Welcome to the wonderful world of Grand-Paws Pet Sitting Services. If your "furry kids" could tell you how much they want to remain at home while you are on holiday, or away from home for long hours, they would.

What exactly is in-home pet sitting? In-home pet sitting by Grand-Paws Pet Sitting Services provides your "kids" with a bonded and insured companion, coming to your home to feed exercise and care for them throughout the day and evening. Our background checked companions will lovingly keep the "kids" on their daily routine of playtime and medication (if needed) as well as safeguarding the household.

Grand-Paws Pet Sitting Service also offers mid-day dog walking for those who work long hours away from home. Your personal dog walker will be there to "take a spin around the block," to stretch those doggy legs, and take doggy potty breaks. Companionship for the "home alone" kids is our goal.

Grand-Paws Pet Sitting has been locally owned and operated by Pat Ramm, a leading professional pet sitter for over 21 years. Her staff of bonded and insured pet sitting companions are either moms and dads, or grandmothers and grandfathers.

Grand-Paws services the entire Johnson County area. It offers an affordable per visit charge that includes all we do. There is never any hidden charges or a holiday surcharge.

Grand-Paws has been a featured pet sitting service in the Kansas City Star, and one of the oldest members of Pet Sitters International. We are proud of the fact that we are one of the oldest members of Pet Sitters International. We are proud of our excellent rating with the Greater Kansas City Better Business Bureau.

Johnson County is the newest location of Grand-Paw's Pet Sitting Services, Inc. Owner and founder, Pat Glazer-Ramm, a native Kansas Citian, will personally head one of her largest services exclusively in and for Johnson County. A national animal care consultant, she has started services in Tennessee, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and New York.

Grand-Paw's offers its clients a variety of customized services for their pets.
These services include pet care for the holiday bound family, pet care for those "latch-key" loved ones.

Each of Grand-Paw's caregivers are personally schooled by Mrs. Ramm in the art of pet sitting and home security.
All caregivers are then bonded and insured for your peace of mind.

Pet sitting in your home for the discerning pet owner.

913.663.4624

IN THE NEWS

"EXCERPTS FROM THE KANSAS CITY STAR MAGAZINE" Oct 3, 2010

For Pat Ramm, pet play becomes serious business

CINDY HOEDEL, The Kansas City Star
Pat Ramm, owner of Grand-Paws Pet Sitting Service in Overland Park (www.grandpawsinc.com ,
913-663-4624), has been in the pet-sitting business for more than 20
years, providing in-home visits to pets whose owners are at work or out of town. This
conversation took place where Ramm and her dog, Little Andy, had their picture taken.

What do you do on a typical pet-sitting visit for a dog whose owner is gone during the day?
We come at midday and take the dog for a walk, give it treats and play with it until it is tired.

How much do you charge?
Our rates range from $14 to $16 a visit. The visit lasts from 30 to 45 minutes.

What do you do for pets whose owners are out of town?
We come morning, midday and evening, or as many times as the client wants. Typically, kitty
cat owners have us come just once a day.

Do you take care of other kinds of pets besides cats and dogs?
Yes — birds and reptiles.

Tell us about Little Andy.
He is a 6-year-old Bernese mountain dog.

Let me try to guess how much he weighs — 130 pounds?
You are so close. He’s been on a diet, and he’s down to 124.

You told me that Andy goes pet-sitting occasionally. Why?
I have some clients whose dogs can’t get out or the clients are shut-ins. So Andy socializes with
the other dogs and plays with them and shows them good manners.

Give us an example of good dog manners.
Andy knows when he takes a treat to take it very gently from the hand. He doesn’t bite your
hand. And other dogs learn that behavior from Andy because he is so large, and he is an alpha
(dominant) dog.

How did you get the idea for your company?
In the late ’80s I was living in Chattanooga, Tenn. And I was looking for a career change. I had
always had pets and loved pets, so I started taking care of other people’s pets and decided to do it
permanently. My husband had just become a grandpa, so I thought “grand-paws” would be the
name for the company. It caught on so quickly I had to look for help.

Who did you hire?
Some of my friends, but I still had them background-checked. I am also a national pet-sitting
consultant, so I help other people start their service.

How many people do you have doing pet-sitting for you and what areas do you service?
I have 12 sitters that service all of Johnson County.

What kind of people are your pet sitters?
They are all over 21 years old, background-checked, bonded and insured. Also, I have them take
a personality test.

Why?
I want to make sure that even if they are above reproach, that this person really likes pets. When
I get the personality report back, I can tell if someone is a pet person. They have to be, because
many people view their pets almost as children, so we are there no matter what. If it’s 110
degrees, if there is black ice, if it’s midnight and there is an emergency — we’re there.

What kind of emergencies come up?
A lot of our clients, when they go on vacation, leave through the garage door. They know to
leave the front door keys, but sometimes they forget and lock the storm door and the sitter can’t
get in. So we call the owner and either the neighbor has a garage door opener or there is a keypad
code that will get us in.

We’ve also had air-conditioning breakdowns in the heat of summer. So we call the client and
they tell us who they want us to call to make arrangements for the repair. We will wait for the
repair person to arrive, or we have even taken pets to our home until the repair is made.
We’ve also gone out during tornado warnings to get dogs who like to stay in the backyard and
bring them indoors to safety.

Who are your typical clients?
We have many career people who are gone all day and career people who travel. We also have
clients in assisted living facilities who can’t clean the litter box or walk a dog.

Tell us about some of the more memorable pets you have cared for.
There was a school teacher who brought home a family of mice over the Christmas holidays. I
had to report on all the mice. There were PVC toys and little Ferris wheels for them. It was very
interesting.

Do you care for dogs that have behavior problems?
Some rescue dogs have issues. The owners tell us what the issues are, and we try to help them
work through them.

What kinds of issues?
A lot of rescue dogs don’t like men, so we assign them to women sitters.

Without naming names, tell me about some interesting owners you’ve dealt with.
I have one lady who has us cook dinner for her dog. She has it prepared, and we either bake it or
microwave it at dinner time. I’m not sure what’s in it but it usually looks like a tofu mixture or a
hamburger mixture, with carrots and apples.