On any given day around 5:30 p.m., my house is the proverbial three-ring circus. You see, I have three dogs, two wire-haired fox terriers and a schnoodle, or as I affectionately call them, “the terrorists.” When their “dad” comes home from work, it becomes a frenzy of attacking one another, and barking and jockeying for position to be first at the door. Similarly, this happens if any unsuspecting delivery person, or visitor makes the sad mistake of ringing our doorbell.
And, if you’ve been a guest in our home you know (you know who you are and please don’t tell!) that the terrorists take a good half hour before they settle down. I say all this by way of telling you that these lovable creatures are no small task to handle when we leave town — which is fairly frequently. A couple of years ago, when I lost my pet sitter of five years, I had the task of finding another one up to this very challenging task. I found Creekside Critter Care (creeksidecrittercare.com) in Maple Valley —and I’ve never been disappointed since.
Maryellen Elcock and Ann Elcock Ota (sisters) have operated this family owned and operated business since 2004. Their philosophy is “quality of life and well-being” for pets and their human companions. Not only do they operate a doggie day care in Auburn, but they do pet sitting (in your home which is what we do), pet walking and farm sitting. Their service area is South King County, including loads of customers in Renton and Fairwood. I marvel at the fact that these ladies not only visit three times per day, but walk all three dogs (at once! Something I can’t do!), feed them, play with them and even give massages. Our regular sitter, an employee of the business, Sandy Lassman, is a godsend. She leaves me notes on the visit —which are regularly hysterical — gives them exercise (!), and on more than one occasion, has slept on a comfy chair with the pups during a late evening visit.
These ladies are not only tremendous pet sitters, they are extremely intelligent, as a visit to their Web site points out. Maryellen has a doctorate and studied animal behavior at Harvard. Ann was a junior champion at the Westminster Kennel show and earned her degree in psychology from Skidmore (now, this explains her ability to handle my dogs!). If you have four-legged friends, and desire piece of mind on your next trip, I urge you to check them out! If they can handle the “terrorists,” I can assure you, they can handle just about anyone!
Susan Bressler is an active member of a number of Renton organizations, including Piazza Renton. E-mail her at scbressler@comcast.net.
