Scrappy, friendly, animal-loving couple (1 professor, 1 fitness trainer)

About this sitter

We’re Jenna (41) and Nici (34), a creative duo with a shared passion for connecting with people and exploring the world.

Jenna is a fiction writer, university professor, and freelance translator. She teaches Creative Writing, American History, and Media and Cultural Studies at several universities across Germany. Born and raised in New York City, she grew up biculturally and bilingually, spending much of her adult life between New York and Berlin, with countless adventures in between. A “remote worker” before the term existed, she’s got two decades of work-and-travel experience under her belt; though she’s now mostly settled into computer work, her illustrious odd job career includes managing a café in France, painting houses in Vermont, and working as a live-in bookseller at an independent bookstore in Greece. Adaptability, humor, and resilience are at the heart of her work and life. She’s fluent in German and English; her French is rusty but passable; her Spanish is basic.

Nici has a Masters of Education in English, Political Science, and Sports Science and works as a freelance fitness coach and online educator. They’re a warm, empathetic caretaker who brings thoughtfulness and energy to everything they do. At 34, they’ve traveled extensively across Europe and the U.S., are fluent in German, English, and Polish, and love creating spaces filled with care and connection—for people and animals alike.

Together with Jenna’s sister, we co-founded Safer Sex Berlin, an NGO dedicated to advocating for gender equality in sexual health care. Whether supporting our community through advocacy work, writing stories, or coaching fitness classes, we pour our creativity, compassion, and commitment into every project.

Most important for anyone reading this profile: we are enthusiastic, clean, and responsible sitters who love filling homes with warmth and care while ensuring your furry (or not-so-furry!) friends feel loved. Our current lifestyle doesn’t lend itself well to responsible pet ownership (among other things, we both have elderly-care responsibilities that often take us away from home), which is why we LOVE this website. It offers us the incredible opportunity to spend quality time with animals, something we both consider absolutely essential to our lives. While we’re sitting, we usually have people staying in our own apartment in Berlin, so we are well aware of what it means to let strangers into your space. We treat every place we inhabit with the respect and care we’d treat our own home – including, it should go without saying, regular cleaning.

From Berlin to anywhere the road takes us, we bring curiosity, resourcefulness, and genuine joy to the work we do and the connections we build.

Why they want to house sit

We are so lucky to have a great, dynamic, settled life and community in Berlin. But our life here is full-on; between work, community, and friendship, we are constantly on the go. The essential need in our lives is carving out periods of quiet—for reading, writing, heads-down working, and recharging. We've often found the most inspiration and creativity away from home, away from our everyday lives -- and out in the great world beyond. Housesitting offers a unique, gratifying, and usually mind-expanding way get out there (and works well on our adjunct-professor/bodywork/NGO-founders budget). Combined with our shared love for travel and our belief in the mutually beneficial nature of the housesitting project, this is what motivates us to care for homes and pets with warmth and attention.

Beyond that, we're here for the animals! Our transatlantic, often peripatetic lifestyle, which includes significant care-giving duties for ageing parents, does not lend itself to responsible pet ownership. We gotta get our cuddles somewhere ;)

Their experience

Between us, we have four decades of house-sitting, pet-sitting, plant-sitting, and odd-jobbing experience—while managing freelance careers, completing graduate degrees, and staying active in our community. We’ve cared for everything from gardens to apartments, inboxes to BnBs, aging grandparents to crying children. Cats, dogs, rabbits, ferrets, lizards, rats— we love ’em all! Some were pets, some were strays, and a few were wild. While we’re too nomadic for animals of our own right now, we leap at every opportunity for creature cuddles and love. We’re experts in time management and bring care and compassion to everything we do.

Jenna’s pet-sitting journey began during her undergrad days at Dartmouth College, using sits as a way to explore rural New England. While getting her MFA at the University of Virginia, she lived and worked in a wildlife refuge, caring daily for wounded black bears, deer, and other furry friends.

Nici's history with animal care includes a longer stint in Tuscany caring for horses, as well as numerous cat and dog sits through friends and word of mouth. In their community, they’ve always been the go-to person for vet visits, dog park outings, and general animal TLC, having grown up surrounded by animals—including their grandma’s dog, a guinea pig named Maxi and two hamsters, Banana and Peanut.

Before joining MindMyhouse, we arranged sits through The Caretaker Gazette, personal networks, and most recently TrustedHousesitters. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us for references; we’d love to put you in touch with people who can vouch for us!

What can they bring to the assignment

Reliability, flexibility, composure, and experience.

To survive as freelancers, we've had to be resourceful, responsible and maintain a sense of humor. We won't list all our odd jobs, but here are a few relevant highlights: line cook at a B&B in rural Virginia, waitress at a remote beach resort in Vietnam, manager of a cafe in southern France, waitress in rural Turkey, landscaper in New Hampshire, housepainter in Vermont, Christmas-tree seller in Manhattan, barback in Hannover. We can deal with pretty much anything that's thrown at us, and we're good at adapting to any and all circumstances. We’re quick to adapt and comfortable in just about any environment.

Thanks to sites like this, and inspired by our shared curiosity for the world, we've traveled quite a lot and are adept at navigating diverse environments, cultures, and viewpoints. Together, we've travelled across Europe and the United States, as well as Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Turkey, Tunisia, Vietnam, China, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Mexico. We both speak native English and German and proficient French (along with some very basic Spanish).

In our experience, the key to successful sitting is clear, transparent, open, and friendly communications. When expectations are named, boundaries are set, and generosity is mutual, things run smoothly -- even when something inevitably goes wrong along the way, whether it's a burst pipe, a delayed flight, or a sick pet.