A walk in the park

The story of my part-time job.

I took a while to decide whether to post this on my blog page as there are certain people who have access to my blog, who would ridicule me for my decision to have the part-time job I am currently doing. Thanks to my RISI friends for not judging or ridiculing me for making this choice. Even my husband laughed when I told him what I was planning on doing to earn some extra cash and get some exercise.

In my old life I was a Finance Director of a multi million pound company and was on the Executive Board that ran the company and took all decisions on the path it was going and all decisions to do with the staff. I gave this up to move to America to build a new life with my husband and have been thoroughly enjoying it, as anyone who has been following my blog will tell you.

I have enjoyed the summer but as we come into the Fall and the winter I fancied getting myself a part time job to earn some money of my own. The remit was that it would be part time – 3 to 4 hours per day from Monday to Friday. It also had to be without any stress, something that would get me outside into the open air and not in an office.

During the winter I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) which is only helped by getting a lot of fresh air and as much sun exposure as possible, so this was a large factor in what job I would choose. I was determined that I would not sink into the depressive feelings of SAD and that I would continue with my healthy lifestyle even when the weather was not very supporting in that.

So the job. Now this is the part where I get nervous as everyone I have told so far has laughed out loud at me. I trust you guys not to laugh, well not in my face anyway.
My new job is looking after cats and walking dogs! I basically sub-contract myself to a company called A Walk while you are out and they assign me jobs each day to go and walk dogs, look after cats and feed other animals. It is so much fun. My clients are mainly dogs of people out working all day and I am paid to visit and play with their gorgeous dogs and take them out a walk – anything from 15 minutes to an hour. I am meeting some wonderful varieties of breeds and personalities. My favourite so far are a couple of Labradoodles called Marley and Sunny. If you have ever seen the Muppet show and seen the muppet dog on there, well that is what Marley looks like. He is a cross between a Black Labrador and a standard poodle and is just a big adorable muppet.

So, I am getting a lot of exercise and fresh air – so much that I am knackered each day – but pleasantly so. I also get paid to sit with some adorable cats and feed and pet them. I visited two, Tango and Romeo, who were adorable – they reminded me of Trudie despite them not being ginger. Romeo spent a good ten minutes cleaning my hand and lower arms on my visit and they both enjoyed being petted and brushed while I was there.
Another plus from this job is that I am travelling around Bethesda, DC and Chevy Chase areas visiting suburban streets that I would never otherwise have reason to go to. This is allowing me to look out for rental properties and areas I would like to live.

So how funny is that job! Going from the top of the ladder to way below the bottom. But you know what, I am happy and I made $280 for 15 hours work last week and $300 this week so tongue out to everyone who would laugh at me and looking forward to the extra cash and being lively and healthy throughout the fall and winter.

Thanks for listening to me. Xx