.
Unique Approach & DBS Checked
We will look after your house and pets whilst you are away and keep you updated on news so you can enjoy and relax on your break. Plus open to discuss helping manage your small business if required. We have experience of looking after all elements of a cattery business including bookings, payments, service delivery and dealing with emergencies.
Extensive Experience
We have looked after multiple different breeds of dogs and cats including Doberman, Labrador, Border Collie, Chihuahua, Portuguese Water Dog, GSP, Tibetan Terrier, Weimaraner, Cocker Spaniel, Whippet, Burmese, Siamese, Bengal, Persian, Ragdoll, Maine Coon, British Short Hair plus Chickens, Rabbits, Tortoises, Frogs, Fish and Newts!
Your Pets will maintain the routine
We ensure we follow your routines so your pets are relaxed and calm. We have found this works well as your pets notice less change. Equally we are willing to follow the routine you wish. We love a process.
About Us
Hello we are Mel and Paul,
We offer a professional House, Business and Pet Sitting Service and are open to travel.
We sold our dog friendly beautiful Ty Mawr Country Hotel in 2022 which was located in rural Carmarthenshire in West Wales. www.wales-country-hotel.co.uk
We ran Tŷ Mawr as a husband and wife team with 8 staff and had an amazing array of different dogs visiting sometimes with 4 in the house at once. Pheasants galore that became ours and the guests pets ( well we decided they were our pets, they were of course totally wild but came and visited twice a day.)
Managing high standards of housekeeping, building maintenance and restaurant food was paramount. We have moved back to Wiltshire and are offering a professional pet, house and pet sitting service.
We love dogs, cats, birds and basically all animals. Our Hotel, through guests nomination won the best dog friendly hotel award for 2022 from the Good Hotel Guide. Of all the awards, this one reflected our values well.
We are fit and healthy and love the great outdoors and simple things in life.
We enjoy meeting new people, travelling, walking, nature, gardens and food.
We love old buildings and have dealt with many issues linked with oil boilers, floods, electrical faults, roof issues and more so are well placed to look after your special friends and lovely houses.
You can get our latest updates on
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dependablepetsitters
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thepethousesitter
Our Expertise
We enjoy looking after a wide variety of houses, cats, dogs and many more pets
Meet Mel & Paul
We are both experienced with a wide range of large and small dog and cat breeds and have looked after ducks, chickens and tortoises!
Mel Hurley
Partner
Mel is a passionate animal lover and particularly good at calming nervous pets and making them feel safe when they parents are away.
Paul Bennett
Paul is a passionate animal lover, good with dogs and cats. Paul is great at following a routine as he finds this helps the pet adapt whilst their owners are away.
Testimonials
Paul and Mel are exceptionally professional and provide such a brilliant service.
We always find it difficult to get care for our two pets when we travel and it was very reassuring to know that such a diligent couple were able to stay in our home and give us a completely stress free holiday.
We came home to a beautifully clean house, a well brushed cat, and a dog that had clearly had the time of his life.
We will certainly use Paul and Mel again and thoroughly recommend them to anyone considering using the service.
Mel and Paul came to look after our whippet while we were on holiday.
He had been off his food and grieving for several weeks for our other whippet but with encouragement he ate well and has come out of his shell.
They sent me daily updates and took great care our house and even did a spot of gardening!
We will definately be calling Paul and Mel again in the future.
Paul and Mel are amazing. We were looking for some in-house sitters after moving to the area as our boys are getting older and because we often travel for a few weeks at a time.
They came over to meet us all abd so that we could show them the house beforehand. The boys didn't even bark when they arrived which told me they were accepted already. By the time we had drunk our tea, the dogs had staked their claim on feet and handbags lol.
We took a 2 day trip just to see how things went and suffice to say Paul and Mel are already booked for a 3 week sit later this year.
The boys were chilled and happy in their company and we came home to the beds already stripped and a tidy house. We can go away knowing our boys are going to loved and cared for in the same way that we do and our home is in safe hands.
"I cannot thank Paul and Mel enough for, well, everything really !
From animal sitting to coping with Airbnb guests, broken down fridge, garden etc, they simply couldn’t have been more wonderful.
If you are lucky enough to have them sitting for you, you are extremely fortunate.
Five gold stars for Paul and Mel, along with bucket loads of gratitude."
"Mel and Paul were absolutely brilliant.
I had the pleasure of meeting them properly as they arrived the evening before so we could go through the details of the house and Sam thoroughly.
I was able to go away feeling 100% confident that Sam was in their very capable and caring hands, and I was right. They sent regular updates and photos, played with Sam lots, and I returned to a very happy and relaxed cat. My house was spotless, laundry done despite my early arrival home, and we had a chance to exchange stories about what we’d been up to. Mel and Paul are the loveliest people and were a real pleasure to have in my home. I’m really grateful for all they did for me and Sam, and hope they’d like to return one day."
"There are sitters and then there are fabulous sitters.
Paul and Mel were a perfect match for us because they are used to the vagaries of very old houses; enjoy walking in the countryside; calm, kind and caring with animals; and very experienced professionals in terms of the details involved when looking after a home, leaving everything in very good order.
We cannot thank them enough and have already booked them for another sit in September."
Paul and Mel are absolutely fantastic sitters and lovely people to boot.
They took great care of our (somewhat spoiled) French Bulldogs and the dogs loved them. We were kept informed through regular photos and updates during our time away and were super confident that the dogs and house were in safe hands. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Thanks so much, Sandy, Fenton and Bruce look forward to you hopefully sitting them again in the future xx
Paul and Mel were fantastic!
Excellent communication throughout. They looked after our Doberman, cat, duck and tortoise whilst we were in Cornwall for a week. They sent us daily messages and photos and settled into our home brilliantly. They looked after our big house extremely well and left everything immaculate. They took our dog on lovely walks and we hope that they will come back when we go away again. We would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Paul and Mel!
Mel and Paul were great.
I felt totally confident in them even though I sadly never met them.
They were organised and friendly and clearly cared for our elderly cat, giving us a couple of updates and photos.
I couldn’t recommend them more highly than I do.
Testimonials
I wanted to say, Paul and Mel, that we are so very grateful for your care and attention of xxxxx. They were so calm and happy when we arrived home. It was lovely for us and very reassuring that they had loved their time with you and not missed us at all! You definitely have a gift and we are truly thankful that you enabled us to relax into our special day which was perfect.
Best wishes, xxxx
Business Sitting
We also look after small businesses including small Hotels, Bed and Breakfast's and Shops plus have just completed a wonderful sit for a Luxury Cat Hotel in Sussex. So if you have a small business, fancy a break then let's chat and see if we can help
Hotel Catifornia is a Luxury Cat Hotel where we look after a very wide range of 14 cats, chickens and border collies. Our oldest cat has been 19, we managed medication for cat's with dementia, poorly eyes, anxiety and specific diets.
We manage all customer interactions, bookings, payments and room change overs!
A review from our last stay -
"Mel and Paul came to stay for a fortnight in May 2023.
Not only were they very thorough in ensuring they were ready to take over, but showed great enthusiasm for the house, garden, pets and of course our business, Hotel Catifornia.
We had already carried out a full training session but last minute details about all the guest pussycats, their comings and goings, what they eat etc does take a lot of organising.
I had no doubts at all in my mind that they were the perfect couple to allow us complete relaxation and rest while we were away.
We had regular updates for reassurance whilst away and arrived home to a complete diary of events and new bookings during our absence plus a sparkling clean house and even mowed lawn.
Our customers were also very impressed. We are very grateful to have found this smashing couple and already booked them for our October break and hope to have them back next year. We cannot recommend them highly enough."