Hi,

I am not yet in Switzerland but we are planning to relocate in summer. We have a cat, and in US we usually use a circle of friends to take care of him while we are going on short trips (2-5 days) . He does not need much, just a short visit once in one or two days. We tried to leave our cat in a kennel once, he was moody and grumpy for a few weeks afterwards :-))

We do take care of our friends' pets while they are away => the only important point is to have enough friends, so not everyone is out of town simultaneously (main holidays are the major problem).

I would be happy to replicate such a system in Switzerland (the set of friends willing to care about their pets). Well, I know that human friends can take some time to find, but, perhaps, we can find each other through pets? We are going to live close to Lausanne, so I would be happy to find out if there are people there who have pets and who would not mind looking after each other pets for some short period of time on reciprocity basis.

Do you think it can work?

Piglet

I might be interested, I have a cat and live in Lausanne
How far are you from lausanne

I am moving to Zug, and I also have two cats and a dog back in Miami.
Yo can live it with me anytime.

Hej Piglet.... I live in Lausanne and could help out when needed. I do it often for collegues. Was a cat owner, but unfortunately he did not make it to CH with me from DK. so I live vicariously through others!

Please re-title this thread 'Petworking'.

Hi,

I think that's a great idea. My cat also hates the kennel. Regrettably, I live too far from Lausanne. Perhaps a Zurich-area affiliate would be in order

I think this could work really well. We are coming over at the end of the summer and would love to meet other dog owners and do some pet sitting when needed. Not quite sure where we will be living but somewhere around Zurich

I live in Zurich and would be happy to help out. But I would be even more specific and say west coast.

I have nice old ladies surrounding me, upstairs, next door and downstairs. I offer to do their 'heavy' shopping for them, bake cakes for them etc, and in return they are to be smitten with my cats.

If you can befriend the neighbours, even better.

Please let us know where you end up, I know other cat owners who would join such a petwork.

I open this offer for people in Basel... Will love to have a circle of pet owner to help each other when one or the other goes in vacation.

I have 2 cats, one is small and stressed and the other one is old, fat and Garfield minded... They both will give me attitude for weeks if I send them in a kennel.

They are nice girls, easy going when food is provided...

We also have kind, elderly neighbors who have cat sat for us in the past. I always feel bad about asking them, especially since they no longer live in the building, but still offer to care for our cat (they moved to a flat in the next street) and they refuse to take any money. So we always bring them gifts from our travels, which they appreciate.

The cat, however, is a bit of a problem child. She hisses at the old lady

Hi All,
I started a yahoo group for a cat sitting network here in Zurich. I don't know how active it is in practice but I figure the more participants the merrier!

Here it is:
ZurichExpat_CatSIttingNetwork@yahoo-groups.com

Cheers!
Leyla

Hooray! I love it! Thank you all for your answers!

If we can get some number of people in different places - Basel, Bern, Lausanne, Zurich, etc., then we can make mailing lists by the area and try to make it work! Obviously, if some people live close to each other and prefer just to visit once a day or two, that's perfect. But if one needs to leave for a few days and no one in the area are available, it may sometimes be feasible to take your pet and bring it where people can take care of him. If needed, I would certainly go from Lausanne to Basel (or even further), if I know there are people there with whom my cat can spend the time while I am away. And I would welcome other people's pets the same way!

Let's keep going!!!!

piglet

www.petworking.ch ?

Cracking domain name - now all you need is to develop the concept and go live

This could be a real go-er, I'd be interested in a Basel chapter.... err once I've got a cat. The only problem I could forsee is some people making more use of it than others. Hence I would advocate a token payment system e.g. 5-10CHF a day, which you would obviously get back when you helped out someone else.

I'd also be interested in this in the Basel area. I've got two cats, one of whom is terrified of strangers and hides...the other craves people.

Or you do it with a paper token system - everyone starts with, for example, ten tokens.
If someone looks after your cat for five days then you give them five tokens.
They can then use these tokens to pay someone else to look after their pet.
You of course, only have five left so need to do some looking after to get some tokens back.
If you run out of tokens then you're not doing your share.

This system is used in baby-sitting circles in the U.S. and is probably easier to manage than money, especially as those with money, but no conscience, may just use the system as a cheap way of avoiding kennel fees.

Great idea, could be quite successful if you work it out well. I don't have pets myself anymore, but I'd be happy to look after someone else's every now and again. Region: Zuercher Oberland

I had to leave my cat at home, so I would love to watch others pets while they're away. I'm in the Zurich area. Feel free to contact me.

I have a cat of 5 years old. He is birman and has a very passionate personality. I live 10-15 mins from Lausanne and could help you out if you need. would you mind i suggest that we focus at cat only (instead of cat or/and dog) as there's a complete different level of attention e.g.You need to walk a dog and not a cat ! (might be changing your title to specify 'cat').

I don't need a cat sitter as my neighbour's daughter is an absolute pet lover so i am lucky enough to get her to help everytime I"m on my trip. I could ask if she is interested in it if you do need some help, depending on where in Lausanne you're.

How are people thoughts on doing this for dogs?
I'm due to move to Zurich in June with my dog but am concerned about going away from weekends what i can do with him..