Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Muddy Paw's pet Insurance podcast. I'm your host, Dawn Cross, and today I'll be chatting about the world of pet sitting and walking with Kasey Curtis, founder of Paws Galore Pet Sitters.
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[00:00:21] Speaker B: So if I could start off with, If you could introduce yourself and what your business includes.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: And I own and run a pet sitting business in London which started around 2009.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Absolutely amazing. So how do you find it then, being within the pet business? Thank you've always wanted to do.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I've been sort of pet mad ever since I can remember, particularly cats. For me, I was the sort of person that in any house that we went in, if there was a cat, I would make a beeline for the cat and try and befriend it.
And I begged and begged and begged my parents for, for a cat and they eventually gave in when I was about nine years old, got a kitten. So, yeah, I'm.
And from that then we got a dog and I've had hamsters, you know, and it just. My love for pets has always been there. It's something that's very deep and deep within me.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: That's amazing. So then obviously from there you're like, you know, wanted to turn the passion into, you know, your business.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So the business started because I, in 2009, I was trying to find a pet sitter to look after my two cats when I went on holiday and it was very different back then. There weren't. There were nowhere near as many companies there are today. And I eventually found one and had a sitter coming twice a day to feed my cats whilst we were away for a week.
But the problem was, was they, they. I couldn't get hold of the sitter. So on day two, they hadn't sent me any updates about how things were going.
So I text, I didn't get a response. Then later that day, text again, still didn't get a response. So I called and, and she said, oh, I'm really sorry, I don't have any credit on my phone to call you.
And yeah, I was like, that is not a good enough reason to not contact.
You know, you've. I've left you in my home with my beloved cats and keys to my flat.
So whilst I was on hol, I thought, do you know what? I would really like to.
I would really like to offer people a better service, you know, to set up a company.
And, and so I did I got back from holiday and I built my own website.
I started putting up adverts in the usual places in pet vet practices, Gumtree Word, you know, talking to people.
And initially I was using public transport on my push bike.
I would travel anywhere in London. You know, I would have cat visits in East London, North London, South London in the same day.
I would just travel anywhere just to, to build up the business.
And then I got myself a little Vespa motorbike, which made things a lot easier because I was going directly from A to B as opposed to, you know, relying on public transport.
And yeah, it's just, it's grown and grown there.
So that was way back in 2009, so. And we've done quite a lot of jobs since then. The company's growing quite considerably.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: I love how it's just basically you turned it into your own frustration to be like, you know what, I bet other people have dealt with flaky sitters. So I'm gonna just make it different and make it my own.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, I had firsthand knowledge of what it's like to be abroad with a sitter in your home you can't get hold of.
And so I know the anxiety that that can bring.
And yeah, I wanted to be able to offer people a good service.
You know, our Google reviews, you know, they speak volumes. You know, we've got very high rate rating on Google because I'm so particular about the sitters that I bring on board. I don't just accept anyone. They have to go through, you know, quite a routine to get into to be accepted on.
And I think that shows, you know, I really want to be able to offer people the reassurance that I was looking for and couldn't find back then. So, yeah, it's very important to me.
So what is one of the, like.
[00:05:23] Speaker C: Main misconceptions around pet sitting? I mean, obviously you've got like a, that your main point from your own experience, but.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think from a pet sitter's point of view, I think the main, the main misconception is that it's an easy job. I think a lot of people, a lot of people giving up their job or considering giving up their job to start to be a pet sitter, thinking that it's, you know, it's easy, but it's not. There's, there's, there's so much to consider, you know, reliability, you have to be reliable.
The last thing a client wants when they're relaxing away is, is my, is my Sitter visiting, you know, that kind of stuff. It's companionship. You have to have, you have to have a connection with animals.
You know, there's lots and lots of attributes that you need to have to be able to, to be a pet sitter. And it's a massive responsibility. It's really big. You know, you are looking after someone's babies, like fur babies.
So it's massive. The responsibility is huge.
So it's not to be taken lightly.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: And you know, you, like, you're saying like a lot of people consider their pets like family. Like that's, you know, that's my baby right there. So to be able to trust someone, it's like, you know, baby steps, you know, to be able to trust them completely and know that like, if anything was to happen, they'd be able to sort it out.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:01] Speaker C: And you can actually go and relax and make, you know, be happy that they're okay is absolutely huge, isn't it?
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's everything, you know, you do the clients, you get a range of clients, you get clients that are very chilled, very happy to go away, and you just go in once a day to feed the cat for 20 minutes or.
And then you get clients sort of the other end of the scale that are very anxious, you know, about leaving their home and their, their fur babies, you know, to someone else's responsibility.
And it's really important that you take on all of their concerns and you answer all their questions and try and alleviate any anxieties that they have.
That's what makes, you know, that was what makes a good sitter really is being compassionate and understanding.
You know, it's not all about looking after the pets. The job is also looking after the clients, very much so, and enabling them to be able to go away and have a good holiday and relax.
[00:08:20] Speaker C: So what's one thing? Or you know, you might have like a couple tips here that people can do, you know, if they're preparing to start to utilize pet scissors for the first time. So they've not really done it before. Maybe they've just only used a kennel. You know, what can they do to prepare themselves and then also repair?
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Well, I think that the most important thing is to get to know your sitter.
We would always suggest that you have a phone conversation first. So we would match. A client would come to us and say, you know, I need a cat sitter for, from these, for these dates. So I'd like a once daily visit or twice daily visit. Or live in. And then we would think, okay, who, you know, what area they're in, who is best placed for this job. And we would offer it to our sitter.
And then what we would suggest is a phone call or communication, initial communication with that sitter to start to see if there's a rapport there between the two of you.
And then of course you move on to the initial free consultation.
So if you're comfortable with, with the sitter that we've proposed, the sitter would come and meet you in your home, you and your pets in your home and go through the requirements there. You can then see firsthand how they are with your, with your pet.
And that will tell you everything you really need to know.
And you can get, you can feel really most, most sort of anxious clients that we have after that initial consultation. They're very relaxed and they're happy to go ahead and they feel content. And so that is so important that part. Also, if there's dogs involved, it's quite beneficial to, to maybe have the sitter come over, book in some walks prior to going away so that you can go on those walks with the sitter and you can take them to their usual spots, you know, the usual hangouts, show them any four boys that the dog may have, you know, places to avoid, where you let them off lead, if you let them off lead, that, that's very beneficial to both parties and it's worth spending that little bit extra to if it's possible. If the sitter has time and you have time to do that, it's very, it's, it's a big part of, it's a big plus and it, it can really alleviate any stress on both part, on both parties there.
So also another thing to do is to list, you know, list your feeding instructions, walking instructions in a kind of bullet point way so that they're easy to access, easy to understand things about the house. If it's a living, if it's a live in sit, then you know particular things about the house that might need to be known.
So, you know, writing things down are very important as well.
So, and if you, if you can afford it or you, or we would suggest a shorter trip, you know, go away for a short weekend, you know, a weekend or a long weekend, two days.
And then if you do that before your longer trip, you can iron out any issues that might arise as well. So that's another good, good idea to do that if you can.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: No, definitely.
[00:12:04] Speaker C: And I think as well as like having that familiarity with Them. So it's like, you know, they do know you by scent, by face and everything else. And then, you know, it's not just when they do turn up, the dog's completely surprised, like, who are you?
[00:12:17] Speaker B: What are you doing?
[00:12:18] Speaker C: I mean, for an intruder or something. And you've got a whole other problem on your hands.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: Exactly that. Yeah, it's really, yeah, it's really beneficial to have to have those meetings beforehand.
A lot of our sort of dog walking clients and so we have daily, we offer daily dog walking.
You know, they might have that dog walker who comes and stays when they're on holiday, which is just the perfect scenario because the dog knows the sitter, the sitter knows the dog, the client knows the sitter very well and has experience, you know, of them in their home.
So it works very well. But yeah, those initial, those initial meetings are really important and if you, I would, I would say that if you initially have a conversation with some, you know, a sitter on the phone, if we, you know, if we put someone forward for a, for a job and the client doesn't feel it's a good match, we will just try and find them somewhere else. You know, you're not bound in that, in those early stages to.
We've just got to have this sitter.
We would suggest that you meet a couple, two or three if you can, but most, most of the time, sort of nine times or nine, nine times out of 10. The initial meeting alleviates any of those anxieties and it all goes, you know, it all goes well.
[00:13:50] Speaker C: That's amazing. So final question of today is, you know, do you have a funny or core memory you have with working with animals, maybe with your own, Just so then we can kind of like, you know, have a bit of chuckle, really.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: Yeah, Well, I mean, there was a. I was talking to one of my sitters. This isn't me personally. I was talking to one of my other sitters who was on a job for us and they were looking after a ginger cat who, let's call his, his name is Marmalade. And he was doing visits and he was, he went into the, to the cat on the Friday night and the cat was very nervous, wouldn't come near him. And he thought that's a bit. He wasn't like that at the initial consultation.
Anyway, put the food down, comes back the next day, the food's gone and then it's. Then it's like the cat had changed personality. He was all over him, cuddles, giving him scratch, you know, like Having been really close with him, came back the next day and the cat was again really, really nervous, hiding away under the sofa. And he just thought this is so what is going on? This is like very bizarre. It's almost like a bit like having a schizophrenic cat.
And went in on the last day and there were two cats in the home.
And it transpired that basically one of the ginger cats, they looked very similar, was the neighbor's cat that had been coming in through the cat FL lap and unbeknown to the sitter, he, he, you know, he'd been trying to befriend the neighbor's cat who was actually hiding under the sofa because knew he shouldn't really be in there.
So yeah, you, you get all sorts of funny, you know, situations.
And I think, you know, a lovely part of the job is when you do have a nervous cat and you, they, they sort of finally give in, you know, and they relax around you and feel like you've really got that connection with them finally. It can take sometimes two or three days, but it's very rewarding. It's a very rewarding part of the job for sure.
[00:16:16] Speaker C: So is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up today?
[00:16:20] Speaker B: I don't think so. I think we were talking before about kennels versus pet sitting.
And I think just the benefits, you know, the benefits of, of having a pet sitter as opposed to using kennels.
I think they're all quite self explanatory. But you know, a kennels is a very busy and noisy environment.
It doesn't work for a lot of dogs, especially older dogs that just want to sleep all day. You know, they just want to be in their own home, around, you know, sleep on the bed, be around. What they do, they don't get. Obviously in kennels you're not going to get as much human contact as you do.
Having a house and pet sitter is very much a one to one bespoke service.
So, you know, in my eyes it's much more in the favor of the pets, I believe, to have a house and pet sitter. I think more people are coming around to the idea. We're incredibly busy with house and pet sitting. And that kind of came off of the back. Very much so of coming off the back of COVID There were a lot of pets purchased in lockdown and there were. Those pets were used to having someone around all the time because they were used to having, you know, working from home and so I kind of saw that there was going to be this influx of business coming with house and pet sitters, when a sitter is, you know, moving in and being there most of the time.
And so it really has become a big, a big sort of business, big side to the business, as well as the cat visits and dog walking.
So, yeah, I think and kennels for those sorts of dogs that have that separation anxiety, it's not going to work.
So, yeah, you need to contact poor school or pet sitters.
[00:18:37] Speaker C: Thank you so much for coming on today. It's been really great to meet you.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: You're welcome, Dawn. Thanks for inviting me.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Thank you to my guest today, Casey, for chatting about her pet sitting business and her amazing tips for pet parents looking for sitters. If you'd like to know more about her sitting and walking business, please click the link in the description.
