EN/ It’s been a year since I decided to create It is peculiar blog. I started with the support of the people closest, in order to share my experiences living abroad and some thoughts, to feel closer to those who are far away. I began also to follow blogs with the same essence and identify with these people, which made me learn a lot.
In this year of blog happened several things in my life, and here was a way to register everything. So I would like to look back to celebrate.
PT/ Já faz um ano desde que decidi criar o blog It is peculiar. Comecei com o apoio das pessoas mais próximas, com o intuito de compartilhar minhas experiências morando fora e alguns pensamentos, para me sentir mais próxima de quem está longe. Comecei também a acompanhar blogs com a mesma essência e a me identificar com essas pessoas, o que fez com que eu aprendesse bastante.
Nesse um ano de blog aconteceram várias coisas na minha vida, e aqui foi uma forma de registar tudo. Por isso gostaria de fazer uma retrospectiva para celebrar.
I recently signed up for Cat in a Flat Website and had my first clients.
Here I will explain how it works to be a cat sitter.
What is it?
A website for searching cat sitters.
How is it?
The pet owner searches according to location (neighbourhood), using distance to filter where the sitter intends to travel to, value and experience. Shows the sitters’ profiles with description and information.
Everyone can register?
Yes, but it is preferable to have experience with cats. In your profile you can put how many years of experience you have, if you can handle medication, if you have or had cats. It is also possible to maintain a “customer” gallery with pictures of cats that you sitted. It is important to ask for references pros cat owners after each service, this reference will be made public on your profile, which will help to get more customers.
How it works?
1- After the search, the pet owner gets in touch with you to make sure you’re available dates he needs the service. They can hire and pay for one visit per day, or 2 visits a day with value stipulated by the sitter. I have stipulated a value that covers 2 bus tickets, although only work in the neighbourhood, sometimes it is necessary.
2. A meeting is scheduled to discuss other details and know the cat. At this meeting I already show the owner the contract sheet as well as other documents: information form on nutrition and cat schedules, emergency contact etc; vet form if you need to, and permission to get the key. In this first meeting is now only to review and explain it all, a meeting before the service (usually a pet owner’s trip) is that everything is written down and signed, as well as the delivery of the key is made.
3- At the second meeting you see where is the food, the quantity and frequency of feeding. Also gets to see where is the litter box, bags, and will need to replace the sand and when. We agreed about giving snacks, going out or not and sending pictures.
As it is with the cat?
Each is different but the first day I just take the food, clean pots and clean the litter box, try not to pet them and just let they smell me if they want. That’s because the cat saw me no more than 2 times, it doesn’t trusts me yet and if I anticipate myself they may not like to approach. I took care of 3, and only one of them up to now did show much affection, these other two were affectionate, I ended up staying longer there as they sat on my lap for about 10 minutes. Kira cat only drinks running water from the tap, then as soon as I arrived and before I left I would open the tap to let her drink it, despite always leaving an clean little pot with water. From the 3, Smokey was more difficult to feed, I would fill the pot for him when I would arrive and he would eat it all in minutes, what made me put food again before leaving and was often the time for me to get my stuff and he would have eaten all over again.
At the end…
At the end is a matter of returning the key as agreed (in person or by putting in the mail box inside the house) and asking for references to your profile on the site. It is always good to add that cat in your gallery as well.
Eu recentemente me inscrevi em um site de buscas de pet sitter/cuidadora/babá e tive as minhas primeiras clientes. Aqui vou explicar como ele funciona para ser uma babá de gatos.
O que é? Um site de busca de cuidadores de gatos. Como é? O dono do pet busca de acordo com a localidade (bairro), usando filtro de distância que a babá está e pretende percorrer, valor e experiência. Aparecem perfis das babás com descrição e suas informações. Todos podem se registrar? Sim, mas é preferível ter experiência com gatos. No seu perfil você pode colocar quantos anos de experiencia você tem, se você sabe dar remédio, se tem ou teve gatos. Também é possivel manter uma galeria de “clientes” com fotos dos gatos que você cuidou. É importante pedir referencias pros donos dos gatos após cada serviço, essa referencia ficará pública no seu perfil, o que ajudará a conseguir mais clientes.
Como funciona?
1- Após a pesquisa, o dono do pet entra em contato com você pra verificar se você está disponivel as datas que ele precisa do seviço. Eles podem contratar e pagar por 1 visita por dia, ou 2 visitas ao dia com valor estipulado pelo cuidador. Eu estipulei um valor que cubra 2 passagens de ônibus, apesar de só trabalhar no bairro, as vezes é necessario. 2- Um encontro é marcado pra discutir outros detalhes e conhecer o gato. Nesse encontro eu levo já o contrato pro dono ler assim como outros documentos: formulário de informação sobre a alimentação e horários do gato, contato de emergencia etc; formulário do veterinário para caso precise, e autorização para pegar a chave. Nesse primeiro encontro é momento só de revisar e explicar isso tudo, um encontro antes do serviço (geralmente uma viagem do dono do pet), é que tudo é anotado e assinado, assim como a entrega da chave é feita. 3- No segundo encontro você vê onde fica a comida, as quantidades e frequencia da alimentação. Também tem que ver onde fica a caixa de areia, saquinhos, e se vai precisar trocar a areia e quando. Combinamos sobre dar petiscos, sair ou não e o envio de fotos. Como é com o gato? Cada um é de um jeito, no primeiro dia eu só dou a comida, limpos potinhos e limpo a caixa de areia, não tento fazer carinho e só deixo ele me cheirar se ele quiser. Isso porque o gato me viu no máximo 2 vezes, ainda não me conhece de verdade e se eu me adiantar ele pode não gostar de aproximação. Cuidei de 3, e só 1 deles até agora não quis carinho nenhum, esses outros dois por serem carinhosos, eu acabava ficando mais tempo na visita já que eles sentavam no meu colo por uns 10min. A gata Kira só bebe água corrente da torneira, então assim que eu chegava e antes de ir embora eu abria a torneira pra ela beber, apesar de deixar um potinho sempre limpo com água. Dos 3 o Smokey era mais difícil pra alimentar, eu enchia o pote dele quando chegava e ele comia tudo direto, o que fazia eu ter que dar comida de novo antes de sair e muitas vezes era o tempo de eu pegar minhas coisas e ele já havia comido tudo de novo. Já a Kira e a Zooey, eu dava ração e no outro dia ainda tinha ração no pote.
E por fim… No final é questão de devolver a chave conforme foi combinado, (pessoalmente ou pondo na caixinha de correio pra dentro da casa) e pedir a sua referencia pra o seu perfil no site. É sempre bom adicionar aquele gato na sua galeria também.
Baby me and my first cat, Bolinha (diminutive for ball) / Eu bebê e meu primeiro gato, Bolinha.
EN/ About Preferences, Part I
Fear and hate in general are feelings that arise from the unknown, if I dont grasp it, I fear it. There is also the possibility of fear to be the result of a bad experience in the past, a trauma. As a kid I never liked dogs, my mother says that one day, a huge dog of a friend, jumped on me and knocked down me when I was about 3 year olds. I just got to know this story years later, from complaining so much in the presence of any dog, she told me that.
I was always afraid, and avoided them, used it cross the street so I wouldnt be close, I never found any of them cute. If we were going to a house that I knew had a dog, I would suffer from anxiety in advance to imagine having to face a beast of those in the same room as me, or simply just at the entrance of the house.
From an early age I had contact with cats at home, in my grandmother´s house, on the street I always made sure to get close to them, encouraged by my mother, who throughout her life have probably had around 9 cats. I admired their beauty and behavior, and over time I began to further identify myself with them. There was a phase where I raised the flag to say they were the best, and could not bear dogs because I thought they were silly. This was nothing other than me trying to self affirm to an animal I have total involvement, trying to reduce the other animal that made me insecure.
When I was round 10 years old riding my bike on the my gramma´s street, a neighbor who had rottweilers came out for littering, and guess what? The dog ran out to the street! Today I’m not even sure if it came after myself, but I despaired, left my bike on the pathway, went in and closed the gate really fast. It was scary, I thought I was going to die and this reactivated that trauma.
Over time I could not get away from certain situations involving dogs, a friend that I frequented the house like mine, had a dog called Hanna and it took me a while to get used to her. I had in mind: “show no fear, but keep away, try to greet to see she leaves me alone”. I even had to deal with a rottweiler a schoolmate had when we used one or two lectures off to go to her house. I remember to explain in advance about my relationship with the species and my colleague assured me that the dog was quite calm. Arriving at her house, who received us? Fila was her name, huge, and really very calm, just came to see who were coming, let her smell me as I repeated with my heart racing, my internal mantra: “show no fear, but keep away, try to greet to see if she leaves me alone”.
It was by having to go through such situations, rather than avoiding them, I began to notice more canine behaviours, find out that they bark but do not bite and do not attack for anything, understand gestures, noises, all this that for me It was scary and I could never find out whether they were good or bad.
PT/ Sobre Preferências, Parte I
Medo e ódio em geral são sentimentos que surgem do desconhecido, se eu não domino, eu temo. Também existe a possibilidade do medo ser resultado de uma expêriencia ruim no passado, um trauma. Desde criança eu nunca gostei de cachorros, minha mãe diz que um dia, um cachorro enorme de uma amiga, pulou em mim e me derrubou quando eu tinha uns 3 aninhos. Eu só soube dessa estória muito tempo depois, de tanto reclamar na presença de qualquer cachorro, ela me contou.
It is p e c u l i a r 