Policies

Pawsatively Golden Pet Care, LLC runs background checks on all potential Pet Butlers as well as checks references, completes in-person interviews, undergo on-the-job training, to include hands on and formal education to expand their expertise to provide the best care for your pet. Our Pet Butlers must have an obvious strong affinity for animals of varying types & have a vocation in the pet industry to be considered. Their experience ranges from personal, volunteering with animal rescue groups or shelters, to professional, training, grooming, vet technician, previous animal caretaker positions, &/or possession of pet Pet Butler certifications. All our staff is reliable, trustworthy, professional, and in possession of various certificates, with pet first aid and CPR being a requirement. Once a Pet Butler, our Pet Butlers and dog walkers are required to take a monthly mini course.

We carefully consider who will work well with each pet. While all our Pet Butlers love
animals, we understand that people & animals need to accept each other too. If, for
whatever reason, you want to try another Pet Butler, let us know & we will be happy to
accommodate!

You may not have the same Pet Butler each & every time, especially when it comes to holiday scheduling. However, we do try to keep clients with the same Pet Butler whenever possible.

Each client has a Pet Butler who attends the required in-home consultation to meet you and your pet(s), designating that Pet Butler as your “primary.” A backup Pet Butler may be used if the primary Pet Butler is unavailable when a request for future services is made. The client may choose to meet the backup Pet Butler before they fill in for scheduled service for a fee, or the client can rely on Pawsatively Golden Pet Care, LLC to ensure the right backup is assigned. We work as a team & all our staff are professional & skilled.

At Pawsatively Golden Pet Care, our consultations are designed to ensure that our services are the perfect fit for your family—two- and four-legged members alike! While we’re confident in matching your household with the right Pet Butler, we also understand that sometimes pets and people simply don’t click. If that happens, we’ll gladly arrange a follow-up consultation with a different Pet Butler at no additional cost. Our team is highly attuned to animal behavior, but we trust you to know your pet best—so please don’t hesitate to speak up if something feels off.

What to Expect at Your Consultation

Each consultation includes a visit from your Lead Pet Butler and a designated Backup Pet Butler. This allows your pet(s) to meet both caregivers in a low-stress environment, ensuring comfort and familiarity no matter who provides the service.

During the consultation, we will:

• Observe your pet(s) in their home environment
• Evaluate temperament and behavior
• Conduct a full walk-through (if requesting overnight care)
• Discuss routines, medical needs, and enrichment preferences
• Review policies and procedures
• Confirm booking times and service details
• Go over the Time to Pet client portal

All consultations are billed at the rate of a 60-minute drop-in. If you require additional time, a longer consultation can be arranged in advance.

To request a consultation:

• Visit www.pawsativelygolden.com
• Navigate to the “Clients” tab
• Complete and submit the New Client Intake Form

Within 2 business days, a member of our team will contact you to schedule a brief phone consultation. This initial call helps us better understand your pet’s specific needs and allows you to disclose any special circumstances or behavioral concerns. Based on that conversation, we’ll determine whether we are the right fit for your family and proceed accordingly.

If we accept your intake form, you’ll receive an activation email with instructions to set up your client portal. Please note: portals must be completed and a credit card must be on file before services can begin.

Additional Consultations & Special Requests:

If you’d like to meet a fill-in or secondary Pet Butler, we encourage you to submit the request at least 5 days prior to your service start date to allow time for coordination. There is a fee for additional consultations unless:

• The originally assigned Pet Butler was not a good match.
• The change is due to an emergency or illness.

Should you move or welcome a new pet into your family, a new meet & greet will be required. This visit ensures we understand the new layout and routine and that your pet’s care continues seamlessly. Standard consultation rates apply.

Pawsatively Golden Pet Care, LLC has minimum visit requirements for the safety of your pets. We promise to always provide quality care that your pets need to thrive. We do not cut corners and your pet’s health and safety are our top priorities. The minimum visit requirements only apply if the pet parents will not be home at any point between our visits.

• For our free-roam dog clients, we need to check-in at least twice daily for 30 minutes, once in the morning and once in the evening, though we highly recommend adding a third drop-in service to allow for a midday potty break. If we have noticed that the pet is not doing well without the midday drop-in via leaving messes throughout the house or showing extreme anxiety, we will be contacting you to let you know we need to add another drop-in.
• Crated dogs & dogs under 1 year require a minimum of 3 daily drop-ins, 30-minutes
  each.
• Very young puppies and kittens will require more, and we will address this along with your needs during the consultation.
• Cats & caged pets in our care require a visit at least once every 24 hours.
• Horses, goats, chickens and other “range” pets need to be checked on at least twice daily for a minimum of 30-minutes each. If we are mucking stalls, increase these to hour visits. The number of range pets & responsibilities may cause minimum durations to increase.

Our minimum visit requirements are to ensure the health & safety of your pets while you are away and cannot be amended.

Rates may increase throughout the year to keep current with industry standards, taking our certifications, continuous education, and experience into consideration.

Base pricing is based on the service duration, experience and expertise, type of service, and type of pet with the highest applicable pet rate as the base price. Example: “John” has a puppy, an adult dog, and a cat. His base price will be based on the puppy rate.

Additionally, if a client’s account has gone inactive for 6 months or more, the client will come back into “Active” status at current rates with no exceptions.

We require 25% deposits at the time of booking for all overnight stays and services of 5+ days of drop-ins. Payments are due in full 3 days prior to service, except for holidays which have special instructions (see next section).

If payment is not made before services are scheduled to begin, your services will be
terminated unless something was previously worked out with the office.

Payments are made through the app, Time To Pet, using Stripe to process the payment. We do not store your credit card information-it is stored by Stripe on their servers. Additionally, a credit card has to be on file and vaccines up to date in order to place a service request.

For holidays and other peak seasons, a non-refundable deposit of 50% is due at time of booking, or 6 weeks before the scheduled holiday service if you book months in advance, to secure your reservation. The remaining balance will be charged to your card on file approximately 3 weeks before the start of services.

The following are the times we charge extra for:

• Easter: Friday, Saturday, Easter Sunday, & Monday
• 4th of July
• Labor Day Weekend: Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Monday
• Memorial Day Weekend: Friday, Saturday, & Sunday
• Thanksgiving Week: weekend before, week of, and weekend after holiday
• Christmas & New Years: The Friday before Christmas week – Jan 2
• Father’s Day
• Mother’s Day

If payment is not made in full by the due date and no effort has been made to contact the office, your holiday services will be cancelled with no refund or credit and you will be dismissed from our services. *

Scheduling is on a first-come-first-serve basis & we do not overbook. We will do our best to accommodate last-minute service requests, but it is based on availability. Any services, including overnights, booked within 24 hours of the requested service will incur a last minute booking fee.

Holiday bookings made within 7 days of the holiday period incur a last minute booking fee.

“After hours” is considered anything before 8am and after 8pm. If your pet requires
medications outside of those times, your fee will be waived.

Example 1: You have overnights coming up and you want your Pet Butler arrive at 6am because you have to leave by 3am to catch a flight, you will incur an after-hours fee.

Example 2: You only need drop-in services but your pet has a heart condition and needs meds at 7am, the after hours fee will be waived for that service.

Overages in payment will be given to the Pet Butler as a tip unless it is specifically stated by the client that it is intended to go towards something else. Pet Butlers receive 100% of their tips so if you think your assigned Pet Butler did a great job, please consider leaving them a tip!

Additionally, our system defaults to automatically apply a 20% gratuity to services. If you wish to change or alter this, you will need to change the settings in your portal. You may visit the Time to Pet app to do so. To access this area, navigate to the “My Info” section of the Client Portal on the right-hand side of the screen, there you can add or adjust their Automatic Tip amount. This flat rate or percentage will be automatically added to invoices created after the Automatic Tip is added. Clients can adjust this amount anytime by clicking the pencil icon next to “Auto Tip” and changing the amount and/or type. Then, they select the percent (%) sign for a percentage or the dollar ($) sign for a flat rate amount. Once they have entered their desired Auto Tip amount, they click the floppy disk icon to save.

Tips for Cancelled Services: When services are cancelled on an invoice containing a tip, that tip will remain where it is on the invoice. To remove the tip from the invoice, you can do so manually by clicking the “Edit” icon next to the tip, changing the tip amount to $0.00, and saving your changes. If the invoice has already been paid, the tip will be moved to the client’s open payment balance, which you can then apply to another invoice.

The time of our first arrival will be discussed at the time of booking. Your Pet Butler will be in and out for the day, adjusting their schedule to accommodate the type of overnight you have requested. For our basic overnight service, your Pet Butler can leave for up to 6 hours at a time, for approximately 11 hours total. For TwilightWatch services, we will do our best not be gone from the home for more than 3 hours at a time, but will be gone approximately 6 hours total.

Overnight services conclude at 9 AM the last day of scheduled service. If we are needed beyond 9 AM on the last day of scheduled service, this is extended care, and you will be charged an additional fee. Please keep in communication with your Pet Butler. If you are held up or delayed for any reason, let us know so that we may make the proper adjustments needed.

If you are out of town we require to be notified when you get home. If we do not hear from you, we will continue services to the best of your ability and you will be charged accordingly. Note that if you were getting overnights, there is no guarantee that we will be able to continue overnights during peak seasons so visits may be turned into drop-ins. This is something we have put into place for those who may have flights cancelled and may not be in a location where they can contact us. If we are not notified that you are home, and we come back and you are home, you will still be charged for that visit.

At Pawsatively Golden, we know how important it is for your pets to be cared for on time, and we always do our best to accommodate preferred visit times. To ensure fairness for all clients and account for scheduling logistics, we operate within a two-hour arrival window rather than guaranteeing exact times.

Exceptions are made for pets with medical needs that require care at a specific time. These clients always take priority over other clients. Otherwise, visits may begin anytime within the scheduled two-hour window. This approach allows us to balance the needs of all pets in our care, while accounting for factors such as traffic, weather, medications and unexpected circumstances.

We appreciate your understanding as we work to provide the best care possible for every client and their pets.

We understand that plans can change, and we always strive to be flexible. However, when you book services with us, you are reserving dedicated time with one of our trained Pet Butlers. That means we often turn away other clients in order to honor your reservation. Last-minute cancellations limit our ability to fill those spaces and directly affect our staff’s livelihood. Please note that all holiday information is provided in a separate document titled “Holiday Information & Cancellations.”

To balance fairness for our clients and protection for our team, our cancellation policy is as follows:

7+ Days Before Services Begin

• Cancellations made at least 7 days in advance will receive a refund. If you’ve placed a deposit, it will be credited back to your Pawsatively Golden account for use on future services.

2–6 Days Before Services Begin

• Cancellations made 2–6 days before services start will receive a 50% refund.
• If payment for your services has not yet been made you will be billed for the other 25% of the total service cost to meet the policy requirements.

Within 48 Hours of Services

• No Refunds / No Credit
• Cancellations made less than 48 hours before the start of service are non-refundable and not eligible for credit.

Why We Have This Policy

• Protecting Our Pet Butlers’ Time: When you book, your Pet Butler reserves that time exclusively for your pets. Last-minute cancellations mean lost income they cannot easily replace.
• Fairness to All Clients: Many families request services during peak times. If a slot is canceled too close to the scheduled date, we cannot rebook it for another client who needed care.
• Consistency with Industry Standards: Professional pet sitting and pet care companies nationwide uphold similar cancellation structures (often 7+ days for full credit, partial refunds in the mid-window, and no refunds within 48–72 hours). This ensures stability and fairness across the industry.
• Sustainability of Service: These guidelines allow us to continue providing the high-quality, reliable, and compassionate care your pets deserve.

Pawsatively Golden Pet Care, LLC requests all new clients use a lockbox for us to access their homes. Lockboxes provide you with the peace of mind that last-minute care is possible when no key exchange was made. This way, our staff will have immediate access to your home in the case of an emergency. The code for the lockbox can be updated as often as you like, just let us know the code when you need our services. You can use an existing lockbox you already have, purchase a new one, or have Pawsatively Golden Pet Care, LLC ship a lockbox to you for a fee, which includes our admin processing fee. Lockboxes are not required but are highly suggested to ensure smooth and secure access to your home without the need for key handovers.

The first time you request services, simply place two keys inside the lockbox & securely hang it from a designated area (usually an access door). It is your responsibility to contact Pawsatively Golden Pet Care, LLC and give us your lockbox code & location to ensure our staff can enter the premises. After the service is over, unless you notify us that you want your key returned, a single key will be kept on file with us. If you choose not to keep keys on file with us, your Pet Butler will return your keys to the lockbox before departure. If at any point you want your key back we can deliver it in-person for a fee to compensate for our staff’s time. Any keys we need to create on your behalf are subject to a fee.

If Pawsatively Golden Pet Care, LLC cannot gain access to your home for any reason, you will be notified, & we will contact a locksmith to access your home if there are no alternative means to gain entry. Ideally, we would contact your emergency contact who would be able to let us access the home, but if they are not local, you will then be subject to the cost of the locksmith plus our staff’s time, when applicable. This is why it is so important to have an emergency contact within walking distance.

If you have keyless entry & do not wish to provide keys, keep in mind if there is ever a power outage or the unit has a low battery or malfunctions, our staff will not be able to access your home. Again, you will be notified, & a locksmith will be called if there are no other means of entry to care for your pets. You will be subject to the cost of the locksmith and our staff’s time, when applicable.

In the event you want us to keep keys on file, keys are stored in the office in a lockbox with a randomly generated number corresponding to the client’s account. No identifiable information will be stored with the keys. If you require pick-up and drop off for FOBs, a fee will be applied to your upcoming invoice for the Pet Butler to accommodate your request.

*Please see the “Emergency Contacts” section.