Both were enchanted by a land in Castelo Branco, and knew that was where they wanted to live. Now, they have almost 50 animals.
When Sophie and Ilona met online in October 2017, they weren't looking for anything serious. The two Dutch women had just gotten out of past relationships and had no intention of starting a new one. Even so, they agreed to meet — and the rest is history. “We met and felt good straight away,” Sophie tells PiT.
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Today, seven years later, they continue to share the same love they had before, but now, in a different country. At the end of 2022, Sophie, 34, and Ilona, 36, fell in love with a land in Castelo Branco and knew that was where they wanted to build a future. The following year, in January, they moved to Portugal. And they didn't come alone.
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Before organizing the trip, they put the farm where they lived in the Netherlands up for sale. On January 5, 2023, while Ilona remained in the region finalizing the last details, Sophie boarded a plane with a friend and her two dogs - Lena and Zorro - to Portugal. Three of the four cats they had were under the care of Sophie's parants, until they managed to come to the country with a friend of the couple.
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At the time, Sophie also brought a motorhome to live on the new land on Portuguese soil. "When the farm was sold, I stayed with the neighbors for two days while the animals still lived in a familiar place," explains Ilona. "With their help, I managed to put all the other animals on the truck leaving for Portugal."
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Inside, the family was big: two horses, three ponies, three sheep, three geese, four rabbits, six guinea pigs and around 20 chickens — all prepared for a new life on Portuguese soil. During the trip, Ilona was joined by her sister and Harvey, the family's oldest cat.
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Photo: The old farm in Holland​
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"We had the dream of having more silence and nature"
Both have always shared an infinite love for animals — Ilona discovered her passion at the age of six, alongside ponies, and Sophie always had cats at home, among rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens. When they started living together, six months after meeting, they brought their four-legged families together at Sophie's house in the city of Utrecht, in the Netherlands.
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"We really liked living there, but we had the dream of having more silence and nature", Ilona shares. Less than a year after they started living together, in February 2019, they started thinking about the possibility of buying a farm in the north of the Netherlands so that the horses they had at the time, Jerom and Cee, could live closer to their owners. In July of the same year, they made that dream come true. And the love for animals only grew.
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When they went to their new home, they took their cats Harvey and Paco, some guinea pigs and four horses. "As there was plenty of space for the animals, we had already decided we wanted to adopt a dog," recalls Sophie. This is how Zorro, a dog rescued after being found on the side of a highway in Spain, came to the family.
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There, they were incredibly happy, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ilona worked in the administration field and Sophie as a biology teacher and they confess that they had "no worries" about their income. "We spent our free time with the animals and each other. At that time, more and more animals joined us," she shares.
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When pandemic restrictions eased, Illona came to Portugal for the first time, in 2021, to visit a friend. And she immediately fell in love with our country. "I could see myself living here with Sophie and our animals," she recalls. When she returned home, the enthusiasm was so much that Sophie couldn't ignore it.
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"By this time, we had already discovered that life on the farm wasn't always romantic, because of the huge amount of rain that fell and the long days we had to work and then take care of the animals," shares Sophie. In Portugal, they knew the weather wasn't that bad, and they started planning the move.
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​Photo: Signing the purchase agreement
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"We want to give our animals the best life possible so they are treated fairly"
The couple always name all their animals together. Due to the high quantity, it may not seem easy, but Sophie and Ilona have created a system to help. "For chickens, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs and geese, we choose one theme at a time. We have chickens named after pop stars, movie stars, TV series and films," she shares.
There is a hen named Audrey Hepburn and a rooster Clint Eastwood. "We also have guinea pigs named after 'The Lion King'. For our two cats, which we adopted after a student of mine bought them without their parents' permission, we chose the names Bonnie and Clyde. They are truly inseparable," she adds.
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Ilona adds that the two also try to analyze each of their personalities. It has happened that they have to change the names after a few days, because the one they chose did not suit the animal. The three dogs, all adopted from associations, received new names to "have a new life".
The farm in Portugal also has a specific name - and this came from the former home in the Netherlands. "Fair Life Ranch" refers to all the rescued animals they take in.
“We want to give our animals the best life possible so that they are treated fairly,” explains Ilona. "We agreed that our new home would have the same name. Additionally, we have a part of the property we call The Farm, where the farmanimals live, and another side we call 'The Ranch,' where the horses stay," she adds.
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Taking in several animals, however, is not always a joy: they constantly have to say goodbye to some of them. Chickens, for example, are the ones that die most frequently because they are "bred to not live long" and end up developing serious health problems. Even so, the duo doesn't give up helping them.
"We believe that animals come to us for a reason. They find our way", she emphasizes. "Each of their stories is unique. What they have in common is that, in our opinion, their lives got better when they came to us, even if we didn't do everything perfectly."
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In the future, the couple wants to open the farm to receive visitors, offer educational activities and recreation in the form of camping. "We would like to share our place with others. We also want people in our area to want to come here to help, relax and enjoy our animals," Ilona shares.
With all the changes they've been through, they don't regret any of them. In Portugal, what they like most is the climate and the people. "It's wonderful to be able to live outdoors like this", she emphasizes. "In the Netherlands, we only managed it for a few months, sometimes just a few weeks. Here in Portugal it rains, fortunately, but not as much as there, where the animals were often in the mud."
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Sophie and Ilona also want to improve their Portuguese and if the number of animals continues to grow, they want to get donations to keep them.
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