Pet Sitters are entrusted with your fur or feathered kids, and your home. It’s an awesome responsibility. Pet Sitters International honors a select few for going above and beyond. 

      “I get love at work everyday; how many people can say that?” says Darlene Ehlers of Cleves, OH, the 2006 Pet Sitter’s International Pet Sitter of the Year. “It’s gratifying to me, but I get so much more back in return. You can’t get that at your typical corporate job.”

      It’s unlikely that the person in the next cubicle is as happy to see most people at work as the dogs and cats are to see Ehlers. And no wonder, she gives most of her clients’ toys.

      She says, “I’m surprised to have won (the Pitter of the Year honor), I suppose the fact that people know they can depend on me, and that I’m organized has something to do with it.”

      Still, the unexpected can happen – even to the most organized. Once she set her keys and cell phone down in the owner’s house, went into the garage with the three dogs in her care and closed the door behind her. Now, she had no way out.  She didn’t panic. Turned out panicking would have been a waste of time. One of the dogs stepped on a garage door opener. At first, she had no idea how the garage door even opened.

      Ehlers, 52, has been pet sitting for nearly ten years. Ehlers was in charge of auto finance distribution and lease contracts for Reynolds & Reynolds for several years, and before that was a manager at a doctor’s office. She was still employed at Reynolds & Reynolds when she saw a magazine story on pet sitting and then picked up the book “Pet Sitting for Profit,” by Patti Moran (founder of Pet Sitters International).

      “I was never the kind to make impulsive decisions, but being with animals all day sounded fun,” she recalls. In 1997, she began to pet sit part time; making it her full time career in 2002 after the death of her mom. On the same day of her mother’s funeral, an orange cat just showed up at her home with a huge hole, presumably a bite wound. It took months for vets to repair. She named the cat Jasper.

       Ehlers, who had been her mother’s caretaker says, “I really believe my mom sent me Japser so I had someone to take care of.” Well, today, she also has three other cats and two dogs, an Australian shepherd and an English springer spaniel. She’s married to Ron Ehlers, an engineer, and has two step daughters.

      There were four other finalists chosen by judges for the contest to name the Pet Sitter of the Year. One of those finalists was Gail Keener of Fort Mill, SC. She’s been pet sitting for eight years, and this is her third time around in the top-five. After working as an executive in the corporate world, and being down-sized, she says wanted to have more control over her own destiny. “And I thought it would be wonderful to work with animals, maybe preferring that to working with people in some ways.”

      And with one exception, she turned out to be right. That exception was the one job she said ‘no’ to, pet sitting for a humungous snake. “My only rule is that I won’t care for anything that can eat me,” she says and laughs.

      “Pet sitters have the best stories in the world,” she adds. “I can’t tell you how many times I crawled through doggie doors in order to get inside. Once as Y2K was approaching an eccentric teacher didn’t tell me she had changed all the locks. No one had the new key. I had to get inside to give heart medication.” She called a locksmith and she was able to inside the home without doing any damage to the doors.

      Her toughest job was this past year, caring for a 16-year old cat named Casey. He had been ill, but seemed to rally some before the owners were scheduled to leave town. So, they departed. Casey again fell ill, and this time appeared to be dying, given his various medical conditions and a confirmation from a nurse practitioner and the vet. The owners asked that he be allowed to die at home since it seemed he was in no pain. Keener remained by Casey’s side until the end came. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” she says, attempting to contain her emotions.

      Taking classes in pet CPR has paid off. She’s actually saved several pets’ lives. On one occasion, a golden retriever named Barney was just walking along fine one moment, then stumbled, in seconds blood was trickling from his mouth and he arched his back as if in pain, and had some diarrhea. She instantly sprung into action by jumping into the street, flagging down a car (“He pretty much no choice, either stop or hit me,” she recalls) and high tailing it to the vet’s office. It turned out that Barney had a pulmonary embolism. Her quick response probably saved his life.

      Keener, 54, is married, has two cats, and three dogs, all rescued: Sally B, a nearly 15-year old Bassett hound; Winston, a 13-year old Lhaso apso and a 2 year old shih tzu named Pinky. “I was shopping around at the pet store, and this woman was complaining about the disposition of the dog and that her husband is demanding she find another home for her. “I made it out the door as far as the parking lot. I also heard her say, she’d give the dog to the pound if she had to,” says Keener.  “I went right back into the store and took Pinky home with me.”

      Keener adds, “When I was a very little girl, I remember telling my mom I had a destiny. I always thought I had, but never knew what it was. Now, I know.”

      The three remaining finalists: Denise Cagle, Columbia, SC; Debra Milton, Douglasville, GA and Jill Nuciolo, Rochester, NY.

      In full disclosure: I was one of three members of the selection committee chosen to pick the top Pet Sitter based on the five finalists. The other two judges were Bud Most, national events manager for the Iams pet food Company and Dr. Rolan Tripp, founder of The Animal Behavior Network.  Our committee was charged with identifying the candidate who most embodied excellence in pet sitting.