Steven h.
Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain
About Steven h.
48 years old
|
University teacher/Translator
My name is Steven, and my wife Natalia, both in our forties. I´m a university professor working online and Natalia, a former art teacher now turned tour designer (mostly for Asia).
We are honest, hardworking, self-demanding people who always try to do our best and be flexible, whatever the circumstances. We are native speakers of English and Spanish, have a good level of French and Portuguese, and a basic knowledge of Italian and Greek, which we have been studying for nearly a year now. We love all genres of culture, discovering new cuisine, and the natural world - especially animals, falling in love with any creature great or small at first sight!
We have had ALL kinds of pets throughout our lives, mostly rescue dogs and cats, and have always loved spending time at home, relaxing and playing with our animals as much as we could.
We´re experienced with all types of dogs and have had some huge energetic ones in the past (up to 75kgs in weight!) and know very well that sometimes their behaviour can be influenced by their former lives and treatment. We´re equally experienced with cats too and can recognise if something is wrong with them. We always make a huge effort to ensure that every cat feels comfortable and loved as we know it can be stressful sometimes when their owners are away.
Having had so many animals, we have also had to deal with a variety of medical situations over the years and know how to cope with emergencies should they arise.
Gardening is also one of our affections, both ornamental and fruit and vegetable cultivation. In fact, we have a lot of experience in many different types of gardens since I´m from Britain and Natalia from Asturias (in the north of Spain), but we lived in the Canary Islands for 16 years so we could say that tropical gardens are our speciality.
We could also say, that as we have our own house, that has often needed all kinds of maintenance throughout the years, that we are quite “handy-people” and we can normally resolve minor incidents.
We are very experienced house sitters and have many great reviews on another housesitting platform that we use use regularly, which can be seen via the link here:
https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/house-and-pet-sitters/spain/asturias/oviedo/l/709083/
Having also used house sitting services for our pets in the past, and been in the shoes of the home owners, we feel that we know very well the fears and expectations with regard to housesitters that they
My travel companions
Natalia, 48 years old, Tour designer , Spouse / Partner
Language(s) spoken
English
|
Spanish
|
French
|
Portuguese
Compliments received
Community opinion
Oranjestad, Aruba - April 2022
Steve and Natalia were simply a joy to have as guests and housesitters! From the very first communications we had with them, we immediately felt that we matched as having similar outlooks and interests. They were communicative and warm and we were happy to have had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with them before and after our trip! They immediately clicked with our dogs and cats and showed a great deal of patience with our timid rescue cats. We also appreciated very much that they kept in touch during our trip, sending us messages and pictures. The house was kept impeccable and they even prepared a special Spanish dish for us as a surprise upon our return! We would love to have them back anytime they wish to visit again!
We meet Natalia and Steven on Zoom before we finalised the pet sitting arrangement. From the outset they were calm, considerate and extremely respectful of 'first timers' like us. It was reassuring and following this communication was super-easy about the final timings of arrivals etc. Upon arrival Natalia and Steven spent time to understand the workings of the appartment, they played with Nerea and we left confident that we had made the right choice. We received updates on Nerea and the apartment over the duration of the pet sit. Our children especially enjoyed seeing Steven's photos of Nerea playing around. We were also in contact about a couple of domestic items that were handled professionally too, which was again, extremely reassuring when leaving your home for a period of time. We are very pleased they enjoyed their stay in Valencia. They left the apartment wonderfully clean and tidy which was very much appreciated. We would have no hesitatation in repeating the experience and recommending Steven and Natalia to other people in the future.