Owner and General Manager, Billie Jo Graeff

I began working with pets as a favor to friends and coworkers about ten years ago, during my life as a gourmet grocer (Whole Foods). It didn’t take long for word to get out. Soon, pet-related favors took up the Great Dane’s share of my personal schedule. When eventually I asked myself why (when one spends the majority of one’s social time with dogs, one does, eventually, ask oneself why), I had to admit that being with animals — working with them, getting to know them, tending to their needs — was possibly the most fulfilling “work” I’d ever done.

Coincidently, right at about that time, I met a real dog walker, a pet professional, and saw in her face what I felt in my heart: pet care is great work! People who do it (and love it) have a leg up (often several legs up) on the rest of us. Why not join them? I couldn’t come up with a good reason not to leave the grocery world behind.

I went pro gradually, working with the master dog trainer and all around animal mensch, Alison Smith. Eventually, Alison agreed to sell me a portion of her business and Walk-n The Dog was off and running. Over the past three years, I have developed Walk-n The Dog into a thriving business with more than eighty clients. I employ two handlers, Roxanne Seraphin and Lucie Swan, to help me with the ever-increasing load. They are knowledgeable, experienced, and highly skilled — in short, magnificent.

Which of course is critical. Caring for pets, like caring for children, requires skill and commitment but also a certain native ability, and both Roxanne and Lucie have that in spades. They (we) love animals, and are therefore happy as clams to provide the kind of home-away-from-home care they need when you’re not around.