The Furry Family

I don’t know what happened. Communication from Marty is not great. It takes a few days to get a response. I set up a meeting for today at noon and waited around for a hour for him to show and no sign of him. No text, no email or no explanation. Really disrupted my day. Not a happy would be customer.
UPDATE:
Marty emailed me an hour and a quarter AFTER he was supposed to be at my place, to say that he no longer services the Fullerton area.
He should have told me that two days ago and it would have freed up my Sunday.

It has taken me 6 months to get over the AWFUL experience with one week of pet sitting enough to write about it. I will keep this brief. We love our 3 pets to the moon and back and the care of them was so far beyond neglect that I can honestly say this was the worst service experience of any kind my husband and I have encountered IN OUR LIVES. The worst part was that she explained away and denied everything. Emily was the person who performed the «service».
When we only had dog walking things were fine so when we went on vacation for 1 week we thought we could trust the service. Couldn’t have been more wrong.
— left 1 weeks worth of cat litter in one plastic bag inside our home for us to find upon our return and replied that she didn’t throw it out to «save plastic» so it could stink up our home for a week and that was ok. Either that or the box was only cleaned once.
— we left instructions to give our dog with anxiety his medication once a day and in her email she stated she gave it to him twice a day. We are lucky he is alive.
— one weeks worth of poop in our yard — never picked up while we were gone. Said she hadn’t «gotten» to it yet.
— caught her in several lies about timing and care.
— blood on our sheets and 1 month old mattress. I’ll leave it at that.
— many more issues that she refused to take responsibility for and blamed on us in one form or another. We gave her two sets of keys — one for her and one for the daily walker. We received one of each back and had to change our locks.
If you love your pets I recommend not using this business,

Marty was a fantastic caregiver for my cat while I was on vacation! She is not very friendly to most people and can be pretty bratty, but she took to him right away! She was fed, her box was cleaned, she got some snuggles and he even watered my plants! I was sent pictures and text updates so I new my kitten was taken care of fully and punctually! I have never felt like my baby kitty was in better hands. If I ever need to travel again I feel like I can trust The Furry Family.

Very disappointed with their lack of communication so far. I was excited to read about Aunty Emily’s business being local and readily available. Her expertise and knowledge seemed vast and her service prices were very reasonable.
I contacted her via email a couple weeks ago, no response. I called and left a voice message and still no response. I’m very sad that Aunty Emily couldn’t even communicate to me that a) she is busy or b) she’s unavailable to take on more clients.

Emily’s service is the first pet service I’ve used as I’ve been hesitant to trust anyone coming into the house, but I figured I better stop bugging my friends to come and feed my cat. I found Emily through Unilocal and based on some online price research I choose to meet with her first. I didn’t even have to interview any other companies! Her and Ian (who would be the caregiver during our one week vacation) were immediately hired based on their all around friendliness, responsiveness to scheduling and flexibility. They proved to be genuine and trustworthy and my not-​so-​friendly cat actually let Ian near her! ;) He texted pics to prove it. We felt very comfortable being away knowing everything was going well at home! I’m booking them again today as we have another vacation coming up in June.

We are so happy we found Emily! She has been such a gift to our furry kids. She is always flexible & very accommodating with our crazy schedule. We are beyond happy with her services!

I had a great experience with Auntie Emily’s service. They were able to fit me in on really short notice, which was much appreciated. They were that great combination of professional and warm. Emily came by to introduce herself and meet my dog beforehand, and I loved her as soon as she walked in the door. She’s the type of person you just want to be friends with :)
She or her partner would come by twice a day for a half hour walk. They would send pictures of my dog on her walk, which I LOVED! She looked so happy and it always brightened my day :)
Thanks you guys, and sorry it took me so long to write this well deserved review!

We have been using Aunty Emily’s Furry Family for several months now after adopting our little Miss Harley from the Fuzzy Pet Foundation in Santa Monica, Ca. We have been very impressed with Emily’s knowledge, professionalism, and overall great service. Emily has been responsive and helpful on all issues around training, grooming, and successfully bringing a new member to our family. We highly recommend Aunty Emily’s company for all your pet services!

And again, here I am singing the praises. I blew my knee out last night and so texted this morning for emergency dog-​walking and within 15 minutes I got a return phone call and it is HANDLED.
What would I do without these people?

If you live in the Long Beach vicinity, you treat your pets just like family, and you are in dire need of a pet caregiver, then Aunty Emily is perfect! Emily & her crew is dependable, caring, & proactive. In a panic, I had to find someone in less than two days to take care of our 4 cats & 2 dogs for a week & a half because our initial petsitter notified us at the last minute that they weren’t able to be there during that time. My other two trustworthy pet/​housesitters were also already out-​of-​town. So my husband found this service. As soon as I met Emily & her assistant at our house, I knew immediately we had made the right decision. This was early September of this year, by the way.
We had no complaints whatsoever. We opted to have one of Emily’s assistants, Ian, visit our house 45 minutes everyday. (You can choose a certain amount of time.) Ian lives closer to us, but I should note that I met both Emily and Ian a day before we left and was told that they would be the only ones taking care of our pets, period. So that of course made me much more comfortable.
If we had any pets on any special medication or regimen, Emily was perfectly qualified being a vet tech herself. Also, per your request they will bring your mail and water your indoor plants as needed. I especially loved the daily text message updates about our pets while we were away.
If they can take care of our crazy, ornery pets then they can handle any furry (& possibly non-​furry) loved one! Did I mention that Aunty Emily is licensed, bonded, & insured?
Review #185

As a Mom of 3 apartment dwelling high maintenance dogs — being away from home for more than 8 hours has always been a huge source of anxiety. Scheduling a weekend away without them… forget about it –unthinkable!
Approx 3 months ago, we began using Aunty Emily’s Furry Family for once or twice weekly dog walking visits and even a weekend away! Best decision I’ve ever made with regard to a pet-​sitter… My three absolutely adore both Ian and Emily! I always know exactly when they’re being visited because I receive text messages/​photos of my babies walking around the neighborhood. They even walk my 3 monsters without charging me an «extra pet» fee. Whenever I return home, my dogs are in a calm/​relaxed state of mind …(even after our weekend out of town). That speaks volumes!
… This is not just a business, but a way of life. Emily Haden spends all of her free time rescuing dogs from the streets and from the shelters. She is a very sincere and compassionate animal lover, and that’s exactly the type of person I want to trust in caring for my three babies when I’m not able to. If you’re looking for a petsitter, you will not find any better than AEFF.

We have moved around quite a bit and used several pet sitting services, but Aunty Emily’s Furry Family literally goes above and beyond. There are so many reasons I would recommend them. I guess I’ll start.
The first time we used Aunty Emily’s service, we were going to be away because I was having our baby and would (obviously) be at the hospital for a while. I was due in early June, but had no idea when we’d actually be needing to go. Usually pet sitters would be hesitant to commit to helping us out because of this, but Aunty Emily’s guaranteed that someone from their team would be there to help us out. I went into labor early and was panicked about that, but even texting them later at night, they had it covered, no problem. The day we were supposed to come home, we found out we had to stay an extra day or two– again, no problem. The second time was when we had to fly to a medical center out of state at the very last minute and were gone for ten days. Did I mention that we are technically out of their service area? They just asked that we tack on an extra couple of dollars each day for gas. Extremely kind and generous, really. They could have just said «sorry, we don’t go there.» We would have been SOL.
Here are some main reasons why I was so impressed:
1) Level of professionalism
I was blown away by the level of professionalism shown by both Emily and her staff. The time between the initial call and the interview in our home had to be at most a day or two. Emily came to my house, (again, even though it was out of her service area,) and brought Shannon, because she wanted to be sure we met and were comfortable with who would be in our house helping watch our animals. (I COULD WRITE ANOTHER FIVE STAR REVIEW JUST ABOUT SHANNON!!) It was obvious they had their business down pat, and for the first time, I felt very at ease with a pet sitter. I think that says a lot that I felt relieved handing a complete stranger from the internet a key to my house and putting the wellbeing of my fur babies in their hands. They gave me a list of policies and knowing that they had a well thought out list of guidelines made me feel secure and trust that our animals were in good hands.
2) Ease of transaction
I love the option of online payment. If you so request, they will send you a link where you can pay for their services online before they begin their visitation. Not to mention, the rates are incredibly reasonable. I often get flustered with complicated small business sites that make you jump through paypal and other hoops, but this was cut and dry, which I really appreciated.
3) Interaction with the pets
Our cats liked Shannon and Emily (well, who knows what cats think.)
Our cats are usually forces of terrible destruction if someone isn’t there all day (I’m a stay at home) but the house was in good shape upon returning, and the cats actually seemed relaxed and happy. «Oh, hey, you’re back.» We used a service in another city we lived in that made me feel guilty for leaving, because our usually happy cats ran and hid under things for a few days after our return, which is never a good sign. (We didn’t use them again.)
4) What you’ll see when you return home, and extras
Their food and water dishes were clean, full, and the litter box had been maintained as well. Shannon was nice enough to not only clean the litter box but to collect our mail and even bring our trash to the curb from the garage and back. I believe they will water house plants, but ours started dying when I got into my third trimester (ain’t nobody got time to water plants when you’re that pregnant) so I’m sure they would have if we had any plants to water
5) The extra mile
First of all, both times we used the service, it was with less than 24 hours notice. Labor, and then a medical trip. No problem. If you allow them to, they keep your key in a secure lock box. That way, if you need to jet out of town unexpectedly, you don’t have to worry about getting them a key. That is another thing– with short notice, Emily wasn’t available one of the days, so Shannon jumped in, or maybe it was the other way around. Great teamwork! I also loved that every day we were gone, we got awesome pictures of the kitties texted to us as well as a short report on how the kittays did that day. It was really fun to get those.
I seriously cannot recommend this company and the ladies we worked with highly enough. From the ease of doing business, to the way you can relax being gone knowing your house and pets are in good hands, to the amicable staff that make dealing with them pleasurable, you will not regret doing business with them, I can pretty much guarantee that.

Emily totally deserves a 10 star rating!
I rely on Emily every weekday to take care of our spoiled little teenager Charlie ;)
We’ve been using Aunty Emily’s service every weekday for 5 months and could not be happier with her service. She treats our dog as if he were her own, and that’s what I appreciate the most!
Emily sends me text messages/​pictures everyday and socializes our pup with other appropriate dogs that are more his size. Before Charlie had all of his shots, Emily would come by and dog sit from our home. But now that he is older he goes for walks with his best buddies that he sees all the time. If I have a concern about something, I just tell Emily and she immediately takes note and changes things if necessary (especially before our pup had all of his shots).
Oh, and did I mention Charlie LOVES Emily. I always hear from our neighbors how Charlie is just crazy excited when Emily comes to walk him. He misses her on the weekends. :)
We are just so lucky to have Emily!

Emily is hands down the best petsitter on Earth ! she is professional, dedicated, passionate, loving… we hired her 3 months ago to take care of our rescue pup Charlie and she is a wonderful break in his day.
Charlie came with physical disabilities and emotional scarring from his day as a stray and Emily has accepted the challenge without blinking… therapy exercises, training follow up, diets… you name it, she’ s done it … And still manages to give some love to our 4 cats… I love getting her texts every day reporting everyone’s mood and activities and a picture of my pooch…
I couldn’t recommend her enough so any pet parent out there ! She is a jewel !

We are so grateful to have found Aunty Emily! Someone that we can trust and love our Abby as much as we do while we are away. At our initial meeting, Abby warmed up to her faster than anyone else she has ever met! Emily sure has a way with animals :) We received text messages, along with pictures of our Abby going on walks and playing fetch each day.
We are planning on calling Aunty Emily again for our trip in December!

Emily took care of my Peanut while I was out of town for a few days. She did everything she said she would and sent me updates & pics each time she came over to spend time with Peanut. It was peace of mind to know my doggy was well taken care of while I was on vacation.

Emily is amazing! Had a last-​minute kitty emergency — leaving for a trip on Friday, kitty not feeling good, vet says she needs daily oral meds and eye drops. Our trip was nonrefundable, our close neighbors and friends were also out of town. I tried several pet sitters, but they either couldn’t get someone over in time or I just didn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling from them. Trip ruined? Nope. Emily to the rescue!
I called Emily and she immediately calmed my panic over the phone. We agreed to meet that afternoon at my place, and she came over (right on time) with a pup she was sitting (she had asked if it was OK in advance). I could tell before she came in how good she was with animals. She was polite, friendly, and easy to talk to. We went over all the needs/​likes/​wants of our furry kids, and I just knew they were in good hands.
Emily texted me photos and updates each day, letting us know how the kids were doing. When we got home, they were much less stressed than they usually are when we leave them alone over night. The only down side is they weren’t as excited to see us. I think they were hoping Emily would come back!
I can’t recommend Emily highly enough. I can go out of town with no worries at all. I know my little ones will be well taken care of and loved in my absence. I just booked Emily for another trip I’m taking next month, and she’s definitely my go-​to sitter from now on.
Thanks, Emily.

Emily is simply the best. She is a person who has found her passion in life and has made a career out of it. She does not treat caring for animals as a chore or job, but rather an exciting part of her life. You could ask for a more caring and honest person to take care of the members of your family.
Its a bit scary trusting someone new with your animals, but Emily quells any anxiety as soon as possible. I have two dogs, and I have no doubt that she spends the quality time that she says she will with each of them. I use Emily to care for my animals when I am going to be away for longer than 8 hours, and its amazing to come home to two pooped animals. She definitely tires them out with the walks she takes them on. You can trust that she is doing what you are paying her for because the results are undeniable.
Emily also does an excellent job with grooming. My dogs got the full service treatment by her (wash, nail trim, teeth clean, glands) and they came back smelling and looking great. She even fulminated the fluffy one! I was comforted to have her tell me that she did not blow dry my one dog when she showed a bit of fear with the dryer, and instead waited as she air dried! Her prices are reasonable and she is more convenient than any other drop off service.
Emily has been a blessing!

Just the best care you could ever ask for. With PLENTY of text messages and photo messages of your little one having party time. It’s really a treat for your pup to be handled and cared for by Emily & Marty & co.

Emily and Melissa were great
My dog does like like people including me – LOL but warmed up to both the girls who did an excellant job with a bath and grooming.
What a pleasurable experience and they come right to the house!
Highly recommended