Hi! My name is Mia. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my dogs; being able to love and take care of my three munchkins is one of my favorite parts of being alive. That being said, half of my heart will always be with animals. I grew up in an incredibly dog-loving family. We unfortunately never had any cats, but I have assuredly tried to change that; unsuccessfully :( From a very young age, I was constantly put in charge of keeping an eye on my dogs while my family was out or had company over. I realized I didn’t mind at all! I currently have three pups! My senior Lab mix, Oreo; a Cavapoo, named Charlie; and a Cockapoo, named Benny. I won't be shy to repeat how much love and joy these dogs give me every day. Since being the token dog-babysitter all my life, my family encouraged me to find a job at my local doggy daycare. I had always admired how much thought and detail they put into their business, and was excited for the opportunity to be surrounded by animals all day, MY DREAM! I ended up being very disappointed, however. It turns out my version of pet care didn’t exactly align with theirs. Since there are SO many animals in that facility, they did everything in a very one-size-fits-all manner. 4 walks a day, feeding, group playtime, next dog. In theory, that was an honorable system with that many dogs in one building. However, I had always wanted to go dog by dog, get to know them, sit in their kennel with them, and take my time. I wasn’t always able to do that due to the system already put in place. I realized each and every animal are so incredibly different and fluid in their own way. They require different things, have different habits, like things a certain way, and have different backgrounds and preferred environments. For example: my dog, Benny, was rescued from a foster family that takes in animals that are up for euthanization. We aren’t fully sure of what Benny’s life was like before that, but we know he was tossed around to households that didn’t treat him the best. This makes him the extremely reactive dog he is today. It is very frustrating to have a pet who attempts to bite every single stranger that he doesn’t know very well, but that makes it all the more worth it. To know that we are able to be that safe, loving family for him; To know that we are working on his anxiety towards new people in the most gentle way possible, like so many other families have failed to do. All of this to say I like to take my time with all puppies and have lots of experience with reactive/senior pets! I prefer to get to know them, adhere to their routine, likes and dislikes, and make sure my care is at the utmost quality as they’d like it. I have fortunately reclaimed my token-dog-babysitter title and have been able to take care of many of my friends’ and family's pets for weeks/days at a time, and would love to do the same with yours! Also PS: I do not require any pet sitters myself, so the “My Pets” tab is empty. All of my babies are in my “Photos” tab.