Must love dogs: An American trades pet-sitting for places to stay in Europe

Washington Post

13-04-2025

When the pandemic shuttered the world, photographer Leslie Ryann McKellar found herself caught in an unexpected scene that she never would have framed: grieving the loss of her beloved Labrador retriever mix Dignan while battling a baffling illness — later revealed to be the work of toxic mold in her South Carolina apartment. Forced to flee her fungus-infested home, McKellar faced a choice: Settle down again in the Lowcountry where she'd lived for 20 years or reframe her story entirely.
'I just wanted a reset button,' she says.
So she hit it — hard. After off-loading her belongings and taking a year to save every penny, the freelance photographer set off for Florence in January 2022, ready to indulge her lifelong wanderlust with a year of European travel. But one year turned into three, and 18 countries (and, thankfully, a myriad number of mold-free accommodations) later, her adventure continues. The secret to sustaining it? A dog. Or, well, dogs.
'I think I've looked after about 30 dogs now,' McKellar, 48, tells me via Zoom from Greece.
McKellar watches dogs in exchange for a place to stay, a gig she coordinates through Trusted Housesitters, a United Kingdom-based pet-care network that pairs devoted animal lovers like McKellar with pet parents across the globe. (And I do mean pet parents — McKellar's seen requests for sitters for cats, bunnies, horses, even an alpaca.) Aside from an annual membership fee to the company, no money changes hands.
But dog-sitting wasn't initially how she planned to subsidize her time abroad. McKellar stumbled upon Trusted Housesitters by chance. Early in her travels, while wandering through Inverness, Scotland, she struck up a conversation with someone walking an especially adorable pup. When she told them that she was traveling around Europe for a year, they asked her whether she'd considered using the service.
'I think the first words out of my mouth were, 'That site was made for me!'' she says.
Enter Winston, an Airedale terrier in Beaconsfield, England, who became McKellar's first official sit in July 2022.
A fluff ball on four legs, Winston was McKellar's initiation into the pup au pair life, which came with its own hazing. One memorable evening, during a routine walk, Winston gobbled up what appeared to be a cigarette butt. The ordeal left McKellar shaken.
'I was on the phone with his pet parents and the emergency vet at 9 p.m. on a Saturday,' she recalls.
Fortunately, Winston emerged unscathed, ready for his next adventure. McKellar recovered, too, and started compiling a growing list of lessons a seasoned traveling dog-sitter would understand.
Rule No. 1: Never leave the house without a key. Not even for a quick dash to the trash bin. McKellar learned the hard way in Guildford, England, when an auto-locking door clicked shut behind her, trapping her outside and leaving Rosie — the cautious Romanian rescue she was watching for the week — stuck inside for a few moments before McKellar found the spare key.
A subtler, equally critical lesson is to always have a backup plan. Before a sit in Switzerland, McKellar was thrown into logistical chaos when a labor strike brought the French rail system to a halt. Every train was canceled, forcing her to improvise her journey from Avignon on the fly.
'I took a very cramped, very smelly, very long eight-hour bus ride,' she says. She made it on time.
Then there's canine culture shock. Just as customs vary from country to country, so do local attitudes toward dogs. For an upcoming sit, an Australian expat living in Switzerland gave McKellar a heads-up about Peanut, the host's exuberant labradoodle.
'She said the Swiss prefer dogs to be seen and not heard,' McKellar explains. Peanut's playful energy, it turns out, often earns him more side-eyes than smiles.
Back in the U.K., dogs are treated as full-fledged family members, granted the freedom and affection that comes with such a status.
'That shows up in how Brits tend to bring their dogs everywhere, like shops and pubs,' McKellar says.
Case in point: Lenny, a West London goldendoodle and proud regular at the Dodo Micropub, who kindly introduced McKellar to his neighborhood's craft beer scene.
How dogs operate abroad can also differ.
'Especially outside of London, a lot of people walk their dogs off-lead — or off-leash, as we'd say,' McKellar explains.
Adjusting to this level of pooch independence takes time, especially when a dog is accustomed to such liberty.
Obi, a black Labrador McKellar watched in St. Albans, England, is a prime example.
'I could take him off the lead, and he would immediately run off in search of a stick. As soon as he found the perfect stick — I'm still not sure what his exact criteria were — he would step in line behind me and follow close behind me for the rest of the walk,' McKellar says.
That same self-assured spirit reappeared during a sit in Brighton, where Lolly, a confident and leashed Westie, strolled straight to a bus stop and sat, waiting patiently — like she did it every day.
'So we boarded the next bus that came by,' McKellar says. 'I'm glad she knew where she was going, because I sure didn't! We ended up at the seaside.'
Gone are the days when McKellar mapped out her itinerary. Now, she often lets the dogs lead the way, an approach that almost always results in unexpected excursions and photos that turn out far better than she could have planned.
Such was the case with Dearg (Gaelic for 'red'), a clever cockapoo who stole McKellar's heart during a month-long stay in the market town of Richmond, nestled in the Yorkshire Dales. It was Dearg who introduced her to Easby Abbey, the haunting ruins of a 12th-century monastery.
Back home, Dearg proved just as impressive.
'All I had to say was, 'Dearg, will you fetch my slippers?' and he'd trot off, find them and bring them to me,' McKellar recalls. 'Of course, he expected a treat for that. Well deserved, I say!'
But dog-sits come with a lot of responsibility, so McKellar likes to build in breaks between assignments, making the most of her time and the money she saves. With the house-sitting platform's accommodations cutting an estimated 40 percent of her travel budget, she's turned pet-sitting into a passport to the world.
As I wrap up our Zoom conversation, I wonder whether McKellar's dog-sitting travels will be a phase, a fling no longer necessary after fleeing that fungus back home.
'How long do you think you'll keep it up?' I ask.
'I get to travel and hang out with dogs?' she says. 'I'll do this as long as I can.'