Live-in Caretaker - Rural Portugal

We are hiring!

Come experience rural Portugal.

We are currently hiring for one person (or a couple) for the position of Live-In / Caretaker.

What does this imply, you ask?
There are 3 main responsibilities:


1) (and the most important one) - Dog (and cat) care - We have 6 dogs with lots of energy and demanding lots of attention and love. This is the main responsibility - caring for them, sitting when we are not at home (or when we are working from home), checking if they have water, food, ticks, if they lost their collars, if they are all accounted for at night, and a lot more. This might sound like "Oh, I love dogs, I will love this job!", but this is a high responsibility-high maintenance task. They are our family.


2) House care - this means cleaning. And more cleaning. With six dogs and one cat, we have lots of hair and sand everywhere. We need daily cleaning. Also, we need you to tell us what is missing in the pantry, we need ironing, and washing clothes, and making beds, and making food.


3) Farm tasks - we don't have a farm exactly, but we do have some trees, lots of plants, a pool, and some land. All of this needs care: cleaning leafs, gathering wood, composting, cleaning the pool, picking up dog poo, and general tidying around.

What do you get?
First and foremost, you get a salary. But as we are searching for a live-in person, you also get lodging (private room and bathroom), and all bills paid (water, electricity and internet).Also, you get to live on a beautiful farm, with a great pool, a nice fireplace in front of a big sofa.Often, we have meals together, and enjoy the cultural exchange with our workers and volunteers. We have become friends with many of them.

Hours
We are not very rigid about this, especially because the task of dog-care, as sometimes we need help out of the "normal" hours for work.We request usually 7 daily hours, but there is no need to start at 8AM, or to finish at 5PM. This can be negotiated and adjusted, as well as the days off. Also, some of the tasks cannot be done if, for example, it is raining too much, or if it is too hot (temperatures can reach 42 degrees Celsius).


Why are we hiring?
We have two amazing ladies, who started off as volunteers (we have a volunteering program), and then were hired as Care-Takers, as they did such an excellent job with our 4-legged family. But they are from Chile, and they have returned home in April, after being with us for two years. So we need someone to fill their shoes - and this is a very high ask!


Who are we looking for?
To begin with, if you are not excited about the prospect of sleeping with some dogs in your bed, this is not the job for you.You need to be proactive. This means you need to tell us what needs doing, not the other way around. You enjoy and are able to work under minimal supervision. You have to enjoy a rural setting, and be comfortable with all types of animals. We don't kill spiders, and we rejoice with the life growing around us.You are hands-on, enjoy physical work, but also enjoy some quiet time reading a book by the fire. You must have some cooking skills, and be willing to learn. But above all, you love animals, especially dogs and cats. You enjoy their presence, you recognize their intelligence, and how much we can learn from them.


You need to speak either english, portuguese or spanish. We can communicate in any of these three languages.

Availability
We need someone to start  in June (first few days) for a period of training.Minimum stay is 9 months.
If this interests you please reach out to us