First, WELCOME BACK! I realize it’s been a long time since our last blog. Covid changed the business in SO many ways! I’ve been encountering double cylinder deadbolt locks at a lot of houses recently. To be honest, they make me VERY nervous. What is a double cylinder deadbolt lock? A double cylinder deadbolt is […] The post Is Your Lock Legal? first appeared on Purrfect Pet Sitting, LLC/East Greenbush, NY ..read more

I have heard countless stories of people having to rehome their pet because the apartment they are moving to doesn’t allow pets.  I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t consider that myself.  There are many apartment complexes in the East Greenbush and surrounding areas that do allow pets. Following is a list of pet friendly rentals within the Purrfect Pet Sitting service area updated for 2019: Van Allen Apartments 10 Van Allen Way Rensselaer, NY 12144 (518) 389-2004 pet policy:  All pets welcome, up to 3 pets per apartment $250 security deposit per pet $100 upfront fee pe ..read more

What a crazy year we’ve had! We went from having a rapidly growing business before Covid to having to close for several months. Suddenly, everyone stopped traveling and our business screeched to a grinding halt. Like most small businesses, we lost some staff. I’m THRILLED to report that over the last couple of weeks, reservations have started coming in! People are stir crazy and starting to travel again! Because of our smaller size it’s more important than ever to plan ahead and book early. We’re also getting busier with dog walking since people are going back to the office. We want to be abl ..read more

Sometimes it takes something shocking to realize the value of a professional cat sitter. Recently, I started a cat sit for one our favorite cats, his name is Grayston (aka GMan). We’ve been caring for Grayston for at least ten years now. As soon as I walked into the house for my first visit, I knew something was off. Grayston, who never misses a meal, left crunchies in his dish. I proceeded to feed him dinner and he took a few bites, but then walked away and just looked at me. Something was DEFINITELY off. I got down on the ground with Grayston and took a closer look. It didn’t take long to f ..read more

As you can imagine, we’ve scooped a LOT of litter boxes over the years. We have seen it all when it comes to litter scoops. From wooden spoons to spatulas, we’ve tried them all. I was intrigued when I found a new litter scoop at a client’s house recently. I instantly fell in love with it. It’s called the Litter Lifter and this is how it’s described on their website: The Litter-Lifter® has parallel triangular tines that cannot pick up clean litter.  The other traditional scoops clog as they they fill with clean litter which needs to be shaken out to separate the waste ..read more

We are in and out of a lot of houses and, as expected, we encounter a lot of different smells; some good, some bad. Today, we want to talk about the bad smells we encounter. When you are in your home long enough, you get used to a smell and don’t smell it anymore. That is referred to as nose blind. Unfortunately for us, what you no longer smell hits us like a ton of bricks when we first open the door! The odors we encounter can be anything from what you cooked for dinner the night before (fish anyone?), to a litter box that hasn’t been cleaned in a while or the latest one we’ve been encounter ..read more

We’ve heard some pretty interesting and funny pet names over the years.  Some of my personal favorite names I’ve heard are Hagrid (West Highland Terrier) and Scylla and Charybdis (giant schnauzers) and Pickle (kitten) and Marzipan (sugar glider). I know personally when I name a pet the name has to ‘come’ to me.  I can’t pre-name a pet before I get to know it.  It has to fit the pet and their personality.  If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time you know of our cat, Bob and the story on how we got him.  It took us SIX WEEKS to come ..read more

2020 was on track to be our best year ever. It was our 20th year in business and we finally were becoming a household name. Then COVID-19 happened and everything for everyone went haywire. Suddenly, no one was travelling. Everyone that could work from home, did. We had to close our doors for three long months. Even when we could reopen the business was down considerably. We are incredibly grateful for the business that we have, but unfortunately since things are down we had to make a painful decision. We will not be doing our 9th Annual Calendar. We LOVE seeing the calendars hanging in our cl ..read more

Advertising on a vehicle, whether it is a car wrap or magnetic signs, has has been a long standing debate among pet sitters. Many claim that having a marked pet sitting vehicle in the driveway tells neighbors or criminals that the client isn’t home. I have spoken ad nauseam with a few of my friends in law enforcement and was quite enlightened by their take on this topic. First, a marked vehicle doesn’t necessarily tell anyone you’re not home. In this day and age (especially now with the pandemic) so many people are working from home. The pet sitter/dog walker might be there to walk the dog or ..read more

August 4, 2020 marks a HUGE milestone for Purrfect Pet Sitting! We turn TWENTY years old! That’s 140 in dog years! It’s pretty rare in this day and age for any business to last twenty years, let alone a pet sitting business. Most pet sitting businesses close within the first two years. The reasons for this are many. The main reason is that pet sitting can be all consuming. Pet sitters work 24/7/365. We work mornings, afternoons and evenings. We work weekends and holidays. The pet sitting business has a high rate of burnout. For me, hiring employees greatly helped with that issue. We are proud ..read more