Emergency:

A local emergency contact is required who can be called in the event of an emergency with your home or pet—preferably with a key.  Your vet information is needed in case of medical emergency.  Otherwise, your pet will be taken to the Animal Emergency Clinic NE at Deerbrook. Clients know that Pet Pals will attempt to contact them in case of emergency, but if client is unreachable, Pet Pals has permission to authorize any care that the vet says is necessary for the pet’s health, safety, and survival.  Client agrees to reimburse Pet Pals for any additional fees and all costs relating to vet care during their absence.  For the safety of your pet and others, pets must have current vaccinations. 

Payment and Terms/Checking In:

Rates and Services: 

Beginning rates are $18.00 per visit for established clients effective February 1, 2012. (Extra charges may apply for more than 3 pets.)  New clients beginning rates are $20 effective February 1, 2012.

Payments for services are to be paid in full on the first day that service begins.

We take cash, checks, and PayPal.

There will be a $10 cancellation fee without 24 hour notice.

If you return from a trip early and do not give us a call, you will be charged.

We have always asked that you call us when you return, but as a responsible pet owner, we trust you will call us if you cannot return on time and need to extend service.

Reserving Services:

We urge you to reserve services as soon as you know that a trip is coming up.  We do not like to overbook or turn anyone down.  Please give us at least a 24-hour notice as a courtesy and to avoid being told that we have no openings.  We will only take service requests by phoning the office at 281-361-4799 or by doing online email requests through our website.  Please do not text for service or call my cell phone for service.  It interferes with my pet sitting visits and raises the possibility of missing a pet sit.

Same Day Service Requests

All services booked with less than 24 hours may be subject to a $10 service charge.  If less than 3 hours, a $20 service charge may apply.  Service is not guaranteed on less than 24-hour notice.

Holiday Payments and Cancellations

 A one-time holiday surcharge of $10 will be added on the following holidays:

            July 4

            Thanksgiving Day

            Christmas Day

            New Year’s Day

Shared Responsibility:

Many people like to include neighbors, relatives and friends in the pet sitting duties.  These well-intentioned actions cause much confusion during the assignment.  Most common problems are overfeeding, unlocked doors, lost keys, or missing some feeding assignments altogether.  Also, if we arrive to do the assignment, and someone is there and tells us it is not necessary for us to do the job, you will be charged for the trip.  We advise you to make only one person responsible for the entire assignment.

Visiting Hours:

Unless arrangements are otherwise made, our normal visiting hours are from 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. daily. 

Animal Behavior:

When you are away, your pets may act very differently. Some pets react with fear when their owners go away and they can become destructive when they are bored.  Please go through your house and remove any obvious hazards before leaving.  Your pet’s eating habits may change as well.  We will do an excellent job of maintenance and will develop relationships with your pets and even become good friends with them, but you must know that the animal’s priority is just to wait for its family to come home!

Preparing to Leave Home:

Please leave all the pet supplies in one place, buy extra pet food in case of delays, clean out the refrigerator, remove all garbage, wash dishes to avoid ants, and let us know where the cleaning supplies are kept. Make sure you have paper towels on hand, too!  Please leave on a light for night visits so we do not have to enter the home in the dark.

Keys, Doors, and Locks:

We need 2 keys to provide the best service—one that we will use doing the job and one that we keep locked in the office.  Your keys are coded and locked up at all times. If two copies are not provided, Pet Pals reserves to right to make a copy of the key.  For new customers, we will return your keys at no charge the first time you use our service.  In the future, there will be a $ 7.00 fee to pick it up and $7.00 to return it to cover the time and expense involved.  However, you may pick up and drop off your key at my house to avoid any charges.

Contacting Us:

You can reach us by telephone from 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on our business line, 281-361-4799.  You may use my mobile phone 713-410-3557 for an emergency.  Beyond those times, please leave a message and we will return your call as soon as possible.  You can always email us at info@petpalsofatascocita.com to check on your pets, to book services, or to leave reminders.  We try to check email at least twice daily.

Other Services:

 All of the following are routine services included during a typical pet-sitting assignment:  checking the house, watering plants, bringing in mail, newspapers, etc.  Please let us know our limits in use and access to the household such as using the bathroom, or walking through the house to see if the pet has soiled the carpets or if other problems have occurred.

Vacation Time for Us:

 Effective February, 2012, we will be scheduling some days off for ourselves.

 Larry and I will not be working at the following times:

            The first weekend of  March, April, and November

            The first week of the month in March and October

We will have pet sitting services available, but you will need to schedule at least one week in advance.  If one of our pet sitters has not been introduced to your pets, then we would need time to introduce them.  Thank you so much for your consideration of our need for regular time off, too.