Home and away

Pete & Teresa

14 reviews

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Pete & Teresa

Porto, Portugal

14 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 (14)

Cathy - Badalona, Spain

27 December - 01 January 2019

Pete is a great sitter! I could tell from our first conversation that he was very experienced in handling 'difficult' dogs and would be able to cope with our Jack Russell - which isn't always easy...! Pete is very well organised, thoughtful and totally reliable and we got daily updates just to ... + More

Pete is a great sitter! I could tell from our first conversation that he was very experienced in handling 'difficult' dogs and would be able to cope with our Jack Russell - which isn't always easy...! Pete is very well organised, thoughtful and totally reliable and we got daily updates just to let us know everything was going ok. He took good care of both our dog, Charlie, and the house and we came back to a happy, contented dog and a lovely tidy home. Thank you Pete! Highly recommended!

Organised

Reliable

Self-sufficient

Tidy

Pet care

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Sue And Andy - Poole, United Kingdom

14 December - 22 December 2018

Pete came on his own to look after Jasper.
We enjoyed a meal together the night before as we were leaving in the early hours. He kept in touch throughout the week and when we got home Jasper was very happy and clearly well looked after. The house was as we left it and Pete had even changed the b... + More

Pete came on his own to look after Jasper.
We enjoyed a meal together the night before as we were leaving in the early hours. He kept in touch throughout the week and when we got home Jasper was very happy and clearly well looked after. The house was as we left it and Pete had even changed the bedding, a blessing as my Mum was coming to stay the next day and it was Christmas week...
Thanks Pete!

Organised

Reliable

Self-sufficient

Tidy

Pet care

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Sophie - Brighton, United Kingdom

14 September - 21 September 2018

Pete took care of my two cats for a week. Pete was kind and conscientious both whilst organising the sit, and during the time I was away. Both cats had clearly made excellent friends with Pete, and the house was clean and tidy - Pete even took the time to wash the sheets and towels. I would whole... + More

Pete took care of my two cats for a week. Pete was kind and conscientious both whilst organising the sit, and during the time I was away. Both cats had clearly made excellent friends with Pete, and the house was clean and tidy - Pete even took the time to wash the sheets and towels. I would wholeheartedly recommend Pete - and thank you for taking such good care of my home and pets.

Organised

Reliable

Self-sufficient

Tidy

Pet care

Response from Pete & Teresa

Thank you, Sophie, for entrusting your home and pets to my care. It was a pleasure to look after the cats especially brushing Jessel and feeding the ever-hungry Quint. Quint and I also had some long meowing conversations together. I greatly enjoyed exploring Brighton and getting to know your very pleasant neighbourhood with its cozy coffee shops, nice restaurants and the fascinating Booth Museum. And, despite a few thumps from the upstairs neighbours, your sunny and comfortable flat and garden made a great place to call home for the week.

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