Remote-working couple + kind 9yo — your pets get company all day, your home gets treated like ours

About this sitter

Hi, we're Andrei and Nico, and our daughter Nana, who is 9.

We live in a small town at the foot of the mountains in Transylvania, Romania, in a house with a garden we look after ourselves — fruit trees, herbs, and a constant argument with the slugs. We know what it means to come home to a garden someone hasn't watered, so yours will be fine.

Animals have always been part of the family. Our cat Mira is 19 years old. She has outlived two sofas and one car and still runs the place. She's been living with glaucoma for the last 3 years, so daily eye drops and keeping an eye on how she's doing are just part of our morning, the same as coffee. We've had three dogs over the years: Țuțu and Ara, who both grew old with us, and Wulfoo, who is with us now and gets his walks whatever the weather. Ara had bone cancer in her last years and we cared for her through it — the medication schedule, the vet visits, the slow days. So if your pet is older or needs a bit more attention than usual, we're not put off by that; we've done it for our own, and we know it's when they need people who actually pay attention.

Nico and I both work remotely for the same marketing agency, so someone is home most of the day and your pet won't be spending hours alone. When we're not working we're outside — we trail-run and hike, so a dog that needs proper exercise is a plus for us, not a chore. Nana is the calm kind of kid: she reads, draws, and has already announced that any dog we look after will be walked by her personally.

What we'd bring to your home: we're tidy, we like a quiet house, we cook rather than eat out, and we'll send you photos of your pet without being asked. We're comfortable with dogs and cats of any age, and with gardens. We're not the right sitters for livestock or poultry — we'd rather be honest about that than learn on your animals.

What we're looking for: a few days somewhere in nature, ideally countryside or near mountains, during Nana's school holidays — the last week of October and around New Year. A wood-burning stove would make her very happy, but a dog to walk in the morning would do the job just as well.

Happy to do a video call before anything is agreed. You'll want to see who's coming into your home, and so would we.

Why they want to house sit

We've reached the point where hotels feel the same everywhere, and holiday rentals mean seeing a place from the outside, never really living in it. House sitting solves that: we get to live in a real home in a real place for a few days, and someone else's pet gets people who are happy to be there. Nana learns that there's more than one way to travel, we get mornings that start with a dog walk instead of a breakfast buffet, and a family somewhere can go away without worrying. Honestly, we'd rather water someone's tomatoes and walk their dog than sit by a pool.

Their experience

Yes, with animals — not yet with house sitting through a platform. This would be our first sit here, and we'd rather say that plainly than dress it up.

What we do have is 19 years of Mira, our cat, who lives with glaucoma and gets her eye drops every morning, and three dogs over the years, including nursing Ara through bone cancer in her last months. We know medication schedules, vet visits, and the difference between a dog that's tired and a dog that's unwell. We've also looked after friends' dogs and homes when they travelled, the informal way people do before they discover there's a website for it.

And we run a house with a garden ourselves, so nothing about watering, locking up, or dealing with a boiler that decides to act up will be new to us.

What can they bring to the assignment

Presence, mostly. Both of us work remotely, so your pet gets company through the day, not a visit at 8 and another at 6. Walks happen whatever the weather, because that's how it works at home with Wulfoo.

Attention to the small things: we notice when an animal eats less, drinks more, or sleeps in a different spot, and we'll tell you rather than wait. Medication is routine for us, not a worry.

A house left as we found it, or a bit better. We're tidy, we cook at home, and we'll water the garden as if it were ours — because we have one and know what a week of neglect looks like.

Regular photos and short updates, so you can actually relax while you're away. And two adults plus a nine-year-old who thinks looking after someone's dog is the best part of the holiday — which, for the dog, is not a bad deal either.