Finances – A Great Furry Side Gig

Since I seem to be on the dog kick this month (see the Infertility – A Furry Alternative post), I figured I’d keep it going. It’s the summer and the COVID lockdowns are slowly lifting which means that people are getting out more and thinking about vacations. The housing market is hot, so people are selling and moving. Weddings are also starting to happen again. While the hustle and bustle of everyone’s lives picks up, their little furry friends are in need of some lodging.

Michael and I knew when Declan passed away last year that we weren’t ready to get another dog of our own. We wanted the time to grieve as well as have some free time to ourselves. However, we were also focused on paying off our mortgage and were always looking for creative ways to make a little extra cash.

That’s when we remembered about Rover. It’s a dog-sitting app that allows you to see a list of local people willing to watch your dog. It gives their profile, information, the types of dogs they are comfortable watching, and what the owner could expect. We had used it once for Declan before, but hadn’t thought anymore about it until after he passed.

A couple months went by and we were missing his sounds around the house, so we thought we’d try our hand at Rover. We could love on some dogs for a bit and then send them home again. We could pick the dates we were available to watch them and easily mark off the times we didn’t. We could work it to our own schedules.

We ended up really enjoying it. It gave us a burst of excitement with the bounding energy of little furry paws around the house. It gave us the excuse to take them on walks, hang out in the backyard, and have some snuggle time. Then we could pack them up and send them home. It’s kind of like being the cool aunt and uncle. The kids come to stay, have lots of fun, and then you get to send them home to their parents again and recoup your rest.

The best part is that we get paid to do it! Now that our house is paid and we don’t have that financial burden, we debated whether to keep going or not. Did we want to keep it up, especially since we’ll be getting a puppy of our own at some point?

Well, something we noticed when we reached our debt-free goal is that our dreams grew very large over the years, but our budget remained small. By having the furry friends come to stay with us, it allows us to put that extra cash aside in our travel fund. The more dogs we watch, the more we get to save for some fun times away. That was pretty exciting for us being that we haven’t really traveled in five years.

So, if you’re a dog or cat lover and looking to make some extra cash on the side, this might be a great opportunity for you. Do you already have a pet yourself? That’s okay. If they are friendly with other animals, then the more the merrier. Your dog will get nice and tired playing with other dogs while they are there, and get lots of social stimulation. Then when they go, your house will be back to its peaceful state again and your wallet and goals will thank you too.