I just signed up for a combo membership and look forward to engaging with y’all. I am an American married to a Swiss-German; we moved from the US to Northern Germany (just outside the fantastic Hanseatic city of Hamburg) almost 4 years ago with two Golden Retrievers and a cat. We have since sent our sweet old Golden girl over the Rainbow Bridge but GR Hanson Hellboy and cat-who-thinks-he’s-a-dog Merlin love to meet new people and other animals.
We take a few trips each year, usually for 1-2.5 weeks each but as we are now scouting locations in Portugal to relocate to we will likely be taking longer trips in the next few years. Mostly we have friends or acquaintances stay at our house but on occasion Hanson has stayed a boarding farm while someone stopped by the house to care for Merlin. We are finding it increasingly difficult to rely on our limited circle of friends and when my hairdresser recommended this website I did my due diligence and jumped on-board because it seems like such an ideal arrangement.
When we travel we use a variety of hotels, timeshare units and Airbnbs but much prefer staying in a home environment. We always fly so we don’t travel with our pets although we may drive to PT and if we could bring them with us that would be a bonus. I am constantly engaging with other people’s pets and strays when we travel because I miss my fur-kids when we are away so it would be so ideal to stay at a home where we can take care of someone’s else’s pets as if they were our own.
I can’t wait to see where our connections on the website take us!
Hello @FrauSheri and a warm welcome to TrustedHousesitters and to the Community Forum
Hanson Hellboy and Merlin are absolutely adorable! Gorgeous photos
We absolutely love Portugal, which area are you hoping to relocate to?
For reference you can also add your TrustedHousesitters profile on to your profile on here by following the attached link, should you wish. This will enable others to offer you helpful advice and feedback and will allow give your listing extra coverage!
If you are unsure how to do this or if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask, we are all more than happy to help.
I have attached a couple of threads which you should find helpful.
How gorgeous do your pets look We’ve also signed up for a combo membership as we’d love to travel more!
After reading a recommendation on here we’ve also signed up to Home exchange in the hope we can swap homes for holidays too! That sounds like it might suit you too which is why I mentioned it.
I wish you luck in finding great sitters and sits!
Thanks for the welcome! As I type this Merlin is on my lap and Hanson is between us on the couch as we watch Fußball.
I really fell in love with Porto but I think the weather is better further south. Unfortunately Lisbon has become very expensive, especially the suburbs which we prefer, so will be looking at the Silver Coast. We haven’t explored Algarve yet so that’s still an option.
Hello! Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out. Isn’t Hanson adorable? This picture was on Valentine’s Day when he took a rose to his physical therapist.
He is soo gorgeous!! I love his smile I know so many sitters on here are looking for European (non UK) sits so I don’t think think you’ll have a hard time finding a sitter for your gorgeous pets!
We’ve also signed up for a combo membership as we’d love to travel more!