Wag N' Whiskers Pet Care

01/25/2025

Well, January is just about in the books and I am booked solid for almost the entire month of February for housesitting, but I still have spaces available for drop-ins and dog walks!

If you're thinking of traveling, now is the time to reach out to make sure the dates you want are available! This goes doubly for regularly scheduled services like dog walks and drop-ins - I'm building a regular roster for during the week and not just for client trips, so be sure to reach out as far in advance as you can to be sure I'll have room in my schedule to accommodate everybody 😊

If you're an existing client, use Time To Pet to send me a service request, and if you're interested in working with me, send me a message and we'll get a meet and greet set up.

I hope everyone is having a great new year so far, here's to 2025 adventures!

12/28/2024

Does anyone know these dogs? Looked like a couple huskys or husky mixes. One almost came to me but they both took off when another car came. They were booking it down Griffith Ave in front of Castlewood Mobile Home park (town of Linda) when I drove up. Hoping someone recognizes them!

Yuba County Animal Care Services

12/27/2024

12/15/2024

Do you know this bully?

Found dumped on the side of the road at 6:45am on Hammonton-Smartsville road right in front of the new housing development on the way to one of my clients. Male, dirty, hungry. He's safe and I'll be checking him for a microchip when I return from my client.

I ran him home first because he looked like he was freezing. Sweet enough he let a stranger pick him up and put him and that sad excuse for a crate into the back of my car to get him home. I cannot keep him, so if you know where he came from, please message me. I'll be reporting him abandoned to animal control as soon as possible.

11/23/2024

Hi everybody and Happy Friday! It's one week to the (in)famous Black Friday and while it looks pretty different than when I was a kid, I'm hoping for my followers who are active clients, y'all might be willing to do me two favors - both are free! I am doing my best to move away from Rover for a lot of reasons, but fortunately for two years now, I've had wonderful, loyal clients leaving me wonderful reviews - on Rover. I am still on Rover as a necessity, but I'm hoping for folks who have been happy with my services and have possibly already left me a review when they used me through Rover, if you all would be willing to do it one more time through this Google link: https://g.page/r/CdtH2I6rXPleEAE/review

and/or, could you leave me a review on Facebook? It would be the holiday gift that keeps on giving to be able to point to reviews accessible by all of the general public, rather than just folks who have used Rover before. My aim is to provide very high-quality service at a reasonable price and that is best achieved away from Rover and their fees - but that really can only happen if I can provide the same variety of reviews in a public forum like Google or Facebook where new potential clients can find me more easily than a much more expensive service like Rover.

I'm including my one glowing review a very kind client left for me, and more glowing reviews which sadly just don't have the same reach, through Rover. If you have already left me a review on Rover, I'm hoping you might consider leaving a review on Facebook and Google also.

Thank you greatly for reading, I appreciate my wonderful clients so much, and I couldn't do what I do without the clients who have taken the leap and trusted with with their four-legged or feathered family members! I'm hoping that by getting some more of those great reviews in more general forums, I can increase my reach to folks who really need me!

11/22/2024

11/22/2024

One of my own babies, is actually in the observation stage for treatment for FIP! Please share help the word about this get out - we almost lost Dirt in the beginning because the vet, despite knowing a treatment had just come out to vets, said she should be put down anyway. Crazy!

Today is National FIP Awareness Day, a crucial moment to shine a light on Feline Infectious Peritonitis.

You've all heard me cheer about the miracle of the treatment for FIP. A disease that was once 100% fatal is now curable. I have personally been working with FIP patients and their parents since 2021, guiding them to a treatment that was costly, very difficult to get, and not available for veterinarians. I have marveled at the miracle of the treatment for years.

But now, there’s another reason to cheer! The treatment is now available to veterinarians in the United States! It was released in June, and now, more and more veterinarians are learning about it. What was once a painful daily injection is now a tiny pill or a liquid dose.

Personally, this is the biggest advancement in cat health I have experienced since I started FieldHaven in 2003. To have a cure for this devastating, fatal disease that typically strikes kittens and young adult cats was a miracle in itself, but now to be able to have easy access to the medication is… well… it's the answer to a dream.

So what can you do? Your donations help FieldHaven fight against FIP and save lives.

DONATE ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc4ra79b

At FieldHaven, we will continue to help pet parents find veterinarians who are knowledgeable about the treatment, inform those who don’t yet know about it, and help shelters and rescues with kittens and cats in their care gain access to the treatment. We are proud to be on the side of something making such a life-changing difference for so many.

Let’s celebrate the day!

~ Joy Smith, founder and ambassador of FieldHaven (and pet parent to Gridley)

P.S. Help us spread the word ➡️ https://www.fipglobalcats.com/spread-the-word

P.P.S. Visit FieldHaven's FIP Stars page to see more about the FIP program ➡️ https://fieldhaven.com/programs/fip/

Stokes Pharmacy Zen By Cat

11/22/2024

🚨 Why Rawhide is the most DANGEROUS Gift for Your Dog This Holiday Season! 🚨

The holidays are all about showing love to our furry family members, but did you know that Rawhide is one of the most dangerous gifts you can give your dog?

Many well-meaning gift-givers buy festive rawhide bones—decorated with bows or holiday colors—thinking it’s the perfect Christmas morning treat. But behind the cheerful packaging lies a troubling truth about how rawhide is made and the dangers it poses.

Rawhide isn’t a harmless by-product of the meat industry—it’s a by-product of the leather industry, and its journey from factory to store shelves is filled with harmful chemicals and unsafe practices:

❌ Soaked in harsh chemicals like lime and lye

❌ Treated with formaldehyde and bleach to preserve it

❌ Dyed with paint to make it look festive

❌ Glued together in shapes that break into choking hazards

❌ Coated with artificial flavorings and preservatives that can harm your dog

And the risks don’t stop there! Chewing on rawhide can lead to:

🚫 Choking and blockages requiring emergency surgery

🚫 Toxic chemical ingestion causing digestive upset or long-term health issues

🚫 Bacterial contamination (like Salmonella and E. coli)

🚫 Digestive issues and allergies

Want to spoil your pup without the risk? Gift them with these natural, safe, and healthy options instead:

✅ Bully sticks, collagen chews, or dried fish skins

✅ Vegetable-based chews made from sweet potatoes or other natural ingredients

✅ Raw meaty bones (Mother Nature’s toothbrush!)

✅ Frozen treats like carrots, apples, or dog-safe broth ice cubes

By choosing safer alternatives, you’re ensuring a happy, healthy holiday season for your furry family. Let’s leave Rawhide in the past—for good!

Want to dive deeper into the dangers of rawhide? Check out our blog for all the details and give your pup the best gift of all: a safe and happy Christmas! 🎄🐾

https://houseofpawsboutique.com/blogs/news/avoid-the-most-dangerous-dog-gift-this-holiday-season

11/22/2024

Hi all! With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I know a lot of people will be looking for pet care support for the holidays and the winter season is just about upon us too!

I am fully booked for housesitting for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I do still have open drop-in and dog walking spots available and have some flexibility to customize. If this is you, or someone you know is stressing about reliable, trustworthy pet care during the most stressful time of the year for family gatherings, please give my post a share and send them my way!

If you are a current and active client, any referrals you make for bookings during this period will earn you AND the person you refer 10% off your next booking if booked and paid within 45 days.

Thanks for reading - even if you don't need me, I'd be grateful for a like and a share so this post can reach the folks who need someone they can trust to look after their four-legged or feathered family members this holiday season!

10/25/2024

I lack the resources to do as much as I desperately wish I could, but please, all followers, anybody, anywhere can answer their call for supplies, even if you can't volunteer. A monetary donation if you can do it directly for them, might be even better. Kitten season never really stops and the people trying to stem the tide desperately need YOUR help! Copying the original post text below since it didn't move over when I shared!

🚨🚨 We’re in crisis mode, and it’s not good. 🚨🚨

We need HELP. We freaking need help.

This is long but please read it. And we’ll be sharing more stories that exemplify why we’re begging for help… and why we’re in crisis mode.

PART ONE

Audra, our Marysville manager, was speeding down the highway when she saw something small moving near the shoulder—kittens. SEVEN TINY KITTENS. They were clustered together as cars zoomed by at 70 mph. She pulled over as quickly and safely as she could, adrenaline rushing. She knew she had to help them.

She stepped out of the car, eyes darting between the kittens and the speeding traffic, the wind from passing cars whipping against her. As she approached the kittens scattered, darting in every direction, terrified. Panic set in as she fumbled for her phone, calling a coworker for backup. She could not let the kittens get to the road.

"Get here fast," she said, voice shaking, trying to keep an eye on all of them at once.

When Michael, her coworker, arrived with a net, they both scrambled, trying to catch the scared kittens before it got dark. One by one, they caught six of them, their soft, trembling bodies wriggling as they were scooped them up. But the seventh—he was fast—disappeared into the brush, too scared to come close.

It was almost completely dark and they hated the thought of leaving one behind. They set a trap, hoping the last kitten would find their way inside by morning.

The six kittens were set up at our Marysville Resource Center… set up in kennels that we had *just* emptied.

The trap remains empty.

This is the 6th emergency we’ve had in a week, and that doesn’t even count the several others who, heartbreakingly, didn’t make it.

We need HELP.

We will go above and beyond for those who need us the most, but we need help. First and foremost, we don’t have enough people. We need volunteers and fosters. We don’t have enough supplies, and we don’t have unlimited funding. 🫶

⬇ Here's how to HELP ⬇

1. We need fosters. Sign up here: https://fieldhaven.com/programs/foster/
2. We need these supplies, all of which are on our Amazon list below:
1. Folding crates
2. Playpens
3. Small and medium carriers
4. Puppy pads
5. Heating disks
6. Kitten (and cat) food – dry and canned any brand

Amazon wishlist: https://a.co/g5UbkTq

Deliver to any of our locations:
- FieldHaven Feline Center: 2754 Ironwood Lane, Lincoln, CA 95648
- FieldHaven Marketplace: 454 F Street, Lincoln, CA 95648
- Marysville Resource Center: 106 East 12th Street, Suite C, Marysville, CA 95901

We also have about 100+ kittens waiting for spay/neuter. If you are willing to talk to your personal vet about donating a few spay/neuter surgeries a week let us know!

Lastly... thank you. We will keep saving these lives but we cannot do it alone. we are begging for help. And if you cannot do any of these things... at the least, share this. ❤ Thank you, thank you. Together, we can make a difference!

10/23/2024

It's occurred to me that I don't think I've ever actually introduced myself, and it's important to know who you're working with, so here goes! Buckle up, this will be long!

Hi 👋 my name is Gretchen, and animals are my beating heart and soul - they are what gets me out of bed in the morning every day!

I spent my childhood (about ages 5 to 18) traveling the East Coast, going to dog shows, learning, and handling dozens if not hundreds of dog breeds in all shapes and sizes! I'm something of a nerd, and dogs were my first passion - anatomy, breed history and purpose, temperaments, conformation, as well as grooming!

I personally had German Shepherds and American Eskimos that I showed with my mother - both are double-coated breeds that require a lot to intensive grooming (they don't call them German Shedders for nothing! American Eskimos can often be confused for a Samoyed to the untrained eye, given they are all white and very fluffy.)

From dogs came horses - I became a constant "barn rat" and if you couldn't find me - check the barn 🤣 my family didn't have the money for a horse of my own but I got lucky and wound up working and volunteering at a local barn that did senior horse rescue and worked with Special Olympics as well as did 4-H. Horses were a fascination since I was younger than 10, but I finally got to put my nose to the grindstone for real when I started working for lessons both at that barn, and also at a local dressage barn in my home town. I worked my tail off riding any new horses that came into the barn (I had no fear and would get on anything) did some 4-H shows, and my senior project in high school was rehabbing a draft cross from being so bereft of muscle the points of her shoulders and hips stuck out. She wasn't starved, but she was absolutely underweight by muscle, especially for a horse that was Shire crossed with Clydesdale (hello Budweiser🙋‍♀️). I got her in shape, and she went on to a wonderful home that I still keep up with 8 years later!

Straight out of high school, I enlisted in the Army Reserves where I underwent training as a 68W 🚑 (Combat Medic/Healthcare Specialist.)

Unfortunately, my time in the military was abbreviated due to the occurrence of an autoimmune disorder (a disability) that cropped up ironically just months after getting home from AIT. This unfortunately made me non-deployable and torpedoed my plans to go active duty after I finished a 4 year degree in Equine Studies - spoiler, when you leave the military, you lose all those lovely benefits in your contract if you can't complete it, even if you have no fault or choice in the matter, so I transferred to a "boring" degree I could support myself with on the civilian side and put my equine dreams on the backburner.

Fast forward through a few trips moving back and forth across the country (thanks COVID 🤨) and some misadventures, I am back in California, and I finally took the leap into pet and animal care full-time this past March when I started my LLC! I'd house-sat and pet-sat all through my teens and early 20s, so it was a pretty natural transition when the job market got sticky for my day job. When I started my LLC, I decided it was also a good idea to seek some official credentials to back up my pretty extensive experience and knowledge. So, I am NAPPS certified too - National Association of Professional Pet Sitters - see the seal in my logo 😉

Cats and birds were also always an interest, but I wasn't allowed to have them growing up, but you can bet the second it was an option, they were with me! Now, I have dogs 🐕, cats 🐈, and birds 🦜 and I get in saddle time whenever I can borrow a horse (not often enough 🫤.)

I've now taken in a number of rescue cockatiels, a couple of Greencheek Conures, and even a parakeet (she was living with one of the cockatiels before she came to me 🤦‍♀️)

All but one of my cats are rescues, and I've got a herd of those too, and they are my absolute world - no lie, I sleep under a pile of cats and a golden retriever 🤣

Please enjoy the few pictures available on my phone that also include me instead of about 500 pictures of one of my cats sleeping 😅

That's the cliffnotes version, but if you have questions, please drop it down below and maybe drop me a follow so I can extend my reach finding folks who need the high-quality pet care I provide!

10/22/2024

10/22/2024

That goes for businesses providing a service too! Please support your local small businesses folks - we want to give our families a good holiday too and we'll hustle for it, so let us work for you ❤️

I have almost 350 unique gift options in my Etsy store to choose from. Hopefully you’ll consider my shop this holiday season & shop small for some of your gifts. 🎁

10/22/2024

Have you heard? 📣 SHARES!

Half-off adoption fees thanks to PetSmart Charities National Adoption Week now through October 27th! ⬇️

Plus, TWO kitten adoption events, one at each of our PetSmart stores THIS Saturday from 12 to 4pm! ⬇️ 🐈

📍FieldHaven Feline Center, 2754 Ironwood Lane, Lincoln, Friday - Saturday, 10am to 4:30pm
📍FieldHaven Marketplace, 454 F Street, Lincoln, Wednesday, 11am to 5pm; Thursday - Saturday, 10am to 5pm; Sunday 11am to 4pm
📍PetSmart, 920 Groveland Lane, Lincoln, Monday - Saturday, 9am to 9pm; Sunday, 10am to 7pm **Kitten adoptions Saturday, October 26, 12 to 4pm!
📍PetSmart, 5450 Crossings Drive, Rocklin, Monday - Saturday, 9am to 8pm; Sunday, 10am to 7pm **Kitten adoptions Saturday, October 26 from 12 to 4pm!

10/22/2024

Sometimes life gets hard, and it's visits like today that keep me going!

Please meet Puff in the video below, and Cheese, and Hunter (both not pictured because Facebook wouldn't cooperate 🫤) Puff is the poster child for unconditional love by his humans because he has a medical condition necessitating he be spoon fed as all other methods failed when he got sick and he almost didn't make it.

Cheese is a smartypants orange girl and has been reclusive on my visits and I've been respecting her space and accommodating her wherever possible - and today while I was prepping her lunch, she appeared behind me asking for her food and petting and to say I was stunned is an understatement!

Hunter is an outdoor kitty that appeared one day and he's overall just a super good boy! I call when I arrive and he comes running up the steps to get his lunch.

Enjoy a brief view of Puff just being wonderful and making my heart smile 🥹❤️ he's such a sweet-natured boy and the world would be a beautiful place if we had more pet parents like the ones who love Puff!

Edited to add: I don't charge extra for special needs critters just because they're special needs - just like I don't charge less for very easy ones. I price where I can afford to survive and still help people and their own critters, no matter which end of the spectrum is booked for service that day!

10/19/2024