No Place Like Home

We just used No Place Like Home (NPLH) for the third time, but we will not use them again. We would not recommend anyone use them, and here is our story. We chose NPLH because we thought it would be better for our aging dogs to be taken care of at home instead of boarding them. We have a seven year old Lab and a thirteen year old Beagle that doesn’t get around very well and is hard of hearing. We had used NPLH two times before for two day dog sittings. This time our vacation was for seven days. Everything seemed to be going well; we received nightly updates from Carla our dog sitter. We arrived home around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, our eighth day away from home. When we arrived home we went straight to the backyard to see how our dogs were doing and found an empty yard. We texted Carla to let her know that we were home and our dogs were missing, but she never responded. About thirty minutes later she, and her mom, came walking around the corner where they had parked their car. We thought this was strange because we are three houses from the corner and it doesn’t make any sense why they would park that far away and out of sight. There is no problem with parking in our neighborhood and she has parked in front of our house on other occasions. When Carla and her mom arrived they did not acknowledge that they had received our text message, acting like they just arrived for a schedule visit to feed the dogs. We told them that our dogs were missing and Carla and her mom acted like this was the first time they had heard this information. Carla then stated that she fed the dogs later the night before (10 p.m.) due to her other job running late. She was sure that she had secured the gate. The gate latch sometimes is stiff, so Carla knew that it was important to double check the latch. We live in new construction, so some things like the latch may need adjusting over time. Carla then walked several houses away to call her boss, Jenna. Carla’s mother then seemed to try to take over, she called Clovis animal control but it was after hours and they had not received any dogs fitting our dog’s description. We had never met Carla’s mother before and did not know why she was at the house with Carla. Her mom gave us her card and stated she had a lot of contacts with pet rescue and if we could send her a picture of the dogs she could get the word out to look for them. She also told us that Carla was dealing with personal problems and that is why she was not talking to us. Jenna, the owner of NPLH, called me and said she was sorry that our dogs were missing and asked us if we had a yard service, anyone else that would come to the house or if it was possible that someone may have stolen the dogs. We don’t have yard service and I don’t know why anyone would want a cranky beagle or a lazy lab. We discussed the possibility that Carla had not shut the gate properly due to the fact that she was running late the previous night when she fed the dogs at 10 p.m. and that with the stiff latch she may have forgotten to check that it was secured before she left. Jenna said that if the latch is not reliable then this is our responsibility and it didn’t sound like they were liable or that it was Carla’s fault that the dogs were missing. At this time we were not trying to find fault, we were just trying to piece together a timeline so that we could find out where our dogs were. At no time did Carla or her mother offer to physically look for the dogs. Jenna said she might be able to look for them the next day if she was in the area. Carla’s mother told us that she had to take Carla home because she was having a bad day and this was too much for her. Carla and her mother left around 7:20 p.m. They never volunteered to walk around the neighborhood to help us look for the dogs. We walked our neighborhood until it was too dark to see. We talked to a neighbor who said that someone had been walking around the neighborhood earlier with a black lab that they had found and were looking for the owners. Unfortunately that person did not leave any contact info so nobody knew where he lived. This morning Jenna called and told us that a lab and beagle were turned in to animal control. We called animal control and they were able to scan the dogs and identified them as ours. We picked them up this afternoon when they opened and paid the $90 fee. I let Jenna know through text that we had retrieved our dogs and we were not happy with their service and especially not happy that we had to pay to retrieve our dogs when we think this is their fault, I still have not heard back from her. My account was charged the full amount ($144) for the dog sitting service, including yesterday when the dogs were missing. I know accidents can happen, we all make mistakes, I don’t feel that Carla or Jenna handled this situation well. I did not feel like they were concerned for our pets. They were more concerned about casting blame. For us, this ended well, our dogs are home unharmed and thinking they had a grand adventure. But it could have ended differently, so we would not recommend this company to watch your pets or house because your story may not have a happy ending like ours did.

Great will use again

Brionna from No Place Like Home did an amazing job! And Jenna was a total Professional. Reliable, caring, and affordable. They have our business for good!

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We found No Place Like Home by accident a few months ago while searching the internet for a pet sitter. We contacted the business by email and we had a immediate response from Jenna Bean. We told her what we needed in a dog sitter for our 2 kids.....A male and female Shih Tzu mixes :-). She was so nice and suggested 'Ellen' and that she would be perfect for them and us. Mind you, we are VERY picky when it comes to someone babysitting our dogs. It's that reason why we have not found a pet sitter in 6 years! Ellen came by for the initial 'meet and greet' and the dogs took to her immediately. We then booked an online appointment (love the fact we can book appointments online) for an an hour visit for the first time visit. We came home after that first visit and the dogs were so relaxed and barely gave a 'woof' when they saw us. We knew we made the right choice and that they were in great hands. We knew we finally found our pet sitter and have used them several times since. They're the best!!

Jenna maintained email contact with me during the process. She asked permission before giving out my number to one of her contacts. I will keep her in mind when I need a pet sitter again.

Ms. Bean returned my dog, who had jumped the fence, months ago. We kept in contact, and when I had another dog with an ear infection, Jenna helped me restrain her and clean out her ears. She recommended a vet who had handled this breed of dog, and knew of the ear problems in detail. Since that time, my dog's infection has been cleared up. Previously, we had been to three other vets and the infection persisted.
I realize she runs a petsitting service, and will happily use her in the future for this, but her RVT license makes her invaluable. When she cares for an animal, she cares for the whole animal. Add to that her very energetic, upbeat personality and a lifetime of experience with animals, and in my opinion, this woman is a gift!