Where I live on a pretty standard housing development, there are many families and lots of family pets. I don’t persoanlly own a pet now but I do help out a neighbour and some relatives when they are away – I go and stay to care for their houses and very beloved pooches . This is an ideal solution for them – and for me as it does save me the cleaning up afterwards and I get a sort of mini break, staying in someone else’s cottage for a few days – talking my daily walks around another patch. I did have one query recently when I was walking two of the dogs in my care – I always keep them on short lead if another person approaches, and certainly when cars are about. We were taken by surprise though when a pair of stray dogs shot out of a nearby field and straight across the road. They were excitedly bounding around and when two cars approached from opposite directions, there was an almight screech of brakes and a very near miss. I was able to calm and hang on to my terrified charges whilst the car drivers and another neighbour grabbed the now terrified runaways. Presumably they were micro chipped so the owners were contacted to come retrieve them. This made me wonder whether they had adequate pet insurance – the damage that could have been caused is unimaginable and a hefty court case could have esued
