Paw in the Door
Somehow I have fallen into this world of animals as a career. This is my story about how I got into it after teaching. Long story short, I started out with dog walking and dog/cat sitting. It was quite a risk, but worth it to find what I love doing. It was one of my favorite jobs I have ever done. Who would have thought it would lead me into a whole career in mobile dog grooming? I love it.
At the end, there is a video compilation of some of my dog and cat clients =D
Wag
I started working for wag in 2021 after I had left teaching and was having trouble finding a job during the height of COVID. I ended up using it as an opportunity to go to areas I liked, even though they were far away. I walked dogs near the beach, in Palos Verdes, San Pedro, and Long Beach where I was living at the time. I was also doing Instacart and Shipt, so I would just do whatever job came up first.
Most people that I talk to that have done Wag didn’t have a good experience. However, I love it every single time. Every dog was great and it was super easy. The app desperately needed some updating but it worked fine 99% of the time. It’s been a few years now and I still keep the app on my phone in case random walks pop up that I want to do.
Paw in the Door
Doing Wag opened a door for me to enter the animal industry and community. I was introduced by a friend to a dog walker who also does reiki on animals. We met and she recommended me to her colleagues in the area. That led to meeting the owner of a small, local company for walking/ sitting dogs and cats, as well as doggy day camp.
I was doing that most days while freelancing the rest of the time. I loved all of my dogs and cats, and the humans were great as well, although I didn't see the humans very much. That was the best part actually- no humans! I would just get their key from their lock box and get the dog. Chef’s kiss level of socializing.
One difficult thing to deal with was the death of a client’s pet. There was one house I went to multiple times a week, and they had 2 large dogs and a super old cat. One of the dogs was missing a leg. He was a pitbull named Cesar and he just stole my heart. The cat was really frail but absolutely loved getting attention. She was tiny, didn’t eat much, and had the cutest little meow and purr. I’m not normally a cat person, but when my boss told me the client let her know that she passed away, I was a mess. The next day I still had to go back there to walk their dogs. When I got there, I saw the empty cat post where she stayed most of the time and that made me cry so hard. I was hoping they didn’t have cameras because that would be kind of weird seeing somebody just crying in your house. Then again even if they did see, I’m sure they would have appreciated how much I loved and cared about her.
After a while I still didn’t have enough clients to make a living wage, so I told my boss, and she did what she could to get me more dogs. She was even suggesting putting in a tub at her place where the doggy day camp is so that I can groom dogs there. The tub idea was too complicated, so she introduced me to a grooming salon owner a couple blocks away. I really appreciate her for this, because it showed that she respected me as a person enough to know that I deserved to be somewhere I could live up to my potential.
I ended up interviewing with the grooming salon owner, and got the job as the receptionist. That turned into a bather job because we realized I had a way with the dogs and keeping them calm during grooming. Once I realized I had that superpower, I kept striving to get better, and so my grooming career was born. Although things didn’t work out in the end with that salon, I give it credit for building the foundation of the groomer I am now. I have placed in a grooming competition at this point, and would give most of that credit to my first and last salon I worked at, which will have to be further discussed in another post.
Thank you for reading my posts! Who knows what the next one will be. I’ll see you back here and on my socials.
