Larissa Novak’s vacation plans include watering plants, bringing in mail and flushing toilets.Not hers, mind you. Novak takes care of vacant homes and stay-behind pets while their owners chase the southern sun.“They have fun, I have work,” said Larissa Novak of Kingsway K9 & Kitty in Etobicoke.It is peak travel season. Last winter, Air Transat flew 1.7 million travellers from Pearson International Airport between November and April on their way to Mexico and the Caribbean. During the same span, WestJet flies about 130,000 sun vacationers from Pearson each month, while Sunwing had 28,000 Toronto-area vacationers on this past Christmas Day alone. That’s in addition to the more than one million Canadian retirees who spend at least 31 days in the U.S. each year, according to the Canadian Snowbird Association.A whole economy of pet sitters and snow shovellers has risen up to serve short- and long-term winter travellers.Novak does more than feed live crickets to pet iguanas starting at $20 a visit.“I also sweep off the snow on the parked cars in driveways to make it looked more lived in. A car piled up with snow is a sure sign for a thief,” said Novak, who this holiday season for the first time in decades cut her workload down to five Kingsway mansions with cats. The owners go to Florida or Mexico, where they have second homes, or to Alberta to visit grandchildren. Some insurance policies require house checks every 48 to 72 hours while the owners are away. In 30 years of home visits, Novak has encountered downed trees, unlocked doors, open windows, stovetop elements left on and, once, an angry trapped squirrel requiring animal control.“You’re paying for peace of mind,” said Etobicoke landscaper Murray McConnell, who will care for 10 vacationers’ homes this winter.The homes, which “range across the board of social status,” McConnell said, belong to longtime clients. Some travel back and forth b ...
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