Ahwatukee residents Kate McPike and Tracy Zipay have become allies in separate businesses that cater to what they call “Pet parents.”

McPike is the longtime owner and operator of K8’s Pet Care, but has changed her business model and name to K8’s Cats, focusing strictly on felines.

Zipay has an extensive background fostering dogs and working with American Kennel Club Labrador Retrievers and started a business called Pawsitive Pets Sitter LLC.

To ensure her former dog sitting clients are cared for, McPike aligned with Zipay and her new business Pawsitive Pets Sitter. Zipay assumed care for a majority of McPike’s dog owner clients.

Together, they’re planning to introduce themselves to area pet owners with a meet-n-greet at Ahwatukee’s Pet Planet in Mountainside Plaza 10 a.m.-noon Oct. 2.

More than two separate entities, the women say theirs is a partnership with each one there for the other while allowing the opportunity to specialize.

McPike started her business in 2016, shortly after arriving from Texas, where she’d been employed with a pet sitting company. 

“K8’s Pet Care LLC has been very successful in Ahwatukee. It was voted Best of Ahwatukee the past three years,” she said proudly. “I attribute this success to my professionalism, business background, my organization and people skills and, of course, my love of animals.”

 “For the last two years, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to specialize in cats only.  My dilemma was my clients and their dogs. I have a personal relationship with most of them and I’ve come to love their dogs; how could I tell them I was going ‘cats only’?,” she recalled. 

“As luck, or fate, would have it, I was talking to Tracy Zipay one day and she said that she was thinking of going into dog training or pet sitting. I told Tracy if she was interested in going into pet sitting, I would help her and teach her everything I know.”

Zipay learned McPike’s much-acclaimed style of interacting with pet owners.

When she meets with clients, McPike said she explains her policies, and then finds out exactly how the client wants their pets cared for.

“I follow their instructions to the letter,” she explained. “When they return home, they receive notes for each visit I made along with a checklist of duties I carried out according to their instructions.”

For Zipay, a 23-year-Ahwatukee resident, the COVID-19 lockdown prompted her move from fostering to pet sitting.

“I stayed home during the pandemic, and sadly watched and nursed my beloved Aussie mix companion of 15 years, Cami, as she grew older and weaker. I had to put her to sleep last August. She was my only foster fail, which means the only foster I ever kept. I didn’t have the heart to replace her, so I decided to put that love into fostering puppies again.”

She worked with Mesa-based The Farm Rescue. Years earlier, with her two daughters, Zipay fostered dogs and cats for the Humane Society, and as a family they were involved with the Maricopa County 4-H, where she was a certified youth leader in horse and dog projects. 

“Fostering again with The Farm Rescue renewed my love for caring for animals, and when a friend challenged me to consider caring for pets as a living, I contacted Kate. She was a friend who’d been in business for years as a pet sitter with a great reputation, and I approached her to see if I could work with/for her and learn the ropes,” she recalled.  

“Through a great stroke of fortune for me, it turned out Kate wanted to slow down a bit and care for cats only. I love dogs, so it was a no-brainer to work with her on a plan for us to move forward with an alliance,” she said.

“She put all the materials in my way to learn and grow quickly in the best practices of professional sitters,” she said. “She also told me the importance of updating my pet first aid and CPR skills, which I did locally, through an organization called The Frontline Coalition. I started taking courses in pet industry topics, and am working on my Fear Free Pet Sitter Certification, as well as studying animal behavior and joining industry organizations.”

“One thing the pandemic is proving to us is the importance of pets, how they make us happy, how us trying to make them happy just multiplies the effect. As a professional pet sitter, knowing these relationships between pet owners…is so important,” she said.  “In their absence, we’re the ones relied upon to not only make sure the pet is fed, has water, goes to the bathroom, etc., but also maintains the care standard and forms a relationship with the pet ourselves.”

She said pet sitting is not merely “popping in and filling a bowl.”

“It’s filling the void in the animal’s heart when its owner is not there. It’s a huge responsibility, especially when you consider what can go wrong,” she said. 

“Being pet owners ourselves, we know how hard it is to leave pets. There’s so much more that goes into being a professional sitter than just loving pets and being willing to do a favor for your neighbor or friend.”

McPike noted that both she and Zipay “are bonded and insured, background checked, pet CPR/first aid-trained and renewed every two years, participate in continuing education webinars via Pet Sitters International and other pet-specific organizations, and keep up to date on pet-specific topics and trends.”

“We understand that pet parents can be stressed when they leave a pet at home alone and pets can be stressed to be left home alone. One of our many goals is to lessen that stress,” McPike added.

“My promise to my clients is that “I will treat your pets as if they were my own,” she said – to which Zipay added, “And mine, too.”

Information: Yesspet.com for Zipay and K8scats.com for McPike.