Living and working together as pet sitters, caretakers or guest house managers - the philosophy of ThePetsitters

It is an unusual combination: living and working together as a couple! ut more unusual is that the two protagonists from !ermany do not split up their terms of reference" They do everything together - as artists, pet sitters or guest house caretakers They #ust call themselves ThePetsitters" In their real life as artists they are $tephan and %erena en#oying also their life while working hard" & We want to make our dreams come true, says the '' year old very charismatic looking, blue eyed couple" This radical but honest concept of life has led them to a uni(ue and peaceful career only doing #obs they could s(uare with their conscience" The duo met while studying at )niversity of teacher education in *arlsruhe, !ermany and have been working since then as freelance artists organi+ing and creating art events and e,hibitions in huge, significant, vacant, historic buildings across -urope" -verything is done by the artists themselves, from the building of the art ob#ects, the mechanical and electrical installations in the vacant buildings, the public relation like the writing of press releases, designing of promotion campaigns on and offline to the welcoming and the personal care of the guests" They have been practising a very honest and deep relationship to each other since they met in .//0" 1nd since then they really have been doing everything together" &We have not been together for only a few days in our career... Their intense sense of togetherness and the very successful way of living and working took them into a T% talk show where they discussed their special relationship" & The advantage of our relation is that we are strong for two physically and mentally and can solve problems easily while discussing them. It had been planned to become teachers after their studies" 2ourses in psychology and didactics courses has helped them in the further life and #obs, where it was very useful to have an analytic vocation" $tephan and %erena consider it as a kind of sport to analyse unknown, at first sight strange people or even animals, to find out relations and special behaviours and to discuss and evaluate them together" ecause of this capability and the training throughout all the years running nearly a .33 art e,hibitions in different cultural regions across -urope with the duty of getting to know as many people as possible and attracting them to their shows, the two travelling individualists get easily into touch with unknown people and into deep and trustful discussions" 1s a change between their art pro#ects they began to look after pets and their homes and properties as ThePetsitters in 4335" &We realized very uickly that we could communicate with the animals in a very natural way. 1s a result, the pets have been together with them the hole time of their .' days to 5 month during stays, accompanying them while working in the garden, maintaining and repairing things or feeding the other animals" 1nd they are not only attracting dogs - also cats and even chicken follow them through the beds" It is that special gift of accepting and understanding the opposite party which makes it possible to ThePetsitters handling

both humans and animals easily" 6hether they are painting a picture, repairing fences or grooming the fur of a dog, they always give all their manpower and energy to achieve a high-end result, and they are e,tremely ambitious to satisfy each involved party" 1s a positive side effect they ac(uired a very broad range of skills through these e,periences" 2raft skills from building the art installations in always unknown buildings, communication and supervising skills from talking and working with different people from the helpers and the workers to the mayors, maintenance skills from working with different systems, from pool pumps to solar energy supply, and they learned a lot by doing and living very sustainable at different mostly very remote places with vegetable garden and livestock" The most e,citing pro#ect of the travelling &connoisseurs of the art of living7 was in 43.3, when they spent half a year on a small and very remote island of the 1+ores in the middle of the 1tlantic 8cean, managing and organi+ing as stand-in a guest house with a rich subtropical garden, a dog, cats and chicken" 9aving no e,perience like this before, they interviewed native inhabitants about habits and specific characteristics" They got to know the important persons in town, learned about climate and vegetation and after a few weeks they received the first guests, showing them hiking trails and the secrets and cultural highlights of the island, guiding and entertaining them and making them feel cosy and familiar in the hotel in a very natural way" 1nd ThePetsitters also en#oyed doing all the works around the house like maintaining the guests:houses, preparing the garden, cutting the hedges and making cheese from the milk of the cow for the breakfast of the guests" We don!t consider it as a "ob # life is a great adventure and we take it as a challenge. 6ith this philosophy the couple also did the daily routine office #obs like organi+ing guest transfers, communicating with agencies and the bookkeeping" 1nd their rela,ed and positive attitude easily infects the environment whether humans, animals or perhaps even plants""" 2urrently they are attempting to bring the whole situation to a head" In 43.0 the two artists $tephan and %erena organi+ed a huge multimedia art e,hibition in a vacant .3"333sm castle and afterwards took care of .; dogs, two horses, two goats and two iguanas and a finca in the mountains of $pain" <or 43.' ThePetsitters are still looking for a new e,treme challenge, preferable in a region close to the e(uator" 8ne Idea is to combine the arts, nature and tourism" They could imagine to create an e,hibition about the current situation of mankind" Interested and interesting people would be invited to spent their time coe,isting with humans, animals and nature" 6orkshops and discussions would be organi+ed provoked by the e,hibition and the special ambiance of the place" ut this is only one Idea" ThePetsittes are always open for new adventures of life" <or further information about ThePetsitters please visit their website where you can see for yourself what kind of creative people they are, en#oy! There is also a video about the daily routine of ThePetsitters at =ouTube: http:>>ThePetsitters"net http:>>www"youtube"com>thepetsittersvideos