My family is animal lovers. We had birds when I was in kindergarten after that my brother brought back home a cute black stray dog. Since then I've lived with different type of pets all the time till March 2015, dogs, cat, rabbit, hamster, fish, bird .... . I had my own grooming saloon in other several states, self-employed - owner/groomer for 18 years, had repeater customers about 40-45 and did boarding service with cage free. One day, one of my customers brought 7 poodles for a week as boarding. I did not like using cages including my dogs except on airplane and one of my dogs needed get boarding service at VET due to an emergency surgery. He broke a cage at the Vet/made a history. Dr. said, it never happened before. I needed to relocate my residency so I'm not working as a groomer anymore but I love pets, when I see them on the road, beach, most of time I'd ask the owner whether I could touch/pet them or not. Several friends keep asking me to do their dog or cat sitter when they travel. I've been taking those opportunity to spend with their babies (pets) and I am enjoying it. Especially after my 3 dogs crossed the rainbow bridge, I don't have any pet in my house. Each dog lived with me for 18 years and I miss them every day. If your pet is shy or has some problem against strangers, I'll give them time to get know me as long as they need.