All About Alitia & Joshua

On This Page:
How We Met | How Our Pet Sitting Business Was Born | Why PetSittingOlogy

Hello! We are Alitia (pronounced uh-leash-uh) and Joshua and we know the importance of investing your time and money wisely, and appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about us with you.

We met quite accidentally online through Myspace in October, 2006 (you remember Myspace, right?). We say 'accidentally' because, really, neither of us were using the social network to find a soul mate.

How We Met: In Our Own Words

Alitia and JoshuaJoshua: Alitia first made contact by sending me a note through Myspace saying 'how familiar I looked...'

Alitia: This was not at all a line! I really thought you looked familiar.

Joshua: To me, it's still a line, but who cares?! Lines are OK to break the ice. And this one worked.

Alitia: (softly) It still wasn't a line...

Joshua: OK. So we chatted back and forth a handful of times before thinking I should ask her out. Why not, right?

Alitia: Right. Why not...

Joshua: We set a date for a few days later and I suggested we go to one of my favorite lounges.

Alitia: He sends me a link to check out the place and, from what I could tell, it looked a bit too fancy for a first date. So instead of saying that a fancy lounge may be a bit much for a first date, I let him know that it's a bit difficult for me to get to (I was taking the train in to NY from NJ).

Joshua: Right, so I go back to the drawing board and find another lounge more conveniently located. For the record, it turns out the original suggestion isn't fancy or stuffy at all. They just seem to have bad photos online!

Alitia: We meet up on a rainy evening at a place called 'Dip.'

Joshua: Which we found out is no longer in business.

Alitia: We wound up chatting for so long that we didn't even notice the place closing around us. The bouncer had to come over and let us know they were closing.

Joshua: It was a great night. After we left, I walked her to the train station and two years later, we were married.

How Our Pet Sitting Business Was Born

at the coffee houseJoshua: When Alitia and I first met, I was working at a coffee house and she was a nanny.

Alitia: A live-in nanny, no less, for a family in Connecticut. So we only got to see each other on the weekends.

Joshua: Every Friday, I would meet her at Grand Central Station and we made the most of our little time together.

Alitia: Monday morning I'd be back on the train having to spend another long week at work.

Joshua: You can imagine how tiring this became as our relationship grew stronger.

Alitia: You're telling me!

Joshua: Yea, you were the one doing all that traveling. This is when I knew something needed to change. I wanted to be able to spend more time with Alitia.

Alitia: Isn't he sweet?!

Joshua: At the time, I was also learning the ropes of the pet sitting industry working for another company and I saw an opportunity for Alitia to get involved. I spoke with the owner and a short time later Alitia was back in NY full time with a job in the company. Woo-hoo!

Alitia: With the blessing of the owner, we took our knowledge of the pet sitting industry and coupled it with Joshua's web design skills and created Alitia's Animals six months later.

Joshua: We were so lucky to be given the opportunity to learn the ropes before going at it ourselves. Being able to work with someone who has been where you want to be is vital for success.

Alitia: We've been proud to say that in our first year in business, we provided just over $100,000 in pet sitting services.

Joshua: That's a lot of happy puppies and kittens. And a few happy birds...

Why PetSittingOlogy?

The goal of a professional pet sitter is to provide reliable and competent care to an animal when their owner cannot be there. As life-long pet owners, we believe that the proper treatment of an animal extends well past the typically-defined abuse and neglect.

Pet owners must give proper consideration to their pet's well-being during their absence. This is why more and more pet owners are making the responsible decision and turning to professional pet care.

We created the PetSittingOlogy course to help give more pet owners the opportunity to hire professionally trained and knowledgeable pet sitters.

It would be our honor and pleasure to give you all the tools, guidance and resources needed to become a responsible, caring and much-appreciated pet sitter.

Allow us to show you the ropes of the pet sitting business just like we were once shown.

Join Now!