I grew up surrounded by dogs and cats in my home back in Poland. We mostly had dogs, who were outdoors, and had warm beds and corners in our basement - free to walk in and out for our pets. Currently, we have Max, for 12 years! And our cats were mostly indoors, but could get in and out of the house whenever they ... knocked on the terrace doors, or meowed under the basement door (I believe they trained us haha) - currently Yuki is the queen of the house for 9 years already. When I was a kid and a teenager, I had a common degu, rats, hamsters, and guinea pigs, and my sister had a dwarf rabbit, which I also looked after. We also had a cat, who gave birth to 3 little kittens, and unfortunately, she ended up passing in a car accident- my dad, my sisters, and I raised the three little kittens from the 6th day of their life (they did not have open eyes yet) till their adulthood. We fed them baby formula and cleaned them (they didn't know how to pee by themselves; we had to help them), cleaned their eyes, and raised them like our babies, with instructions from the vet - they had very low chances of survival, but all three survived <3.

In the Netherlands, I was not able to have any animals, as I was just passing my time studying, but my partner had a cat, which I spent plenty of time with.

In Portugal, I lived in my manager's house for 3.5 years and took care of the house, plants, and a doggy - Freda- whenever she was visiting. After that I lived with a housemate, who had 3 huskies, and a mixed-breed dog, and they were deffinitely my besties! Especially Calisi, who would cry and snuggle every time I came home. Then I lived with a housemate with a German Shepherd - Furio, for a year, and developed a beautiful bond with him as well. I cat-sat for a month for a beautiful cat Tiger who unfortunately had bladder stones, and we had to go to emergency vet care because I noticed he was in pain and could not pee. I continued to look after him for the next few weeks, giving him medications as prescribed. He recovered fully. In Portugal, all my friends had dogs, and I always loved spending time with them and learnt a lot about them!

After moving to Australia, I sat a house and a doggy of my supervisor for 2 weeks, daily walks, and giving medication in food as well, as it was an elderly boy. I house-sat and cat-sat 2 beautiful kitties for 2 months over two years - Circe and Darth. These were indoor cats only, so I was very careful, making sure all the doors were closed and the kitties were not sneaking out. One of the cats had an autoimmune skin condition, where I had to give several medications a day to her (poor little one), but I got very efficient with her, and she even stopped running away when she knew it was pill time :) (she used to run and hide from owners too). I always kept updating the owners with photos and everything that was going on. I also cat- and house-sat a little kitten - Apollo, for my friends for a few days, when they were on holidays. And another big cat - Berlin, when his owner was away. I also developed a beautiful relationship with a grayhound - Bengal, a dog of my ex-partner, with cuddles, walks, and also administering eye drop medications for his beautiful, sensitive eyes. These dogs are very picky about who they let close to them, and I was definitely part of his tribe :)

I love all animals, and I have a feeling that animals like me back as well :) It always feels special to connect with one!