About Us
CRITTER SITTER
a local small in-home pet sitting service with a big heart, operating out of Daleville, AL. Our mission is to provide you and your pet excellent loving care with the least disruption, stress and anxiety, while striving to be the very best substitute for you, while you're away. We are dedicated to providing detail-oriented pet care along with outstanding customer service.
We (Jeanne and Tummie) always knew, from personal experience, that domestic animals are not just pets anymore. They are our family members, our children, who provide us with love, companionship, and comfort. We believe that by enriching the lives of our pets, they in turn enrich our lives.
Years ago we noted a lack of quality pet sitting, in the immediate local area: Enterprise, Clayhatchee, Level Plains, Daleville, Ozark, and Dothan, when we needed a pet sitting service. Kennels were just too noisy; boarding them would upset our babies, and cause a great deal of anxiety – both for them and us. We wanted to keep them in their own environment, so we hired pet sitters to come to our home.
The private sitters we hired often left our pets not properly cared for and the house in a state of dirty chaos. Once when came home from a week long trip, to find our precious 14 year-old iguana, Arthur, not only dead in his cage, but decomposing and covered in maggots. The house was in a state of filth and complete disarray: sand and hair all over the floors and furniture. The animals were wild when we got home and had lost weight. We were abhorred!
Knowing she could do much better Jeanne started offering pet sitting services locally in 2000. Tummie helped her whenever she could. Our customers were very satisfied and referred us to their friends, they to their friend, and so on – 'til at last Critter Sitter was born! Tummie joined her full-time in 2008, after she retired from nursing. We are still growing, with over 150 satisfied clients (both human and animal).
We are growing all forms of the business: the client base, our experience, our knowledge base, and more defined standards of care. For the safety of your pets and home, we have training in pet safety, pet CPR, basic first aid, prevention, and emergency preparedness! We carry a complete basic first aid kit. and continually broaden our knowledge base through educational programs, magazine articles and books on the subject of animal health and wellness.
We are trustworthy, dependable and reliable. We are committed to caring for your pets, while providing you with the privacy and security you desire. You are welcome to come visit us and see how we live. Besides that, we can hand you our client book and let you pick out ANY of our clients, past and present, for reference - we're That sure about our work.
We further dedicate our efforts to promote the health and well being of all domestic animals, not only by offering a high quality pet sitting service, but are so passionate about the welfare of all animals, that we donate part of our proceeds to animal rescue organizations – locally and nationally. It is essential to us to support our customers, our community, and our environment.
Jeanne
Born in Baltimore, MD. Studied Early Childhood Development. She has always been very involved with the care of animals, bringing them home if they were sick or homeless, to take care of or make sure they received the care and nourishment they needed. While other kids were baby-sitting, Jeanne was pet sitting. Her passion for caring runs deep, its part of her DNA, and she absolutely loves it. She's always had pets in her life.
In 1996 she and Tummie met on-line. They talked and visited each other frequently, and found that they had much in common. She moved to Daleville, AL and has been here ever since. Together they raised a son, who is now a major in the USAF. He's married and has 2 beautiful children, a girl and a boy. Jeanne has the gift of communicating with animals and is quite the "animal whisperer".
Tummie
Born in Bussum, the Netherlands to an American (Cajun) father and Dutch mother, she grew up in the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain. Her family traveled all over Europe. She attended the Dutch Royal Academy of Pedagogics and graduated with a degree in Education. In 1978 her family moved to Daleville, AL. She decided to come along for a year, but once here, she loved it and resolved to stay here. She's been in this area since then. Not being able to find work as a teacher with her Dutch Education degree, other than substitute teaching, she went back to school. First completed her LPN studies, then worked as an LPN while completing her RN studies. She worked as a nurse for over 30 years. Retired from nursing in 2008. She, too, has always been involved with the care of animals, bringing sick and/or homeless animals home and always had pets- varied from lizards to birds, fish, turtles, dogs and cats.