Looking for a pet sitter or dog walker?

The advent of 'fur kids'
As more and more people such as Augustine discover the benefits that pet sitters offer, Reed and others in the industry are seeing demand for their services take off.

“Pet sitting is now the leading at-home start-up business” in the United States, says John Long, public relations coordinator for Pet Sitters International, a for-profit professional group with 6,800 members.

With the changing demographics of American society, the need for these businesses is only likely to increase, he adds.

More than 60 percent of U.S. households now have a pet of some kind, including an estimated 110 million cats and dogs, according to NAPPS.

And those pets play new roles in their family's lives. While many people now wait longer to get married or have children — if they do either, at all — they often still want to have someone — or something — in their lives. Enter what pet sitter Reed dubs "the fur kid."

“A fur kid is a pet who is treated to the finest and loved very much like a child,” she says. “The animal fulfills an emotional role and in return, the owner is willing to shell out big bucks and do absolutely everything they can for them.”

Pet sitter Camille Pinto, co-owner of Who Let the Dogs Out, LLC, based in Totowa, N.J., is also familiar with this "sky's the limit" attitude.

She started her business with co-owner Annette Brundage two years ago after spending 25 years as a veterinary surgical technician, and now has two full-time employees. During the summer, which is her peak busy season, Pinto works non-stop from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. throughout the week caring for animals, many of whom require medications or other treatments while their owners are away on vacation. During the winter months, her meat and potatoes is dog walking.

Over the years, Pinto’s gotten plenty of odd requests, including one woman who wanted her to sleep in bed with a bird while she was away, a job Pinto says she politely declined.

Reed, too, has received her fair share of peculiar assignments, such as a man who paid her to read aloud to his fish and a woman who hired her to accompany a poodle to a wedding.

Despite the long hours and occasionally unusual clients, Pinto says she wouldn’t do anything else. “I like animals better than people. … You can be in the worst mood and the first dog you see snaps you right out of it. It’s very rewarding and it always has been.”

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