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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
23 Jan 2026
Reply rate
95.1 %
Usually responds within 3 days
Feedback
34
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Details
Description
+++++ Freshly moved back to Italy and just settling in+++++
We have just finalised our move back to Italy and we've had amazing help from workawayers. While we settle in and try to sort some really basic things and make this place more livable and homey, we probably cannot host for a short while (rest of December/January).
Unless you are kind of lost somewhere nearby and in urgent need to find a placement (we always try to help out, too), better come at a later time if you're interested in our cats :)
We will update our profile soon with more information about our home, the cats' current life, the environment etc.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
The cats and us - how it all started
Our cat story began in 2020, when we moved from the UK to Italy with an "open end approach", not knowing how long we might stay or where we might go next.
We started taking care of the many feral street cats and occasional stray dogs and before we knew it ended up with 10 + cats inside the house who became our permanent family. In collaboration with local vets and an adoption sanctuary in the North of Italy we managed to get a few more dozens off the streets and into families.
For annoying bureaucratic reasons we had to move to Germany in December 2022. Zwickau was a random choice really, as neither of us has any connection with the place. Now it's time to start fresh in Italy :)
We got into Workaway thanks to a Couchsurfer who stayed with us in Italy and told us about her cat sitting experience through the platform. It sounded perfect for us, as especially at that time we sometimes had to leave the country and needed reliable people to look after our cats.
About us:
We lived in the UK for most of our lives but are both only half British and half in identity crisis 🤣. We got married in 2019 and moved to Italy one year later. We are vegan and really love cooking and trying out new things and experimenting in the kitchen. The cats are not vegan and get only high quality, mainly wet food.
Our cooking styles are respectively fairly different from each other's so we certainly cover all types of dishes. Levent is an excellent chef, does amazing burgers, sandwiches and most importantly Turkish specialties. I (Sonia) claim to make better pasta dishes than any Italian and I often cook huge vegetable stews and soups, but Levent is definitely the main chef, as I hardly have time and not quite as much passion for really nice cooking.
We have no fixed times for eating and we have our individual rhythms, we basically never eat at the same time, so please feel free to just listen to your own hunger drive and eat whenever you want.
Our daily life is rather unspectacular. We get up early and don't go to bed super late mostly and work from home and take care of the animals in between. We very rarely go out in the evening, even though we'd like to do it more often. On the weekends, provided the weather is nice, we usually go out into nature.
As for the rest, we're fairly uncomplicated people, we take each day as it comes without expectations, we're calm but also love good conversations and love to hear about other people's life journeys and experiences.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Animal Care
Help around the house
Help with Computers/ Internet
Interests
Nature
Pets
Languages
Vegetarian or vegan
Writing
Cooking & food
Animals
Beach
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Animals always teach so so much. When we're not away, we would personally also be around with the workawayer(s). We can teach you a lot about health and nutrition, about life in general the way we live it and see it.
Help
Quick summary of the things already explained in the introduction:
- cat feeding
- cleaning litter boxes
- cat cuddling and playing
- keeping the house "tidy"
- potentially helping with our "cat sanctuary" Social Media presence
Languages
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Italian: Fluent
Turkish: Fluent
Spanish: Intermediate
French: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
Languages are one of the most fascinating things to dedicate your time to. The most present languages in our daily life are English, Turkish, German and Italian. We're actually sometimes speaking some hybrid language of them all but we can definitely teach anyone interested a bit of any of those languages. On our bookshelf there are actually many more study books for various languages of the world, but sometimes more for decoration 😁
Accommodation
Workawayers always have their private bedroom.
What else ...
We have heard some not so nice stories from workawayers concerning previous experiences. We do not use this platform to exploit people, make people work for hours on end while being lazy ourselves or anything like that. We think this platform is perfect for our cat vs. travel dilemma and are genuinely interested in the cultural exchange that comes with hosting.
For how things are now, you'll have plenty of "time off", you can go to the beach or near by cities/villages any time and just feel free and at home. We will host you like old friends and hopefully when you leave you are a new friend :)
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
Definitely.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
My animals / pets
Fatty
Fatty earned his name early in life when he quickly outgrew all his siblings in all directions :D. He kind of had the name "Mario" in the beginning but somehow "Fatty" just stuck and it's the name he reacts to. He's so amazing and adorable but always peckish and very sedentary. Comfortably sitting in his favourite spots, he will watch the others run around and won't move unless he suspects food somewhere. At the same time he's just so hilarious, always makes the best faces and poses for the funniest photos.
Maus
Maus is 100 % Sonia's girl. She won't give you much attention but she'll be friendly and let you touch her. But she will let you know that you're not her human :D. She's the cleverest out of all the cats, as in she is the first to figure out how to open doors/cabinets or other forbidden things and she can somehow always outwit you when you try to keep her from something. She feels very entitled to everything basically and Levent would say that Sonia totally spoiled her.
Lale and Jumbo
Lale (completely black) and Jumbo (striped) are an established couple. They absolutely love each other and will sometimes show lots of affection in public. Jumbo is super clumsy and loves to jump into people's head/hair when bending down to him. He's very attached to Levent. When petting, he doesn't like to be patted from the top / on his back, but more on his chest and chin from below/frontal. His girlfriend Lale is feisty! She can be a massive bully towards some other cats sometimes but plays an angel with humans. She loves attention and head touches.
Melody
Melody is our untouchable cat. Even we cannot touch her. After many years she has learned to be more relaxed and comfortable around humans and she absolutely loves the other cats. But she wants to keep her safe distance to humans. When you walk past her or need to grab something close to her, avoid eye contact, so she doesn't feel you're after her or deliberately invading her personal space :)
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (15)
We're very grateful for Justine's help and enjoyed having her around. It was very easy to fully trust her with the cats and she is super reliable and also a very interesting person with an interesting lifestyle and impressive skills regarding her and her husband's own… read more
Photos
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(4.9)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(4.9)
We're very grateful for Justine's help and enjoyed having her around. It was very easy to fully trust her with the cats and she is super reliable and also a very interesting person with an interesting lifestyle and impressive skills regarding her and her husband's own… read more
They invited me to spend time with them and their friends at Lake Stausee Oberwald, even though it was their day off.
I really appreciated and enjoyed the vegan meals Levant prepared.
The cats and tortoises are beyond adorable.
The work was easy cleaning litter trays,… read more
Nour was our… read more
Sonja and Levent are so nice and uncomplicated,free and hippie spirits :)) You feel like home there immediately!
It wasnt even a work for me,I had lot of time for myself too and cats were amazing! I have just one cat at home and I was very curious how it is with so many,but they were all… read more
Cecilia and César are a lovely lovely couple which we enjoyed hosting very much. We resorted to speaking a mixture of Italian and English and surely had some funny language "problems" but we managed to communicate well after all.
Cecilia and César were very enthusiastic in helping with… read more
I was happy that I could taste their delicious vegan food and that I could just feel like being at home.
We took some walks at the beach while also cleaning up and had some interesting conversations.
I wish you all… read more
Whishing you all the… read more
