About Kathy Jarrell, owner of Southern Paws Pet Sitting/Daily Dog Walking

Sadly, we lost Jolene in the fall of that year at 16 ½ years of age. I know most of you reading this know what a loss and heartbreak losing a furry family member can be. My husband and I were devastated, as we don’t have children, she was our baby!

We went several months without a pet and actually thought we would go nuts without having another baby to love. At that time I had met a lady with Standard Poodles. As most people say, I had never seen a poodle that big!! They were so smart and I knew I had to have one! We had made plans to try and find one to rescue as my husband and I both believe there are SO MANY that need a good home, we had to rescue. It wasn’t a month later that the owner I had met called to say she had a black standard that needed a forever home. I went to meet her and fell in love! She reminded us both so much of our little peek-a-poo! So Zelda had found a new home!! She was beautiful!

We had people contact us regarding her having a litter of puppies before we had her spayed and decided that we would allow one litter...a LOT of work, we will never do again, we cried every time a puppy left us!! My husband and I decided after Zelda gave birth to 10 beautiful puppies that we would keep only 1 boy, Hahahaha! Wound up with 2 beautiful boys named Morgan and Hoppy! They were all three the joy of our lives and lived to be 13-14 ½ before we lost them within 3 yrs of each other.

After the loss of Zelda and Morgan, we were contacted by a friend who worked at a local Veterinary office regarding a white 1.5 yr old standard poodle who was brought in to their clinic to be euthanized due to his owner being diagnosed with a terminal cancer. Thank goodness, the vet spoke up and said he would not put down a healthy dog, so we introduced Hogan to our remaining senior, Hoppy (of course, my husband, bless his heart couldn’t refuse my rationale of it was meant to be because Hogan had the HO of Hoppy and the GAN of Morgan!). They became buddies and Hogan seemed to ease the loss of Hoppy’s mom and brother leaving him alone.

Next, we would be blessed with rescuing 2 brothers from a puppy mill situation in Jackson, MS. Buck and I drove to rescue them both as they were so bonded that even the shelter refused to separate them (White & Apricot Standards) to the right Hogan, Clinger and Jackson). Jackson and Clinger as they would be named, brought us to 4 wonderful babies! Sadly, we lost Hoppy at 13 yrs old, only a few months after Jackson and Clinger became a part of our family. A few months after losing Hoppy, I was helping at our local shelter and that’s when Miss Bella, a small black standard poodle, would come waltzing into our lives and became the newest member of our family and a huge Daddy’s girl.

Jackson and Clinger blessed our hearts and lives for 9 and 10 years. We lost Jackson at 9 yrs to Lymphoma (2017), which with treatment allowed us to extend his life by 24 months before we were forced to say goodbye.

Clinger was very sad and no matter how much he loved us, he really missed his brother and we lost him to what our vet feels was just a broken heart only 10 mos after we lost his brother (2018). As you can imagine we were heartbroken again, but as everyone that has loved and lost them will tell you, We wouldn’t have traded the time we had to love and spoil them rotten and the unconditional love they brought to us was priceless!

Hogan, sadly we lost in 2019 at 13.5 to a ruptured tumor on his spleen that took him from us within a matter of seconds.

Lucy, our precious rescue that came from an abusive situation was loved and spoiled for 2 years before we lost her to Liver Cirrhosis in 2020.

JJ, age 13, came to live with us when my husbands mother could no longer care for him. We were blessed to have him with us for 1 yr to spoil and love him to pieces, but unfortunately we lost JJ to Bone Cancer 5/1/19.

Our sweet Bella is now 13.5 and we are blessed she still acts like she’s 2. After a horrible year of going through treatment from a nasal fungus. All those years of digging for moles finally caught up to her causing an environmental nasal fungus.

We currently share our home with 5 rescued Standard Poodles and love them to pieces!

Pictured below L-R are Jasper 19 months , Darla 19months (front) Bella 13.5, Bentley 3yrs and Dylan 4yrs. They are our hearts!

Thank goodness my husband loves them as much as I do, or I’d really be in trouble!!!

I tell you all this to say, we never boarded any of our furry family members. I know there are people that do and have had no problems with boarding; there are some great ones out there! It’s just that I choose not to leave my babies at them.

That being said, our recording business was one of the many small businesses affected by the downward spiral of our economy in 2008 and we began looking at ways to supplement our incomes.

I had been taking care of friends and family’s pets and my husband had said, “The love and passion you have for animals, you should start a pet sitting business”. So I decided to check around to see If there was a need for it in our area by speaking to several sitters I had found that shared with me their experience and encouraged me to start my business.

I thought surely there were people like myself that would love someone to go to their home to love and care for their pets to keep them from dealing with the stress of leaving them at a kennel. While talking with some of my now clients I found that many of them had bad experiences with some of the “uber” like services and even boarding their pets. Either their pet had been hurt, came home ill or with fleas.

Now 11 years later, I am so blessed and thankful to have a thriving pet sitting business that brings me so much enjoyment.

I have over 30 years pet care experience and a passion for making sure all animals entrusted to my company’s care are loved and treated as my own while their families are away from them with Individualized care that their family would give, keeping them on their schedule as close as possible with walks, playtime, feedings, as their families would do. I can say, not to brag, but with pride that our clients will tell you, my company is the best and their pets love us, as much as we do them.

On the business side, My company is Licensed and is a member of the Pet Sitters International (PSI) and our Middle TN Pet Sitters Association.

My sitters are personally trained, insured and bonded. View our staff and their Bio’s on our Meet our Staff Page.

We have the most up to date technology when caring for our clients with daily text/picture updates, GPS tracking with our new online scheduling system, you can request dates/make changes to reservations, etc.

Thank you for taking the time to visit us and please if you have ANY questions, don’t hesitate to call/text or email me!

We look forward to caring for YOUR furry family member(s)!!!!

Kathy

Welcome to our Website! Let me give you some insight to
my life and why I started my business.

183 Clearview Cir
Hendersonville, TN
37075

Contacts:

OFFICE: (615) 293-8087

kathy@southernpawspetsitting.com

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