Tag Archives: wagsbymags

fall check-in…

hi everyone. just a quick update to say that my daily dogwalking schedule is now full again, thanks to the addition of maggie (magnolia) the golden retriever (on the left) and breaux the catahoula/lab mix (right).

also, the holidays are starting to book up. i have some availability for thanksgiving for both dogs and cats (no overnights) but only for cats for christmas, as i already have multiple dog bookings. get on my calendar soon if you need me!

enjoy the less-oppressive heat and hopefully soon cooler temps of fall!

dog days of summer…

yep, we are in it: the long slog of summer in new orleans. whew!

please enjoy this picture of my adorable client Chloe relaxing after a walk!

my pet care biz has slowly been organically morphing over the past year or two to more petsitting and less dog walking, as daily dog walking clients move, die or otherwise fall off my schedule. but petsitting bookings have increased at the same time, so it all works out. as i age, i’m finding this rebalancing to be just what i need to keep going with this business.

that said, i do have one or two openings for daily (M-F) dogwalking in the midcity/BSJ/fairgrounds or city park/navarre area. i am hoping to refocus my business to be closer to my home so i spend less time driving all over the city, as i try to reclaim time for my art business. i’d prefer a new client or two who need 3-5 days of daily walks/week.

i have also claimed two long weekends for myself over the summer to be off work entirely. the first is coming up at the end of july, the 26th-28th. and the second is my annual birthday break in august. i haven’t quite worked out the dates yet but will be in the 8th-16th range. i won’t be booking any petsits during these times and i’ll let my dogwalking clients know when the dates are finalized how this will affect them.

as always, thanks for your business and referrals everyone! i am grateful to be able to do this work and still be in business all these years later. (since dec 2010!)

summer 2017 update

happy summer everyone! hope everyone is hydrating – yourself and your pets – and staying cool.

i haven’t updated here in a long time so thought i’d drop in to say hello and make a few announcements. business has been booming at wags by mags – i’ve been super busy and beyond booked since memorial day weekend, it’s been crazy. folks sure have been traveling a lot!

two things:

#1 – i have an immediate opening between 11am-12pm for mon-friday dog walks, preferably in the uptown, broadmoor, riverbend, carrollton or midcity area, so it fits easily into my route. hit me up if you are in need and let’s see if we can make it work.

#2 – i have an important birthday coming up – i’m turning 50! – so i’m not booking any dog or cat sits over the weekend of august the 11th-12th-13th so i can have time off to celebrate with friends.

ok, that’s all i got.

thanks to all of you over the years for keeping me in business! six years and counting!

holidays 2016

hi everyone – just an update to say i am completely booked for thanksgiving 2016 already! i have an overnight dog sit that whole week plus a few other dog and cat sits on top of my regular dog walking schedule, so i can’t take anything else on.

christmas/new year’s holidays are filling up fast. i am booked overnight both christmas weekend and new year’s weekend but could probably still squeeze a few cat sits in if you get to me soon.

i’ll be celebrating my sixth year of this business in december! thanks to all my amazing clients over these years!! and may your holiday season be wonderful!!!

openings!

all of a sudden, i have a few openings!

i need to be a little specific because i need to fill in around other clients in my schedule. so… 10:30am in the uptown area, 11:30am anywhere from audubon/riverbend down carrollton to midcity, and 12:30 or 1pm in midcity/bayou st. john/fairgrounds/mid-tilly. (all times are approximations and might vary a half hour either way – i usually offer a window of time because of variables like weather, traffic, and dog-related delays.) looking for monday through friday or other weekly dog walking clients. individual walks for dogs from same household only, no pack walks.

pass the word! thanks!

happy new year + carnival!

i’m a little late in posting this, but happy new year everyone! and, since 12th night was last night, happy carnival too! 33 days til mardi gras!

so just a quick update here: wags by mags! is now operating at pretty much full capacity in terms of daily dog walking clients. i’m keeping a pretty solid 9am – 5pm schedule with between 8-10 walks a day servicing the cbd, uptown and midcity, and occasionally squeezing in 1-2 more of my occasional clients. so it’s safe to say i’m not taking on any new dog walking clients at the moment; there’s simply no time in my schedule.

in terms of pet sitting, coming off of the hectic holiday season, i’m not gonna do a lot of dog sitting for a while. i just need a little break from overnights, probably through the carnival season. i will continue to accept once-a-day cat sits in this timeframe in my service area, however.

i will make my annual disclaimer that i love mardi gras and want to enjoy all the festivities, so i will not be taking on ANY mardi gras weekend sits of any kind or evening walks (2/3 – 2/9). i am NOT working at all endymion saturday (2/6), bacchus sunday (2/7), or fat tuesday (2/9). i will have limited service for my daily clients on lundi gras (2/8) and ash wednesday (2/9), with everything returning to normal after that.

thanks everyone and i hope y’all have a safe and enjoyable carnival season!

summer! and, vacation notice…

hurricane season has officially begun and though we are not yet technically in summer – the solstice is on june 21st – summer weather has certainly arrived already! and now begins the long, sweaty, humid haul til october when the weather takes a turn for the better.

so, a few things:

hurricane season policy: if you are booking a sit with me between now and the end of hurricane season (november 30th), please be aware of my hurricane season policy that i cannot take responsibility for your animals should there be an evacuation called while you are away. please have a plan in place with friends, relatives or your vet. i will do what i can to assist in getting your animals to your evacuation caretaker, but i cannot be responsible for evacuating your pets.

for all dog-walking clients: please be advised that as the temperatures get hotter and the humidity increases, i will adjust the walk times for your pups based on their ability to tolerate the heat and your neighborhood environment (i.e., shaded areas, grass as opposed to hot pavement, etc.). if walks are shortened, though, i will spend the remaining time in your shaded yard or indoors playing with them. they will still get exercise and attention after they have had a chance to relieve themselves, but in a way that is safe and healthy for them. some dogs are more sensitive to the heat than others, so this may not affect all clients, but just know i am always going to do what i think is best for your dog to keep them safe and happy.

schedule: i am pretty solidly booked up on sits through the end of june (with the exception of father’s day weekend, where i still have a few openings), but i do still have availability for fourth of july weekend if you are in need. get to me quick, though, as i’m sure it will fill up.

and lastly, vacation: i will be taking my annual summer vacation for three weeks from saturday july 25th through sunday august 16th. i will resume work on monday august 17th. wags by mags will be closed for business during this time. if you were hoping to book with me in this timeframe, feel free to get in touch and i can give you some referrals to other sitters/walkers who can fill in for me while i’m gone. i appreciate my regulars’ flexibility with my need to take a break!

thanks everyone, and happy summer!

cash.me/$wagsbymags

just a quick announcement to say that wags by mags is now accepting squarecash.

i’ve been searching for a simple electronic way to replace the tedious process of clients paying me by check every week/gig, and i found it! now clients can pay quickly and easily via their smartphone, tablet or even computer by sending payment to: https://cash.me/$wagsbymags. and for me, as a business, the service fees are considerably less than paypal or even using a card reader like square. (only 1.5%)

i don’t get anything for signing anyone up – that’s not the motivation here. the motivation for me is that clients can relax about remembering to leave me checks and have a faster, simpler secure way to pay me. and i have a less annoying way to remind them to pay me and can save all those trips to the bank! also the deposits are virtually immediate. no more waiting til payments clear. so high tech!

feels like a win-win situation. so cash.me/$wagsbymags!

three years!

i realized the other day that i – and by that i mean, wags by mags, LLC – am celebrating my three year anniversary of dog walking and pet sitting full time! i can’t believe it. my how time flies!

i don’t really have a specific day or even month that i think of as an official start to this business, as it was sort of a rolling process over six months. it all began in december 2010, when i was offered a regular gig walking one dog three times a week by a friend who had started a dog walking business but then had decided not to do it; she was looking to pass off a client to someone else. as i was in desperate need of money at the time, i took it, not thinking much of it other than that it would at least be some steady money coming in for little time commitment while i looked for other work. (this was during a particularly low point in my life after a major relationship break-up and my art and writing businesses had dwindled to next to nothing.)

spicy saying goodbye to me on my last day of walking her

spicy saying goodbye to me on my last day of walking her

well, as it turned out, i fell in love with the dog (spicy, an adorable boxer who i continued to walk until just a few months ago) and i started realizing that maybe this was something i could expand upon, make a go of. by march 2011, i had come up with a clever name, designed a logo, business cards and this website, and i was using social media to put the word out that i was doing this kind of work as well as making good use of craigslist to advertise for free. within a few weeks, i had all kinds of clients! it wasn’t an instant 40 hour work week, but it was one or two regular walking clients (that weren’t even friends! total strangers!) and a whole lot of occasional dog walking and pet sitting (mostly friends and friends of friends), enough to make me feel like i definitely had some momentum going with this pet business idea.

a few months later, around may 2011, as fate would have it, some friends knew another dog walker who was moving to hawaii and was looking to place her favorite clients with someone she could trust. our mutual friends hooked us up and boom, all of a sudden, i had a very full schedule! that month i filed the paperwork to make wags by mags official, a legal LLC, and joined pet sitters international and pet sitters associates, two of the more reputable professional organizations in the field, so i could learn more about my profession and also get liability insurance and bonding. (i’ve remained with both organizations and have learned a lot!)

and the rest, as they say, is history!

a rare shot of millie, one of my longtime dog walking clients, letting me love on her

a rare shot of millie, one of my longtime dog walking clients, letting me love on her

i recap all this to explain why i’ll be celebrating my three year anniversary from now through the spring. while i won’t be throwing any big parties (i don’t have a budget for that kind of thing), i do want to acknowledge it as an accomplishment that i’m proud of. three years in this business is nothing to sneeze at, particularly when you work solo, without any employees. burn out is very real in this line of work when you do it full time. it can get very monotonous, day in, day out, spending all your time alone with animals; it can be extremely physically demanding, walking 5-7 miles/day in every kind of weather from extreme heat/humidity to severe thunderstorms to sleet and sub-freezing temps; and it can be frustratingly time-consuming, as the hours can be nonstop when you pet sit at night and on weekends as well as dog walk during work-week daytime hours. i have definitely struggled over the years to maintain a balance of steady 9-5 dog walking clients with occasional night and weekend pet sitting gigs to supplement my income while still leaving enough time for myself to have a personal life of some sort. it’s not easy trying to maintain friendships and/or a relationship when you constantly have to be working nights and weekends, oftentimes overnight, when everyone else is having downtime and being social.

but i think after three years i’m getting a little better at it. the hardest part is learning how to sometimes say no when clients call. i’m a people pleaser – i always want to make people happy, especially if they are regular clients. but i’m learning to sometimes take time for myself, and i’m blessed that i currently have enough work to be able to occasionally say no. (i’m also blessed that my regular clients understand my need to occasionally say no and they continue to come back to me!)

romeo resting his head on my shoulder while i drive

romeo resting his head on my shoulder while i drive

[this seems a good point to interject that i do again have an opening for a daily dog walking client. i thought i had a new client that was starting up this week, but as it turns out, that fell through. so please spread the word that i could use one mon-fri regular walker or a few clients that together would amount to the same (two or three folks who could use me regularly one to three times a week). midcity, downtown, or uptown preferred.]

yes, this job/business has its downsides. but it’s also the best job in the world. i get to hang out with sweet, adorable dogs and cats all day (and sometimes night). i get to make my own schedule. i work for myself. i work outdoors, not in a stuffy office. i get to ride my scooter all day. i get lots of exercise and get paid to do it! i get to see so much of the city i love, experience so many different neighborhoods and architecture, see how so many different people live. it’s fascinating, really. and i’ve met some really wonderful folks who love their animals so much.

i really am just so grateful to have stumbled upon this life, this work. i had no idea what i was getting into when i started, but i’ve learned a lot along the way and have become a better person through it all. so thank you to every single person who has ever hired me to care for their pet – and there are hundreds of you at this point. without you and your trust, i could not be doing this. i could not be having the life i have now, which, despite its ups and downs, is a pretty fucking good life.

here’s to the last three years! and, i’m looking forward to seeing what this next year will bring.

me and pig the pug being silly.

new year!

oh it’s been far too long since i have updated this blog and site. i somehow missed the holiday season entirely, so let me take this moment to thank all my clients for a great 2013 and wish everyone a wonderful 2014! i have a feeling it’s going to be a fabulous new year!

i’m starting the year off with a slow schedule but it is filling up quickly. i’ve just added a new every-day walking client to my roster, starting in february – you’ll be hearing about him soon! – and i will have another repeat client on the schedule every day starting next week through february. that will pretty much fill up my daily dog walking schedule for now. (existing occasional clients will of course be worked in whenever possible.)

i’m still doing sporadic overnight dog sitting, depending on my schedule, and can usually work in non-overnight sits for dogs and cats. but i do ask that you try to book as early as you know your needs, as it’s helpful to me and increases your chances of me being able to do it. i am still a one-woman show here, so there will be times i will already be booked. also, i am trying very hard in 2014 to take time for myself more, not schedule myself to work every single weekend and/or multiple nights in a work week, so that i might try to actually have a life outside of work! i know this will sometimes inconvenience some of my clients, but burnout in this profession is very real and i’m trying my best to avoid it, as i love my job and would like to keep doing it… but also need to work on balancing work and non-work life better.

so, that being said… i won’t be taking any bookings for dog sits (overnight or otherwise) during krewe du vieux weekend (2/15-2/16) or on the nights of muses (2/27) or endymion (3/1), or of course mardi gras day (3/4), as i would like to enjoy some of carnival season with friends. (cat sits i can still manage as long as the visit time is flexible.) my daily walking schedule will be business as usual per client needs.

lastly, i’d like to plug my instagram account again, as that is where i am posting most of my client photos lately since it is easiest to do from my phone. (i still have my wagsbymags facebook page but it’s harder to keep it updated with photos.) the photo below is a screenshot of some of my instagram pics – you can click it or the button to the right to get to my feed.

thanks again, everyone, for your continued support and trust. i love taking care of your adorable pets!

some of my photogenic clients!

some of the many critters in my life!