Home and away

Pete & Teresa

10 reviews

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Pete & Teresa

Porto, Portugal

10 reviews

Join to Invite Pete & Teresa

Sits for free

About Pete & Teresa

Pete is a semi-retired IT professional who only needs internet access to work anywhere. He is British with acquired US citizenship. Teresa is Portuguese, a retired professor and published writer. We have homes of our own in Porto, Portugal and Virginia, USA. We speak English, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish and Italian.
We are a caring, well organized, tidy, responsible, home-loving, pet-loving, calm, mature couple, enjoying good health and fitness. We are flexible, reliable and totally respectful of your privacy and assignment instructions.
Among other things, we love nature, going for walks, cooking and looking after our garden.

Why we want to house sit

We are very well traveled – our eagerness to know the world and/or our professional activities have led us into different countries, continents and cultures. Nowadays we prefer to experience other environments by immersing in them temporarily. Our present lifestyle does not reasonably allow us to have pets and we miss this life component of caring, companionship and affection. We hope to re-encounter some moments of this by nurturing other people’s cherished pets.

Our experience

Pete has had several pet birds and a pet monkey, as a boy in Nigeria, and has also lived with several cats and dogs. Teresa has not only lived with pet dogs most of her life but has even bred Lab-retrievers for a while, to make sure each of her “nest-leaving” daughters would have one of their own. At some points in life she had as many as 5 different pets at home (dogs, cats, a hamster, parakeets and a parrot), not to mention a long-necked turtle, a rabbit and a baby sheep she was given as a young child.

Pete has lived in the UK, Nigeria, USA, Canada and Portugal, and has visited 45 other countries on six continents. Teresa speaks six languages: Portuguese, English, French, German, Spanish and Italian (some more fluently than others). She has lived in Portugal, USA, Canada and Sweden and has visited many other countries. This enables us to easily feel at home in diverse cultures and environments.
We own homes in different countries and continents, in both city and countryside, where we live when we are not traveling, so we have experience in keeping a well organized, tidy and clean abode and in dealing with the house problems that may arise. Also it makes us well placed to especially understand how important one’s home&garden are and appreciate that entrusting one's treasured home and pets to strangers is a hard decision, and one that requires lots of reassurance.
We would make sure and be glad to look after your house as we do our own homes.
Still, for your peace of mind, we are well equipped and skillful with long-distance communication and we will be keen to keep you consistently informed while you are away.
Also, we would be ready to look after your mail and follow-up procedures, if required. On the other hand, we are equally happy if you really wish to leave everything behind and just relax, while your home and pets are in good hands (as long as we have an emergency contact).
We meet unexpected /potentially upsetting circumstances and events with calm, a sense of humour and lots of common-sense.
We are experienced and safe drivers. We hold fully clean driving licenses for Europe and the US. Pete acquired his first driving license in the UK and left-hand driving poses no problem for us.
Depending on our previous engagements, we can make commitments for long term sits.
Please contact us at any time. We will be happy to hear from you!

Reviews (10)

Anne - Inverloch, Victoria, Australia

04 June - 19 June 2018

Pete and Teresa spent two weeks at our home with our two Labrador dogs . We had inherited our sins chocolate lab not long before we were due to head off on our trip and Pete and Teresa graciously agreed to care for two rather than one dog.
We enjoyed their company and felt totally confident that... + More

Pete and Teresa spent two weeks at our home with our two Labrador dogs . We had inherited our sins chocolate lab not long before we were due to head off on our trip and Pete and Teresa graciously agreed to care for two rather than one dog.
We enjoyed their company and felt totally confident that all would be well with their sit- they were wonderful and I can highly recommend them to others . Thank you Pete and Teresa for being there for us.

Organised

Reliable

Self-sufficient

Tidy

Pet care

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Paul And Karen - Jerusalem, Israel

29 June - 20 July 2017

Conscientious sitters. It was clear that Pete and Teresa were experienced sitters who took time to ensure they understood all that was required. House was cleaned nicely when we returned and the offer of a cooked meal was much appreciated and we were sad to decline due to our late arrival. Pet... + More

Conscientious sitters. It was clear that Pete and Teresa were experienced sitters who took time to ensure they understood all that was required. House was cleaned nicely when we returned and the offer of a cooked meal was much appreciated and we were sad to decline due to our late arrival. Pete and Teresa responded quickly to keep us up to date and reassured and sought our opinions on the best approaches to take on issues that arose. Recommended as sitters.

Organised

Reliable

Self-sufficient

Tidy

Pet care

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Sally - Loulé, Portugal

20 February - 18 March 2017

Having had Pete & Teresa as sitters before, it was great to go away for a month knowing that the house would be well looked after and that the cats were very happy in their company. Pete & Teresa are kind and thoughtful people, another lovely meal and a warm welcome was awaiting our return home ... + More

Having had Pete & Teresa as sitters before, it was great to go away for a month knowing that the house would be well looked after and that the cats were very happy in their company. Pete & Teresa are kind and thoughtful people, another lovely meal and a warm welcome was awaiting our return home and we felt very comfortable having them around the house before they left. If they apply for your sit, don't hesitate to book them!

Organised

Reliable

Self-sufficient

Tidy

Pet care

- Less