Monday, August 21, 2017

About Nicole



Nicole has been wearing cats on her head since the 1980s, way before it was cool. She began her career in pet services in 1986 at a small ‘mom and pop’ pet store in her home town. Although her duties were varied, her favorite work activity was feeding slurry to the hand-reared Amazon parrots through a turkey baster. What fun! Nicole worked in pet stores for several years, gradually becoming the go-to person in her store for small animal care. Although she was supposed to be selling puppies, she spent most of her time tending the sick animals (ironically the reason she quit working in pet stores).

Perhaps inevitably, Nicole drifted towards animal rescue somwhat later, but in the meantime she earned three degrees at California State University, Fullerton, taking time off to care for her grandmother and work as a pet sitter. It was here in San Diego that Nicole learned the pet sitting trade, as a contractor for a local company. This was during the 1990s, when fewer professional pet sitting companies existed, and if they had staff it was always comprised of independent contractors. Luckily, Nicole is a self-starter and a perfectionist, so she excelled as a contractor despite having little supervision and a clientele that stretched from Allied Gardens to Alpine. 

In 2001, Nicole was a passenger in a rollover auto accident while on a research trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Nicole sustained a brain and spinal injury. After spending a year recovering, she was no longer able to compete at the top of her graduate program in Culture Studies. Although she finished her degree (it took eight years), Nicole spent most of her graduate career focused on the animal rescue she founded in 2002. With her vigorous promotion, the rescue grew to have more than fifty volunteers and forty foster homes over the next decade. 

As fulfilling as rescue work may be, it doesn’t put food on the table, so Nicole worked as a restaurant manager to pay off her student debt. At the end of 2010, Nicole was student debt free. She had four years’ experience as a manager, ten years of experience as a CEO in animal rescue, and a useless Master’s Degree. It was then that she started thinking about reviving her dream of working with animals. So she quit the restaurant business, rolled over her 401(k), and started Furry People Pet Sitting.

In its third year, Furry People grew larger than Nicole had expected, and she was faced with the decision of turning away clients or hiring employees or contractors. Recognizing an opportunity to create real jobs instead of contract work, Nicole decided on employees. She began to hire, train, and supervise staff. She wrote an employee manual, implemented professional pet sitting software, and made sure that every client received the very best in animal care as well as customer service. 

Furry People Pet Sitting is now in its sixth year of operation. The business serves over three hundred clients from La Mesa to Lakeside, as well as providing luxury cat boarding at its Mt. Helix location. Today, several members of Nicole’s family work in the business, and it grows a little each year. We are truly proud and honored to be your pet sitters.  Click here to go back to Furry People!

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