Laura's Dog Walking & Pet Sitting

Introduction: Hello :) My name is Laura and I am more than willing to help out with dog walking or pet sitting to owners who are going out of town, who have conflicting work or school schedules, or are otherwise unavailable at certain timeframes to care for their animals. When life gets busy, it can be hard to consistently provide the attention and care that your pets can demand. With almost ten years of satisfied customers, I have been serving Pinellas County and the surrounding areas and creating everlasting relationships with families and their pets. I am a reliable and trustworthy caretaker to animals of all kinds and I always strive to provide the highest quality pet care that I would want my own animals to receive. I can also provide additional services upon request (bringing in mail, taking trash or recycle bins in &out, light housework, watering plants, replenishing seed in outdoor bird feeders, etc)! Animals are my lifelong passion. I currently have a cat but grew up caring for two cats of my own, and I also used to walk dogs in my neighborhood when I was little. So essentially I have had experience caring for animals since a very young age. I completed my AA locally at St. Petersburg College and I plan to continue on to work towards a degree that can be used to work with animals in some capacity :) I was also an animal caregiver at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Tarpon Springs for a year and a half, so I regularly attended to monkeys, babboons, lemurs, goats, tortoises, rabbits, tropical birds, snakes, gators and reptiles as well. So if you have any other exotic pets requiring care I have experience with various other animals too :) From puppies and kittens to elderly animals, I have extensive experience caring for animals of all ages and with health conditions of all kinds. Up until now, this has included animals that have been blind, deaf, epileptic, severely arthritic, or those dealing with GI issues, hip and joint issues, kidney disease, diabetes, and cancer amongst other things. I always go beyond the call of duty and on multiple occasions have even stayed around the clock with clients while their animals have been in their very last hours. I strive to always be there for people and for animals whenever the need arises or whatever the occasion entails. I go out of my way to provide empathetic and compassionate care, and I spend quality time connecting with the animals I look after. I will always prioritize their needs and well being and I pride myself in treating them as if they were my own. I have been an avid photographer from a young age as well and enjoy sending daily text updates with photos and videos to my clients. My hours of operation are very flexible and I will always do my best to accommodate the schedules of my clients. Please let me know if I can be of service to you! Thank you for your consideration💗 —————————————— —————————————— ADDENDUM: I have noticed that I frequently receive a lot of direct messages from people far outside of my ~10-mile travel radius [New Port Richey, Hudson, Spring Hill, Odessa, Lutz, New Tampa, Tampa, South Tampa, St. Petersburg, Seminole, Largo, East Tampa (Riverview, Gibsonton, Ruskin), etc etc] asking for my availability or for a meet and greet. While it is always my wish to be able to accommodate everyone and while my professionalism is very important to me, I don’t think Thumbtack notifies clients that even though it’s free for them to send us messages and request services, that service providers have to pay anywhere from $4-8 just to receive each direct service request message, regardless of if they can accept the request and provide services or not. Unfortunately I have no control over this but it is important that I shed light on it so that you can understand my silence rather than react to it and think I could be ignoring your message or lazily choosing not to respond. I have addressed my concerns about this issue with management multiple times already and it doesn’t seem to me like this policy is changing any time soon. :/ This policy puts me in a difficult position to where I want to respond to every message and remain professional and courteous, especially when the requests are time sensitive, but I’m not in the position to be paying $30-50 each month just to receive everyone’s messages solely to have to tell them No because their location is well outside of my parameters, or because I cannot be available during the timeframes specified. I wish I could say otherwise, but do keep this in mind if you don’t hear back from me or other service providers within a few days time. I always see new leads within 24-48 hours and try my best to also reply within a day or two after that (unless the request is more pressing), but just know that it isn’t personal if I cannot reply to you, and to please be mindful of where I can travel to before sending me a service request. I mainly service north Pinellas because I live in Palm Harbor, but as a norm I am willing to go as far north as East Lake or Holiday, as far east as Town N Country or Citrus Park, as far south as South Clearwater, and as far west as the coast (Clearwater/Dunedin/Palm Harbor/Tarpon Springs). I am willing to travel beyond these areas but I will need to compensate for transportation if extensive commutes are involved. I hope this helps to clarify any confusion! Thanks again for your consideration🙏🐾