Vacation Time: Purrfect Pet Sitters for Your Pets

Linda Ahkami offers pet-sitting services for a variety of animals. PHOTO BY Michelle Watkins

By Tiffany Watkins

Linda Ahkami, owner of Purrfect Pet Sitters, uses the drop-in service to take care of the animals with a few additional household chores. Ahkami said the number of drop-in visits a day depends on the needs of the client and can be up to three times a day. She spends about a half-hour to an hour each visit. Some of the clients like her to water the plants, pick up the mail and newspaper, and put out and pick up the trash cans.

"I mostly take care of the run-of-the-mill pets," Ahkami said. "Dogs, cats, birds, parrots, fish, tortoises and horses."

However, she said that she doesn't have too much experience with horses. She has taken care of clients' horses before and if future customers feel comfortable enough with her just throwing the horses hay and giving them water, she can do it.

"Substitute teaching gives me flexibility," Ahkami said. "If I have too many pet sits, I don't substitute."

She is a substitute elementary school teacher and said it works well for summer because school is out and she can focus on pet sitting. Ahkami is in her sixth year in the pet-sitting business. She can usually handle the visits on her own, but when things get busy, she gets back-up from her fellow pet-sitting friends.

Ahkami takes her pet-sitting job seriously and she proved it during the Cedar fire that burned many areas of Ramona. According to Ahkami, she was pet sitting some animals in the San Diego Country Estates and when she was leaving later that evening, she saw what looked like a small fire from a distance. She thought nothing of it and went home. Later that night she was still thinking about it and checked the news and did not hear any reports about a fire. She went to bed but couldn't sleep well. She woke up at 4 a.m. and looked out the window and was shocked to see that the sky looked red.

Her first thought was the safety of the animals she took care of the night before, so she dressed quickly and headed out into what looked like a war zone. She drove to the Estates in an attempt to rescue the animals whose owners where out of town. The roads were blocked and a police officer would not let her go any farther . She got out of her car and took out her pet-sitting folder and said, "I'm a pet sitter and I have to get the pets."

After several attempts to convince him that no one was home and she needed to rescue the pets she was responsible for, he took her in. A house nearby was burning so she quickly gathered up two dogs and a cat, but one cat was missing. She rushed around the house and finally found the second cat under a bed. After she successfully rescued those pets, she had one more house in the San Diego Country Estates. She called the pets' owners and they were very grateful. The pets resided in her home until the owners picked them up.

Purrfect Pet Sitters charges as low as $15 per visit depending on the amount of animals and care needed. Contact Ahkami at (760) 787-0830 for a free consultation.