I may be new to the area, yet I'm far from a beginner taking care of pets. I was born and raised in Iowa where I lived in the city but my parents owned a farm out in the country. We would spend weekends on the farm doing what farmers did, farm.
We had the typical farm animals, horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, geese and of course cats and dogs. You don't really get to appreciate farm animals until you've raised them. We had cattle and pigs that were sometimes just as friendly as our household pets, now geese, that's another story, those guys can be just downright mean.
When you're 8 or 9 years old, it's was a little daunting going along for the first time taking the cattle and pigs to the stockyards. I though we were just selling them for the money and someone else would take care of them. Little did I know that those same animals would be what we ate in a month or so, however long it took to have them butchered. That was just a little more than I cared to think about at the time.
My love for animals continued throughout my life, I've always had dogs until I was around 35 years old and I had to put my best friend down. His name was Max and he was a German Shepherd, being with him in his last minutes nearly broke me and I swore I wouldn't have any more pets for the sole reason that I can't take it when it's there time to go.
As the years passed by I ached to have another pet, I seriously considered it, but then the idea hit me that I could get the best of both worlds by taking care of people's pets while they are away helping them and I would get the joy of having animals around again without having the finality that always comes with owning a pet.
So in July of 2017, I decided to open Dave's Pet Care back in my hometown of Council Bluffs, IA. I did everything myself, I created the website you are looking at, I applied for the necessary paperwork for things like an EIN number, opening a business checking account, I need to accept online payments so I opened accounts with all the payment processors like PayPal and Venmo to name a couple, I got a point of sale device, I purchased pet insurance, city licenses, etc. Then the first week of August of 2018 Dave's Pet Care opened it's doors and I never looked back, only forward which landed me here.
My hometown is directly across the river from Omaha so there were plenty of prospective clients. By the time I left there, I was the highest ranked pet care provider based on the number of reviews I had and the average score I received on Google. I believe I had 106 reviews and a 4.9 score out of 5, I also was voted the Best Pet Sitter in the area receiving an award by Nextdoor.
I tell you this because that's how much I enjoy taking care of your pets when you can't. It has literally taken over my life and when I say I am open 24 hours, I mean it. I would change it to I'm available 24 hours, because we all need to sleep, but Google doesn't have that option. Regardless, if you need to drop off or pick up your pet at odd hours, I will do my best to accommodate you.
I'm not like other pet care givers, because I don't allow kennels unless the owner insists on it, my home is your pets home. I love it when the owners drop their pets off and ask where they will sleep and I tell them, wherever they want.
My way of caring for your pet is the same as if it they are my own. And I do have my own pet, he's the ginormous white ball of hair that many people ask if he's a polar bear cub. His name is Chuck and he's the calmest, loving, lap dog you will ever meet. He loves all animals and doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
Finally I invite you to look at the photo gallery. Every pet in the photo gallery are pets that I've cared for at some time. Those are just a small sample of all the pictures I have as well as videos. I do have a youtube channel being, surprise, Dave's Pet Care, it hasn't been updated recently because I've been to busy posting on my TikTok page, and it's called Adventures with Chuck. Take a minute and visit us, I think you will enjoy it.
