Hello from Porto, Portugal šŸ™ƒ

Hello everyone,
We are a couple living in Porto, Portugal. We just joined the community and wanted to introduce ourselves.

My name is Eduardo, Iā€™m 34yo and I work remotely as a Designer and Project Manager for an Irish Cyber Security company. Iā€™ve been working remotely for over 7 years now which is amazing as I get to spend a lot of time with our rescue dog Elvis (yes, like that Elvis :man_dancing:).

Corinne is 29yo and currently work as Learning Experience Designer for a Portuguese company. Corinne has also been working remotely since COVID hit and will probably be back to the office at some point next year, that is if COVID goes away for good of course.

Weā€™ve been living in Portugal for about 5 years now. We are currently living in Porto but before lived in a city called Braga (lovely city, if you ever plan on visiting Portugal, consider going to Braga for a day).

Corinne and I met in Dublin, Ireland (where sheā€™s from) while I was living there to study English and also work as a Designer. We moved to Brazil and lived in SĆ£o Paulo and Natal (another amazing place worth visiting) for over two years before moving to Portugal.

Here in Portugal, we volunteered in Braga at an animal shelter for around 6 months and it was probably then when we decided we wanted to adopt a rescue dog.

We adopted probably the cuddliest dog you will ever meet. Elvis :dog: was around 4 yo when we adopted him and I knew it was him the moment I saw his huge paws - they are actually not that big but Elvis has a weird body shape, people often say he looks like a Husky puppy, they usually call him ā€˜Lobinhoā€™ which is Portuguese for ā€˜Small Wolfā€™.

Elvis is just an amazing and lovely dog :dog:, at home all he wants to do is to sleep, get some cuddles, and eat, of course. We usually joke and say that Elvis is two dogs in one because at home he is SUPER relaxed and doesnā€™t care much about playing. Whenever we have friends over they always comment on how calm and relaxed he is.

But when we go out for walks, Elvis is much more energetic (I think his strategy is to save up his energy while heā€™s at home for his walks). He loves his walks (as long itā€™s not raining) and is very friendly with other people and dogs (females mainly). He can get a bit territorial with other male dogs but mostly because other male dogs are bigger than him and they sometimes try to jump on him.

Elvis has been through a knee surgery a couple of months ago and has recovered very well. He walks normally but can get a bit tired if he walks for a bit too long or put too much pressure on his knee, so its something we have to keep an eye on.

We are joining as Owners and Sitters as we are looking forward to meeting new people and pets. Iā€™ve always had dogs, birds and some exotic animals at my parentsā€™ place, which was great as it gave me confidence and knowledge to be around other animals.

Elvis is our only pet, sadly. We would love to get another dog but we would need a bigger outdoor area for that! I think thatā€™s pretty much it, I think I wrote a bit too much so please be patient.

Before I go, I only have a couple of questions and it would be great if you guys could give us your input:

  1. I know this is relative but how easy is it to get sitters? Iā€™m just wondering how easy will it be to get sitters here in Porto.

  2. How long in advance do you usually start preparing for a trip and put up your ad for sitters? 1 month? 3 months? 6? longer? I know the longer you have your ad up, the more applicants you will get, but I just wonder if we have some sort of emergency, how easy would it be to get sitters.

I think thatā€™s all guys. We wish you all an amazing day!
Ed and Corinne :upside_down_face:

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Ola! Sim! Welcome @edribeiro!
It seems Portugal is in my radar this week. I have a scheduled trip over there next Summer and Elvis and I seem to have a lot in common. I have been traveling with my fingers at all the beautiful places in your country.
I already have Portugal saved as a favorite, so list whenever you are ready because sitters are out there already looking :wink:

Hi Ed Corinne and Elvis ā€¦ love that name!

Welcome to our community forum and to TrustedHousesitters itā€™s great to have you here from beautiful Portugal, thank you for the wonderful introduction into your lives and your furry family member Elvis, weā€™ve had a number of new members join the forum from your country in the past few weeks ā€¦ Iā€™m sure youā€™ll connect with them.

Our members will give you lots of help and advice and there are great resources on the website Blog itā€™s starts with your listing and of course choosing the right images but donā€™t worry we have a blog to cover that

Communication is so important to again our members will advise and there is advice on the blog

10 questions to ask before your sitter arrives | TrustedHousesitters.com

Timing for publishing your listing, when you have confirmed travel plans and do give a good amount of notice, there is still some uncertainty around travel for many, something to bear in mind.

Welcome again and enjoy connecting with our members from around the world.

Angela & The Team

Hola Ed, buenas tardes desde Lima PerĆŗ te saluda Maribel , lei con mucha atenciĆ³n tu historia y me gusto mucho saber mĆ”s de las personas miembros de la comunidad, saludos a Corinne y a Elvis.

Yo voy a viajar a Portugal con mi hija quiero saber si puedo tener la opotunidad de aplicar como niƱera , nos encanta los perros espero tener el gusto de ser niƱera de Elvis.

Aprovecho la oportunidad para hacerte una consulta mi hija termino el colegio yble gustaria estudiar diseƱo de interiores en Portugal me puedes dar esa informaciĆ³n, espero tu amable respuesta , gracias


Hello Ed, good afternoon from Lima Peru greets you Maribel, I read very carefully your story and I really like to know more about the members of the community, greetings to Corinne and Elvis.

I am going to travel to Portugal with my daughter and I want to know if I can have the opportunity to apply as a nanny, we love dogs and I hope to have the pleasure of being a nanny for Elvis.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask you a question, my daughter finished school and would like to study interior design in Portugal, can you give me this information, I am waiting for your kind answer, thank you.

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Porto is a great city and a car is not necessary so it should be easy to get sitters. As a sitter, I usually apply for sits about 2-3 months ahead so that I can plan my holidays. My regular clients book us in well in advance to ensure that we are available. Many home owners advertise at the last minute but I have no idea how successful they are in filling these sits.

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Greetings Eduardo, Corrine and Elvis! would love to look after Elvis at some point.
All the bestā€¦ you are joining a lovely community! :two_hearts:

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Hello @Lozza. To make it easier for forum members to find you on the main website you can embed a link to your sitter profile in your forum profile. Hereā€™s how.

Hey @Londongal thanks for your feedback!

Thank you for the kind words!

HI there! I realize this post was over a year ago, but since I am moving to Porto this fall (2023) I though Iā€™d reach out. It seems there are quite a few THS folks there, so perhaps a meet up sometime would work to network. That way, in case of an emergency, you have some trusted folks who might be able to help out if you donā€™t get a sitter. Since Porto is walkable and has an airport, my ā€œguessā€ is sitters would jump at the chance to come, even short notice.

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