Andrea: Welcome to "People and Places" – where we meet interesting people and find out about more about them – right here on bbclearningenglish.com. Hello, I'm Andrea Rose. Catherine Brown My name is Catherine Brown and I run a business called Happy Hounds and Cooler Cats which is a dog walking and pet care business. Andrea: Catherine Brown has a very different job. She spends most of her day working with animals, because she is a pet sitter. Yes, just like parents get someone to look after their children when they go out in the evenings, a baby sitter, Catherine does something similar but for dogs and cats. She walks them and looks after or cares for them. But it’s often the owners who are harder work than the animals. Catherine Brown Quite often you are reassuring the owners much more than you are the animals. So if you've got particularly needy owners that need a lot of reassurance then that’s what you have to give. The animals to be honest are often easier than the owners. Andrea: Catherine says that the owners are often harder to deal with than the animals. They sometimes need reassurance. They need to be told again and again that everything will be ok with their pet. Another word for someone who needs a lot of reassurance is ‘needy’. Catherine says that ‘to be honest’ the pets are easier to deal with. Catherine Brown Quite often you are reassuring the owners much more than you are the animals. So if you've got particularly needy owners that need a lot of reassurance then that’s what you have to give. The animals to be honest are often easier than the owners. Andrea: So what kind of experience or qualification does one need to be a pet sitter? Catherine Brown We do a lot of training with anyone who comes and works with us. Generally they are complete animal lovers anyway otherwise they wouldn’t be interested in it. They come out with us for about 2 or 3 weeks walking. We show them basic training. We never take out more than 4 - 5 dogs anyway. But no, you don’t need a qualification or anything like that. Andrea: You don’t need a qualification to be a pet sitter. You just need to be an animal lover. Catherine and her team give new pet sitters basic training for 2 or 3 weeks and they take out 4 or 5 dogs at a time. So really you just need to love animals. But how about animals that aren’t just cats or dogs. Has Catherine ever looked after some more unusual pets? Catherine Brown Ferrets – we’ve looked after ferrets. We were expecting when we started that we were going to get pythons and tarantulas and all that kind of stuff. But no – it’s been pretty much gerbils and guinea pigs and things like that. So it’s all been pretty harmless to be honest. Andrea: Did you catch all the animals that Catherine talked about? Have a listen again and see if you can hear all the animals she mentioned. Catherine Brown Ferrets – we’ve looked after ferrets. We were expecting when we started that we were going to get pythons and tarantulas and all that kind of stuff. But no – it’s been pretty much gerbils and guinea pigs and things like that. So it’s all been pretty harmless to be honest. Andrea: Catherine has had to look after animals other than dogs and cats. These include ferrets, gerbils and guinea pigs. But luckily they’ve all been harmless. They haven’t been dangerous. She thought they might get pythons and tarantulas. But so far so good! I think it sounds like fun. Let’s quickly recap of some of the language Catherine used: reassurance needy to be honest animal lover qualification ferrets, pythons, tarantulas, gerbils & guinea pigs harmless Until the next time, it’s goodbye from bbclearningenglish.com