Melanie L.
Melanie L.
Contact for Drop-In Visits
$50 total per visit
Highlights
Pet care experience
Nerd care for your furbaby
🐾 Molecular and stem cell biologist with 12 years of experience working with research animals as a UC/CSU researcher and Instructor of molecular biology courses 🐾 25 years working with domestic animals as a dog mom, in-home breeding, hospice care, and “pet” or familiar-sitting 🐾 Professionally trained in Wildlife triage as former nursery manager of a CA wildlife rehab facility 🐾 Former Environmental Scientist conducting fieldwork on a research vessel in the SF Bay and San Joaquin Delta for the state of CA 🐾 Skilled at administering medications to mammals and birds in all forms (pill, liquid, diabetic injections, subcutaneous fluids) 🐾 Specialized in working with senior and sensitive/anxious furbabes.
Qualifications
Pets
Safety, trust & environment
🐾 Strict adherence to all food, training, and exercise guidelines for all my furbabes 🐾 All care is customizable based on client and furbabe needs! 🐾 All furbabies remain at their home unless otherwise instructed to for walks, exercise, or in case of emergency
Ratings and reviews
We LOVE Melanie! As former pet sitters ourselves, our standards are pretty high— none of the other Rover sitters we’d tried in the past had quite met them until Melanie! We unexpectedly had to delay our trip by a day because we got sick. Melanie promptly accommodated this change and sent along such a thoughtful message. We knew right away we were dealing with a true professional! Melanie’s attentiveness stood out right from our meet-and-greet. She didn't just ask what our cats' favorite toys were—she asked how they each liked to play with their toys. We showed Melanie our cat Plum's exercise wheel and mentioned that her favorite way to use it is with someone jogging alongside her. We never expected a sitter to adopt our silly little routine, but Melanie jogged next to her at every visit! It was no surprise to hear that Plum was greeting Melanie at the door and rubbing against her for pets by the end of our time away. Our other cat, Lyra, is a little more wary of new people, but Melanie is extremely well versed in cat body language and boundaries, and took that into account when interacting with the less-trusting Lyra. Even if Lyra wasn’t fully on board with the whole “new person” idea, she still chose to hang out nearby Melanie at all of her visits, which told us she felt safe. As anxious pet owners, we like updates that are as detailed as possible with lots of pictures. Melanie delivered in spades, providing sweet and thoughtful visit summaries with 25+ photos per visit. Her summaries went beyond the basic tasks of the visit— she let us know how our cats greeted her, how much they were eating, if they wanted pets, what toys they played with, and her sense how our babies were doing overall. Most importantly, she let us know they were LOVED. We look forward to hiring Melanie again soon!
Melanie was wonderful with our dogs, and we could enjoy our time away from home knowing that they were in very good hands.
Kelp loves Melanie! I can always leave town knowing that Kelp is in such great care.
Melanie was amazing ! In a short notice she came and walked our little Sammy for an hour. Whenever I am in Santa Cruz I will rebook a walk or full day with her :) Thank you so much again Melanie . Sammy enjoyed the walk with you, and thank you for the great communication before and after the walk :) .
Melanie provided loving care to my shy cat, who quickly warmed up to her. She sent me thoughtful and thorough daily reports along with lots of photos.
Well, what can we say other than Melanie was an absolute Godsend for our two Pups while vacationing down in Aptos! Great communication, fair pricing, AWESOME photos she took of the Dogs & just a good, decent & cool person with a knack for instinctually knowing the needs of older/senior Dogs & how to manage them. Will DEFINITELY be re-booking with her next year! ❤️🐶
Calendar and availability
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Schedule
🐾 Overnight bookings include AM/PM routine care, afternoon check-ins, and an overnight stay with your furbabes 🐾 Available for last-minute requests on a first-come-first-serve basis 🐾 My schedule revolves around AM/PM “rounds” for my check-ins and my own furbabe’s home routine.