Empathetic sitter who will love your pet as their own

I have known Tonja for about a year, mostly through a shared spiritual journey. I thought of asking Tonja to look after my pets when I returned to NZ for two weeks over Easter this year. It was the best decision I could have made. We have three elderly cats and a cocker spaniel, none of whom would have coped with a cattery or kennels. Tonja took on this work with the kind of professionalism that she brings to everything in her life. Our pets are very spoiled. The cocker spaniel expects numerous walks every day. In addition, he really likes off lead time and I was interested to see how he would manage with Tonja, because he can be very scatty. She established really good boundaries with him and he bonded with her. They had lovely times at the beach and in the dog park. The cats clearly were happy and had a regular lap to sit on. They all loved her. There is nothing casual about her approach, and she took photos and copious notes about what the pets are accustomed to at the outset. There are so many small things that can make a differenced to pets, which can be difficult to articulate to someone who is coming in to replace you in the home. But Tonja paid attention and then gave them the most wonderful experience. I knew before we left that we could not have left them in better hands. One thing that I really appreciated was that she checked out whether we wanted to receive updates when we were away. This became a real feature of of family gatherings, since everyone was missing the pets. We were so grateful on behalf of our pets and I had complete peace of mind. Tonja goes above and beyond. She left us to the airport and she picked us up also. This was such a relief and very kind of her. The other thing about Tonja is that she left the house looking better than she found it. The place was immaculate - and it felt like we were very lucky to have had such a lovely spirit in our home. We would have no hesitation in recommending Tonja.