Welcome to my local and personal pet care service – providing home visits to your small animals while you are away.
About Me
I’m Kat, and I have a passion for providing good and ethical animal care.
I was lucky enough to grow up with a whole menagerie of pets around me, and have more than 10 years’ experience of working with domestic animals.
Straight after college I completed a Level 2 Animal Care Apprenticeship while working with my mum, and helping to run our family pet care business, ‘Home or Away Petcare’ based in Hampshire.
My family’s business successfully ran for 12 years from 2007. Together we covered all types of pet care, including home-from-home dog boarding, doggy day care, dog walking, cat visits, and small animal boarding at our home, or visits in their own home.
This gave me plenty of experience in running a successful and comprehensive pet business – and I particularly loved the wonderful friends (both human and animal) and fun stories that resulted from my time working in pet care.
What inspired this service
These fond experiences inspired me to start this more specified version of the original here in Devon, now called ‘Walkham Valley Pet Care’ as a nod to the beautiful local area we live in.
I have always felt an affinity to our domestic animals, and while working with my family pet care business I particularly took an interest in learning about the best care for our smaller animals such as Cats, Hamsters, Rabbits and Guinea Pigs – and have owned these animals myself. Therefore, my pet services with Walkham Valley Pet Care are specifically focused around visiting small pets within their own homes in the local area.
Follow along on the Walkham Valley Pet Care Facebook page, where I’ll share updates about the pets in my life, and will aim to provide interesting information about some of the knowledge and facts I’ve learned along the way:
The specific idea for small animal pet care first arose when looking around for services to come and feed my two piggies while I was away. I wanted a trustworthy option to save uprooting them every time we wanted to travel on holiday, visit family or friends for the weekend, or even just have a night away.
Preparing for holiday can be busy enough, without worrying about pet care and transporting pets and their essentials to a temporary home – so the aim is to provide a service that gives a solution, and creates less stress for the animals and the humans involved!
Further Experience and Education
After my time with Home or Away Petcare, I completed a Level 3 Business Administration Apprenticeship and worked in several different admin jobs learning valuable transferable skills.
This included a role as a Veterinary Receptionist where I completed the BVRA award to become an accredited Veterinary Receptionist.
My passion for animals didn’t subside, and led me back to education, successfully completing a BSc Applied Animal Science Degree with First Class Honours in 2022. This course was fantastic, and covered a wide range of topics, including Animal Behaviour, Animal Husbandry, Anatomy & Physiology, Nutrition and Animal First Aid.
I even had the exciting opportunity to complete work placements at some local zoos’, getting the chance to experience the husbandry of some more exotic animals than my usual – from meerkats, otters, owls and coati, to lemurs, tapir and giraffes!
Now
I have since worked from home, part-time, as a charity administrator for a couple of small, local, conservation charities – but now I’m going back to my roots to focus on pet care once again.
This is all further inspired by my own wonderful critters who keep me company at home – my two Guinea Pigs (Autumn & Mabon), Hamster (Luna) and little Dog (Spirit)!
My Aim
I am passionate about running a pet care service especially for small animals in the local area, visiting them in their own homes – allowing people to go away safe in the knowledge that their beloved pets would be comfortable and secure in familiar surroundings, whilst still receiving all the care they require.
As a conscientious pet owner myself, who has great attention to detail, and cares about animal welfare, I understand just how important it is to know that your animals are properly taken care of while you are away. I am fully insured and qualified, and would be honoured to be trusted with your much-loved pets.
If you would be interested, please check out the Services and Prices on offer, and feel free to get in touch:
kat@walkhamvalleypetcare.co.uk
I look forward to meeting you and your delightful pets soon!