ABOUT

Thank you for your interest in learning more about me and Mountain Pets. When you 'contact us', you are communicating directly with me as the business owner and your professional pet sitter.

​

Pet Sitting Beginnings

The short story of how I started Mountain Pets began following a rewarding 30-year career with a federal wildlife conservation agency. It had become time to formalize what I loved to do  most...care for and work with animals and build trusting relationships with their owners. It is indeed a part-time labor of love for me. I began dog boarding in 2017 as a side job and established a full-service pet sitting business two years later to include farm and sitting in the State College area in Pennsylvania. Mountain Pets is the culmination of the breadth of my 30 plus years of experience, knowledge, training and love I have for a variety of animals. While my intent is to "keep it small", I am fully engaged in continued learning and building a professional pet sitting option for farm and pet owners throughout Centre County.

​

Horse Experience

Horse back riding lessons began for me when I was seven years old followed by volunteering at an Appaloosa specific forty-stall horse farm. There, I continued my riding lessons, but also spent every weekend on the care crew, feeding, turning out and bringing in horses, mucking stalls and even assisting with horse breeding by handling the mares. I became a horse owner at age 13 and acquired my second horse at age 27. I owned both horses for their entire lives and moved them around with me across the country. At times I a worked for reduced board to make it work and other times I kept them with me at my home and managed their daily care. Besides the breadth of experience I received at that Appaloosa farm as a child, I probably learned the most about horses as the health of my own two began to fail due to old age. My first horse, I was unable to bring back from unexplainable rear foundering, With my second horse, I spent the last five years of his life treating and rehabilitating him from a broken leg. One of the most exhilarating experiences of my life was cantering on the horse I brought back from a broken leg. My horse ownership chapter closed in 2019 and I am now focused on leveraging my knowledge, skills and abilities in caring for other people's horses.

​

Dog Experience

My grandmother bred cocker spaniels and my mom had a poodle and her eight puppies when she was twenty years old. Both my parents instilled in me that life without a dog in the house is not an option. As a young adult, I researched dog breeds and decided that I had a strong interest in Australian Shepherds and I got my first puppy at age 24, raised three litters of puppies with her and am on my forth Aussie now. Since I began boarding dogs in 2017, I've had the fortune of getting to know the unique characteristics of many dog breeds and have boarded more than 200 individual dogs, with a lot of them repeat customers.

​

Bird Experience

A pair of parakeets and lovebirds shared my childhood bedroom with me. My first eight years working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, first as an animal caretaker and then a biological technician, was all about birds. My work entailed hands-on care with captive flocks of endangered whooping cranes, sandhill cranes, bald eagles, Andean condors, vultures, masked bobwhite quail and chickens. I handled a variety of birds on a daily basis, providing general daily care, assisting with veterinary health checks and performing artificial insemination. I managed a Cochin chicken flock for surrogate incubation of endangered crane eggs and managed the breeding flock of endangered masked bobwhite quail, producing approximately 3000 chicks per year for release back into the wild. 

 

Qualifications

Below are a few more details about my qualifications. I am happy to provide personal and/or client references on request. Thank you for your time.

​

Pet Sitting Certifications and Continued Training                       

• Professional Pet Sitter Certification 

• Pet First Aid & CPR

• Bird First Aid & Care

• Rabbit and Rodent First Aid & Care

​

Professional Memberships

• Pet Sitters International

​

Other Relevant Course Work and O-T-J Training

• Basic Wildlife Rehabilitation

• Parlor milker, private dairy farm

​

Personal Experience

• 40 years of horse ownership and horse farm management

• 30 years of owning and breeding Australian Shepherds

• 30 years of cat ownership

• 10 years of freshwater aquariums, pet birds and rabbits​​