Very Experienced, Easy-going Couple • Animal Behaviour and Welfare-certified :)

Bart and his friend Ashton are great animal lovers by heart. When they came the first time only for the introduction my two dogs already greeted them at the door as if they knew them. They even loved my canary and gave it a lot of attention so that he had a great time with them. They were confirmed for a house and pet sitting period via Trusted House and Pet Sitters for a period of 5 months from 20th of march till 28th of august 2018. They had been really comunicative and open minded so that I trusted them fully that they are the right sitters to take care of my pets, the house and garden during my stay in Europe for a necessary surgery. As they are skilled internet workers they even helped me to find a new home for two puppies which were placed in front of my entrance door only a few weeks before I had to leave. So I had been very sad to hear after one month of staying with my pets that they wanted to leave for a "one in a lifetime job" in Laos. As I had undergone a very painful surgery I accepted that they tried to find new house and pet sitters via facebook which they did and I agreed to based on their information and recommendation. So they left after 6 weeks of the planned 5 months stay in my house. All the time of these 4 1/2 months following their leave we stayed in a very good contact via internet with almost Ashton and I could follow their way on. When returning end of september I met one of the housesitters by person for the first time and found the house and garden in an unbelievable bad condition. One of my two dogs had very long nails (a sign of little walking), one cat of five was gone and presumably dead, they had to roam around in the rice fields to get enough food, no litter box. Also the canary died. I was really shocked that it seemed to me that these two persons had no idea of what are the duties of house and pet sitting during the absence of the owner when living for free in a big house and garden with regular payment for the pets food, snacks and the cats litter. I was wondering if they had received any introduction by Bart and Ashton. Also was I wondering that Bart and Ashton didn't return to continue their scheduled house and pet sitting in Bali when they realized after a short time that the "one in a lifetime job" showed up as not promising what they expected. They preferred to travel on in Southeast Asia and do some well paid pet sitter jobs in big cities. I would recommend Bart and Ashton for short pet sittings of some weeks but really doubt that they are able to fulfill a confirmed long stay house sit, even confirmed via Trusted House and Pet Sitters.com.