Just as you should be selective about who you choose to use as Pet sitters, we are selective about who we want as clients. We only have clients close to home (in the West Rand) so that we are nearby and able to assist in an emergency but also so that we can provide a QUALITY service and spend as much time at a particular home with the animals rather than rushing around from home to home. We also only take on a very few clients, so that (once again) we can provide the best possible pet care service. We want clients who are passionate about their pets and who view them as a special part of the family.
(See some our YAPPY Christmas customers PAWtraits posted on FACEBOOK ...)
Dido Blagden felt the need to start this because of her own frustration finding a suitable housesitter or petsitter where she could actually ENJOY a holiday away from home and her beloved pack. Various previous petsitters proved unreliable or uncaring... In one case she returned home from holiday to find the house not just unlocked but the front door standing wide open... When she adopted a feral rescue who she named Dini (as in Houdini, since he was an escape artist of note) she and her husband no longer went on holidays without the dogs...simply because she felt there was no one trustworthy who could ensure the happiness and safety of her furbabies when they went away. She and close friend Jill hope to fill the niche in the market, so that others can go away with the peace of mind that their beloved pets are secure and being cared for at home while they are away on trips or holidays. Having a high energy, reactive and anxious feral rescue also taught Dido the importance of exercise and stimulation in having a happy and balanced pack. From 10km walks a couple of times a week it became an (almost) every day necessity. Dog walking became a therapeutic pastime for her and her pack alike, and something she believes all dogs deserve on a regular basis.
Dido has been passionate about animals since... well, since birth... As a young kid she volunteered at the Johannesburg zoo. Later on she became very involved with animal welfare (rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming). Presently she administers the Community Led Animal Welfare (CLAW) adoptions website <http://calwadoptions.org>, and educational and animal advocacy website (named after her CLAW township rescue Gumby, who went on to become a Paws for People Therapy dog) <http://gumbypana.com> and is a Paws for People Therapy Dog handler. All her animals are rescues and in addition she and her husband have fostered several rescues, before they were re-homed. Additionally she has written articles for various animal magazines including the SA Petfriendly directory and magazine, Happy Tails, Cesar's Way South Africa Magazine. She has also been reposted in online articles and blogs such as FurKidz and Friends of the Dog. Apart from all her animal welfare voluntary work, Dido is a copywriter and designer <http://www.pawtfolio.org> and lectures Basic Counselling Skills part-time at the University of Johannesburg, and has competed the Hills Puppy Trainer Course.
Jill Olivier has proven her mothering skills not only with the myriad of pets she has had but with the upbringing of her very own, close knit, family.She too has been an animal lover since birth, collecting stray kittens at age 4 and being told that they had gone to heaven when she couldn`t find them. Wandering around her Granny`s garden picking up little birds that had crashed into the windows, and burying the ones she couldn't nurture back to health in her little cotton socks. Through her lifetime, all her dogs (with the exception of her poodles) have either been rescued from various shelters or abandoned by someone. The same goes for her cats, 3 of them brought up on kitty milk and hand-reared by Jill's family, and nurtured by her dogs. Jill, in addition to her furbabies, has 3 sons and a daughter, who between them have produced 12 grand children who Jill and her husband clearly dote on! As a young girl, Jill rehabilitated an extremely shutdown little Peke who'd been used purely for breeding purposes and so her passion and compassion to help the abused and forgotten was ignited. Jill at present has a cat Lancelot and old poodle Daisy who has been a Paws for People Therapy dog for the past 5 years, and her latest rescue Dixie, who overcame his fear issues and has become a Therapy Dog in record time.
When Jill and her husband go away, they are fortunate to have a longtime live-in domestic worker who has become part of the family to look after her animals. In conjunction to this she has friends and neighbours who pop in daily to keep en eye on things. She knows she is blessed to have all these willing and constant visitors to keep her furbabies happy entertained and not feeling completely abandoned. She confesses to having sleepless nights when she hears a dog howling night after night during the school holidays, and knowing that the owners have probably abandoned it at home while they have gone away on holiday!
