"Oscar"

Our Team

2008 PhilaPets Team Outing

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Deirdre Frey Zeth Weissman
Carolyn Michel Meghan Kohlhepp
Angie Simononis Alice Hsu
Rob Reed John DiBartolomeo
Krista Milito Kim Vargas
Rachel Dukeman Danny Stein
Cindy Miller Mary Beth Boland
Sue Oneteo Brittany Beall
Claire Kendall Peter Spayde
Dionne Heard Vanessa Jarymovych
T. K. Ritchie Christi Brown
Rebecca Jay Megan Haines
Rachel Shusman Anna Shipp
Miriam Fernandez Jennica Tucker
Danielle (Reba) DiBartolomeo Dawn Cowle
Rebecca Davis Katherine Veri
Kris Armetta Rhoda Crawford
Melissa Abt Andrew Pack
Richard Way Harry Finnimore
Amy Melvin Eric Rillstone
Amandah Povalitus Brendan Oram
Nicole Cook Dan Rosen
Sonja Bontrager Julie Malone
 

Deirdre Weissman Deirdre Frey, VMD  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
President
Owner
Veterinarian


Deirdre graduated from Cornell University's Engineering School in 1999. After being a Web developer and consultant with Sapient in Boston for a few years, she left her job to finally pursue her dream of becoming a veterinarian. In preparation, she worked as a veterinary technician at South Bay Veterinary Group in Boston. In August of 2003, she moved to Philadelphia and worked part-time at the VCA Cat Hospital while starting PhilaPets.com and applying to veterinary school.

Deirdre has been around animals her whole life, growing up with dogs and cats and hamsters and birds and gerbils and fish and frogs and various other creatures. She's been involved in programs such as Phinney's Friends. She also has spent time at the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society doing spay and neuter work.

Deirdre had two life dreams since she was a child: to have her own business and to work with animals. PhilaPets married the two. Helping to create and build PhilaPets has truly been one of the most rewarding, challenging, and exciting ventures she has ever been a part of in her entire life. The pets, clients, and Pet Care Specialists she has gotten to know over the years have all been absolutely wonderful. She continues to instill in the company a sense of superb quality, attentive customer service, and active community involvement.

After four intense but incredible years, Deirdre graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine in May 2008. She is currently investigating job opportunities and enjoying some newfound time to become more heavily involved with PhilaPets. Deirdre is very lucky to share her home with her lovely and mischievous kitties Coda and Joey and dog Ginger Rose.

 

Zeth Weissman Zeth Weissman  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Web Developer
Owner


Zeth Weissman has been working as an independent contractor building database driven, dynamic Web sites for the last 10 years. He is a graduate of Drexel University, earning his BS in Computer Science in 1998.

One of his online accomplishment is the development and maintenance of the My PhilaPets.com- Online Scheduling System, a place for clients to schedule services for their pets and a tool to coordinate and communicate scheduling and client information.

Zeth is a gadget geek. Huge fan of his Tivo Series 3, HD, and a proud iPhone 3G carrier!

 

Carolyn Michele Carolyn Michel  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Carolyn Michel has been with PhilaPets since May 2004. She is a Certified Veterinary Technician and graduate of Harcum College's Veterinary Technology program in Bryn Mawr.

Currently, Carolyn is a nurse at the Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, working with cat and dog patients, as well as the occasional ferret. Prior to this, she received her Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from the University of New Mexico, and worked for several years in the area of child care assistance for low-income families. Carolyn lives in the Art Museum area of the city with her three cats, Nubie, Cleo and Charlie.

 

Meghan Kohlhepp Meghan Kohlhepp
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Meghan is currently attending veterinary school at University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that, she has been working as a veterinary technician for six years with a year and a half at the VCA Cat Hospital near Rittenhouse Square. She has two cats, Ethel and Ember, and a dog, Millie. She loves animals and will continue to pet sit as her schedule permits while attending vet school.

 

Angie Simononis Angie Simononis  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist
Weekend Manager


Angie graduated from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she focused on natural history and environmental education. She has several years of experience working as an environmental educator, and with that has come some exciting opportunities to work with animals of all kinds. In addition to spending time with our city's pets, I work along side of the owner of a gourmet chocolate company. I love the beach in the summer and a good sledding hill in the winter...with snow of course.

 

Alice Hsu Alice Hsu  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

Alice has always loved animals, and over the years, has been the proud primary caretaker of dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, and mice. She graduated in 2000 with a bachelor's in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University, after which she enrolled in a dual V.M.D./Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently in the graduate portion of the program, working in an Immunology for her dissertation.

Alice has worked as a vet tech or nurse at various animal hospitals around Princeton, Baltimore, and Philadelphia since 1999 and has enjoyed dog/cat-sitting on the side as a means to relax since grade school. She has lived in Philadelphia for almost five years and shares an apartment in center city with her pets, Rumble, Katie, and Joey.

 

Rob Reed Rob Reed  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

Rob Reed recently graduated magna cum laude from Temple University with a degree in Journalism. Since graduation he has worked as a screen printer and graphic designer for Brilliance Clothing.

Rob has had a long career in pet care. All the way back in fifth grade, he got his first job walking dogs for a few of his teachers. From there he took care of many dogs, cats, turtles, and birds all through middle school, junior high, and high school. At 16, Rob became vegetarian, and at 18 he went completely vegan.

Rob currently has one cat, Koston, who he found on the street three years ago when she was only two weeks old.

 

John DiBartolomeo John DiBartolomeo  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Neighborhood Manager

John was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island. John pursued a short but sweet career on TV shows and can be seen in certain reruns of "Ed" and "Third Watch".

John's serious interests include filmmaking, writing music, Website Design and woodworking. On rainy days, he can usually be found in front of his Mac doing everything except for the woodworking.

John's favorite memory is the terrifying night that his Alaskan Husky-mix saved him from being mauled by a mother bear and her cub. He likes the story because his instincts told him to run and yell and Maple's instincts told her to stay calm. He grudgingly followed his dog's instincts (she had previously found a rattler and warned him) and eventually the bears left and left him with his limbs.

John currently lives in West Philadelphia with Clover, a Golden Retriever with a sincere love for bouncy balls, bed and stuffed animals, his wife, and Dilly, a longhaired black cat with an undying love for trouble.

 

Krista Milito Krista Milito  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

Krista has been working with animals since 1998. She is a strong advocate for animal rescue. She spent several years volunteering in shelters and working with the People/Pet Partnership.

Krista lives with a house full of rescues. Zoey, the house matriarch, was adopted at the age of 3.5 years old, after she gave birth to a litter in the shelter. Macy entered shelter life at only two weeks old. Krista bottle fed her, while Zoey mothered her. Jezebel was brought into PACCA pregnant, she gave birth to 4 kittens. Krista raised the very young new mother and her kittens in her bathroom. She placed two of the kittens in a home and kept the other two, Cyan and Wednesday. It just happened that she ended up with all girls.

Krista is also a photographer and spent several years in the photo business. To see her work, visit kristamilito.com.


 

Kim Vargas Kim Vargas
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Kim graduated in May of 2004 from Harcum College's Veterinary Technology program.  She passed the certification test and is currently working as a Vet Tech at VCA Cat Hospital of Philadelphia.

Kim shares her home with 3 cats (Gypsy, Larry, and October), and a cocker spaniel, Rusty.  She has always loved animal, always had pets, and always wanted to be a vet since she was very little.


 

Rachel Dukeman Rachel Dukeman
Pet Care Specialist

Rachel recently moved back to Philadelphia after finishing college at the University of Pittsburgh where she studied Communication and the History of Art and Architecture.  Her studies also took her to Rome, Italy where she studied art history through Temple University Rome.  She is now attending the University of the Arts' Graduate School of Museum studies for an MA in Museum Communication.

A long time animal enthusiast, Rachel currently has no pets. Her dog Taylor, an English Springer Spaniel, is enjoying his old age at her parents house in Bucks County.  While specializing with dogs, Rachel also takes care of cats and has cared for iguanas, rats, rabbits, birds and small domestic animals.

 

Danny Stein Danny Stein
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Danny has been working exclusively in the animal care field for the past 8 years. He attended UMASS Amherst and studied Pre-Veterinary medicine. He's worked as a veterinary technician in a variety of clinical settings including: non-profit humane society hospital, a board certified internal medicine practice and a private clinic focusing on exotics. He has devoted an immense amount of time to studying the topics of canine behavior and has worked extensively with hard-to-handle dogs in a shelter environment.

Danny is the editor-in-chief and lead writer for the Web site DogGuide.net. He also sits on the Board of Directors for City Kitties.

Danny has a crew of pets including Lucian (a Dogue De Bordeaux) and Reef (an American Pit Bull Terrier) as well as 3 rescued cats.


 

Cindy Miller Cindy Miller  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

Cindy Miller has been pet-sitting for over 10 years.

After receiving a BA in Fine Art (painting) from Rutgers University, she went on to join the corporate world working in a Center City ad agency. While working during the day, she also attended school at night for certification in Graphic Design.

After years of that rat-race, she began working in non-profits: Calcutta Hospice, Thrift for AIDS, and finally as an accredited counselor in a halfway house.

She left there to start her own pet-sitting business in 1997 and has now brought her talents and experience to PhilaPets. Cindy is also certified in Pet First-Aid.

She lives in West Philly, sharing space with assorted family members and her cat: Judah (long-haired tuxedo).

 

Mary Beth Boland Mary Beth Boland
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Mary Beth Boland has been working in veterinary hospitals in Philadelphia for the past three years. She is finishing up her course work at Harcum College's Veterinary Technician program and will graduate in spring 2009. In addition to working for PhilaPets, Mary Beth works part time at the Cat Doctor in Fairmount and in the emergency department of the Matthew J. Ryan veterinary Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. After obtaining her CVT licence, she hopes to eventually specialize in emergency and critical care.

In the little free time she has these days, Mary Beth loves to ride her bike, garden, read nerdy children's fantasy novels, and watch bad TV. She has a full house at home with two Boston Terriers (Ellie and Lelo), four cats (Andy, E-mail, Lucy, and Pickles), two box turtles, a colony of millipedes, and a few tarantulas.

Though she loves all animals, Mary Beth is particularly fond of grouchy old cats. She looks forward to meeting your dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, birds, (pet) bugs, and houseplants.

 

Sue Oneto Sue Oneto
Pet Care Specialist

Sue graduated from Temple with a BA in psychology, and took a job as a buyer for Urban Outfitters. After trying for a couple of years, she figured out that wasn't for her, and has recently returned to her 'roots'. Currently she works for a non-profit organization in the District Attorney's office called Families of Murder Victims, where she counsels and attends court with families and friends of homicide victims in the city of Philadelphia. She is also in the process of pursuing a dual Master's degree, Masters of Social Services/Masters of Law and Social Policy.

A self-proclaimed animal lover, Sue needed a balance to her intense role as a counselor, and found Philapets to be a perfect match! She currently resides in the Northern Liberties area with her two twin cat brothers, Maxwell and Nova.

 

Brittany Beall Brittany Beall
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Brittany is originally from New Mexico and moved to Philly to attend University of Pennsylvania. She graduated May 2006 with her undergraduate degree in classical studies. Brittany has spent a couple of years working as a vet tech in small animal practice in Philly and has spent some time volunteering in Emergency Services at VHUP.

She is currently attending veterinary school at UPenn ('09) and hope to go into small animal practice, possibly pediatrics, when she graduates.

Brittany resides in center city with her dog Whiskey, two cats Sophie and Piper, and two chinchillas, Monster and Nyx.

 

Claire Kendal Claire Kendall  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

Claire landed in Philadelphia after spending some time working in theater production in New York City and Los Angeles. She grew up with a Rottweiler and various cats. Claire is actively increasing her knowledge of animal behavior in a hands-on way.

Claire is also a proofreader and amateur editor.

 

Peter Spayde Peter Spayde  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

A Philadelphian since birth, Peter has been pet sitting both independently and with pet sitting companies since 2002. After a short but good effort at the full time rat race, he has returned to doing what he loves.

When not pet sitting, you can find Peter on the tennis courts, behind a potter's wheel, out dancing, at a yoga studio, or at home gardening in Bella Vista with his children. Nimanee, the feline snow princess, Luca, the menacing Miniature Pincher, Bully, the bluffing Betta, and Orangina, Mango, & Slim the Goldfish all work together to keep his home welcoming.

 

Dionne Heard Dionne Heard
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician

Dionne has been a vet tech for almost 5 years. The majority of her vet tech years were spent working at The Cat Doctor. She is currently work at the University of Pennsylvania's vet school in the pharmacy and in its Intensive Care Unit. In addition, Dionne is also doing research part-time in the vet school's medical genetics lab. She graduated from Penn State with a BS in Animal Bioscience and is currently taking post-bacculearate courses at Drexel to possibly apply to veterinary school or to pursue a master's degree in laboratory animal science or pathobiology (not quite decided yet). Dionne has 3 cats (Que-14, Trinity-4, Fake Fendi-2) and a chihuahua named Link who is about 3 years old now. She loves her animals very much and they are definitely a huge part of her family.

 

Vanessa Jarymovych Vanessa Jarymovych  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

Vanessa received her Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Virginia Tech University in 1997. After a few years working in the corporate world and a mix of restaurants, she decided to follow her dream of working with animals and received a certificate in Professional Pet Grooming from Maryland School of Dog Grooming. Vanessa has been a professional dog groomer for over 7 years and has worked in several grooming shops in the Philadelphia area. After over 3 years of grooming full-time she decided to start grooming from her home in the evenings to provide a more stress-free grooming experience for her clients. Right now, Vanessa, has a full-time job at the UPENN Veterinary Hospital as grants coordinator for the Department of Clinical Studies. Although she loves grooming she has cut back considerably to spend more time pursuing other interests and spending more time with family and friends.

Vanessa's other animal related jobs include: kennel assistant, horse stable manager, dog obedience apprentice and volunteer with People Pet Partnership. She lives in Center City with her husband, Doberman Stanley, and 2 cats, Stella and Pan Ihor. Vanessa enjoy walks in the park, reading, drawing, cooking and eating exotic foods!

 

T. K. Ritchie T. K. Ritchie
Pet Care Specialist

T was born and raised in Philadelphia, and grew up in a large, diverse, loving family. She spent years working with special needs children with athletics and music. Her love for animals grew when she discovered a litter of kittens in her basement that had been abandoned by their mother. She bottle fed and raised them, and over a few months (and an intense interview process...) she placed all the kittens into good, loving homes.

T currently lives near the Art Museum, with her beautiful wife and 4 kids: 2 rescued pitbulls, Memphis and Cherry Bomb; 2 chihuahuas, Whiskey and Roxanne. While not at work, T spends her time skateboarding, designing custom tattoos, and playing guitar.

 

Christi Brown Christi Brown
Pet Care Specialist

Born and raised in Houston Texas, animal lover Christi Brown moved to Philadelphia in 2003.  She has been helping to find better lives for homeless animals since 1998.  Christi is very close with her friends and family, and has her own family here in Philadelphia, her three adopted cats.  Amos the trouble maker, Laina the needy mama and her son Frank, the mature & self- proclaimed king of the house constantly remind Christi why she's dedicated her life to animal care.  After years in retail management, Christi decided to devote all of her time to animal welfare.  She has volunteered for many pet adoption events, because she loves all animals, except maybe spiders!  Christi joined the PhilaPets team in 2006, and has been mentioned by CitySearch.com for her superior pet care and service.  When not caring for pets, Christi loves to travel, enjoys films, is an avid reader, and has talent for fine arts, especially decoupage.  Her pride and joy is her Kinetic TFR moped, imported from India!  She may be seen all over the city with the wind in her hair, traveling to and from her pet visits.

 

Rebecca Jay  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Rebecca grew up in Plymouth Meeting, a suburb of Philadelphia. She graduated from Plymouth Whitemarsh High School class of 2003 and moved to the city to attend college at Temple University. She will be graduating in May,2007 with a BS in Biology. At Temple she has been involved in music (marching band and concert band) as well as a member and webmaster of the Biology Society, a group that promotes interest and networking in the Biology field.

She hopes to attend Drexel University to earn her certification and MS in Lab Animal Science, and eventually go on to Veterinary School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rebecca started out working in many kennels during summer vacation. In 2004, she landed a position at Hickory Veterinary Hospital as a Technician in training on nights and weekend. After about one year of training she moved into the city, where she started working for Society Hill Veterinary Hospital as a Technician, part time during school. Rebecca left Socienty Hill after about a year and joined Philapets in September of 2006.

In her life she has had many pets. It all started with a rabbit when she was 8, then her zoo slowly grew to include a guinea pig, 2 hampsters that eventually turned into 14 hampsters, 2 rats, a mouse, 2 gerbils, and anywhere from 4-9 cats. Rebecca loves all animals, but she would have to say when asked, cats are her favorite, especially black cats.

Currently, she only has one cat, Tao, whom she adopted from a technician at Society Hill Veterinary Hospital.

 

Megan Haines Megan Haines  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

Megan graduated from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in 2000 with her BS in environmental studies, and has worked at various consulting companies in southeastern Pennsylvania for the last six years. She also worked at the Brandywine Conservancy in their Environmental Management Center, creating maps for their land preservation programs.

Megan grew up in rural northeastern Pennsylvania surrounded by woods, farmland, and plenty of animals. At one point her families' brood included chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, parakeets, hamsters, an iguana, and a pig named Misery. She is hoping to attend Harcum College's Veterinary Technology program and continue a career doing what she loves.

She and her husband, Christopher, live in Center City, and enjoy traveling, camping, hiking, cooking, and photography. They are planning to adopt a furry friend as soon as they move into an apartment that allows pets.

 

Rachel Shusman Rachel Shusman
Pet Care Specialist

Rachel is a Philly native who attended Syracuse University. She received her BFA in Surface Pattern Design, where she was trained to design graphics for textiles, home furnishings and paper products. She went on to work in NYC as a textile designer for a sleepwear company. While in NYC she also devoted a portion of her time to volunteering with NY Cares, where she was involved in projects such as teaching art, cleaning up city parks and painting murals in schools. After a few years, she decided she was ready to move on and share her passion for art with others. Rachel recently moved back to Philadelphia to pursue her certification in Art Education at Moore College of Art and Design. She lives in an apartment in Old City, and couldn't be happier to be home!

Rachel loves animals, and grew up in a household where she always had pets, from large golden retrievers to energetic cockapoos, to goldfish, hamsters and parakeets. She is currently living without a pet and she is more than thrilled to be working with PhilaPets to fill that missing void in her life!

 

Anna Shipp Anna Shipp
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Ever since she was young lass, Anna always wanted to be a veterinarian, and worked as a vet-tech for 4 years and studied pre-vet for two. But she has since changed course drastically, and is currently a social worker. She hopes to someday go back to school and be involved in education reform. She still loves all the critters of the world however, large and small, furry and not so furry, so Anna moonlights as a pet-care specialist for PhilaPets.

Anna was raised just outside of our Nation's capitol but has found Philadelphia to feel much more like home, which has led Anna to buy a lovely little house in South Philadelphia. Anna is very proud of herself for this accomplishment. Her two cats, Fish and Babes, are much happier too, now that they have more space than in that teeny little one-bedroom apartment they had to share with Anna for far too long.

Oh, and Anna loves riding her bicycle.

 

Miriam Fernandez Miriam Fernandez
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Originally from New York, Miriam moved to Philadelphia in June of 2006 after falling in love with the city. Ever since she was a little girl she has always loved all kinds of animals and knew she wanted a career working with them. She attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick were she obtained a Bachelor's degree in Animal Science and has worked as a veterinary technician for over 2 years now. She is currently working full time at The Cat Doctor, and enjoys getting her "dog fix" through PhilaPets. She currently shares her apartment in Center City with three very spoiled cats; Sebastian, Vincent, and Duncan, and a very grumpy bunny but very cute, bunny named Milton. Staying with her parents in New York is her 15 year-old cat named Hector, whom she tries to visit as much as she can.


 

Jennica Tucker Jennica Tucker
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Jennica's love for animals began at a young age. She lived in the British Virgin Islands for three years where she volunteered at the Tortola Humane Society. In 2003 she moved to Philadelphia to pursue her college career. She is graduating from Temple University in December of 2007 with a B.S. in Kinesiology. She has been working as a veterinary technician at The Cat Doctor for two and a half years and is planning on attending veterinary school in 2008.

When Jennica is not at school or working she enjoys cooking, cleaning, singing, traveling, reading, and playing board games. She lives in South Philadelphia with her partner Chase, her 12 year old cat Purdy, her adopted 6 year old cat Alice, her Pomeranian Adelaide, and her newest addition Roxie.

 

Danielle DiBartolomeo Danielle (Reba) DiBartolomeo
Pet Care Specialist

Reba was born in San Francisco. She has lived in California, Minnesota, North Dakota, New York, and Pennsylvania. She refuses to comment on the authenticity of Fargo and Napoleon Dynamite in terms of life in the Midwest. Her first career was working with autistic adults in the community and at their home.

Her hobbies include art, baking, crafts, geology, science experiments, demolition derbies, video games and reading. She currently pursues some of these hobbies in her South Philadelphia home and often conspires / collaborates on projects with her husband, John (also with PhilaPets).

Polliwogs to Pekingese, she loves animals and has made John pull over on a number of occasions to preserve and protect any number of animals. She currently resides with her husband, John, Clover and Dilly and she insists that Dilly is not a trouble maker because she taught the cat everything she knows.

 

Dawn Cowle Dawn Cowle  Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR
Pet Care Specialist

Dawn is a native of Las Vegas, NV and has been an animal lover since she was a little girl. She's a graduate of the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico where she received her BFA in Theatre. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2005 she's worked at the Walnut Street Theatre as a Casting/Literary Apprentice, assistant directed at the Prince Music Theatre and Walnut St. Theatre, and started her own production company To The Wall Productions, which she is also the Co- Producing Artistic Director.

Though her current landlord doesn't allow pets, she hopes to adopt in the near future; until then, she's content taking care of the dogs and cats in the PhilaPets family.

 

Rebecca Davis Rebecca Davis
Dog Running Manager

Rebecca is a dog lover at heart.

She grew up with many different animals during her childhood, and thus has an intense love and appreciation of all animals. Her special connection for dogs stems from her relationship with her beloved dog Subway, who recently passed away at the age of 19. Subway was rescued from a subway station in NYC and was subsequently raised by Rebecca and her family.

Rebecca has walked many a dog, but recently decided to add running to the mix. This fits well with her lifestyle as she is an experienced and avid runner. She has participated in many distance runs, including the Marine Corp marathon, Philly Distance Run (half marathon), Broad Street Run (10 miler), Media 5 Miler, and the Roxborough Run (5K).

 

Katherine Veri Katherine Veri
Service Coordinator

Ever since Katherine graduated from Penn State University she has traveled all around the US. Having lived in California for 5 years she traveled up and down the coast visiting the diverse environments within the state. This led Katherine to frequently use a pet care services for her two beloved Pugs, Tiger and Baxter.

Katherine has experienced both the good and the bad when it comes to professional pet care providers and is confident that she knows very well from personal experience what a client expects and what a protective pet parent needs.

Katherine traveled back to Pennsylvania to seek an opportunity within the pet care industry. Currently, she has applied and accepted a volunteer position with PAWS and has aspirations to help with other local animal welfare organizations. She is very proud to be apart of PhilaPets and will do her best to help coordinate the PhilaPets.com Team to care for your animal.

 

Kris Armetta
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!

 

Rhoda Crawford
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!

 

Melissa Abt
Pet Care Specialist
Veterinary Technician


Profile Coming Soon!

 

Andrew Pack Andrew Pack
Dog Running Specialist
Pet Care Specialist


Profile Coming Soon!


 

Richard Way Richard Way
Dog Running Specialist
Pet Care Specialist


Profile Coming Soon!


 

Harry Finnimore Harry Finnimore
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!


 

Amy Melvin Amy Melvin
Pet Care Specialist

Amy is currently seeking a master's degree in Art Education at Temple University's Tyler School of Art. She has worked with students of all ages since she graduated with her bachelor's degree from Drexel University in 2003, but especially loves the energy and enthusiasm of the "little ones" and hopes to someday have an elementary art classroom of her own. Right now she volunteers at an after-school program in West Philly.

Amy is also an animal lover and a vegetarian, and can't remember a time growing up when there wasn't a pet of some kind in the house. She is an advocate of animal rescue and has a soft spot for the retired racing greyhounds, as she sponsors many of them at a local kennel where she adopted her white and brindle beauty, Fairlea.

Amy currently lives with her boyfriend, Zach and greyhound, Fairlea in center city. When not out walking dogs, she enjoys cooking, biking, being outdoors, and making art at her studio in North Philly.

 

Eric Rillstone
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!

 

Amandah Povalitus Amandah Povalitus
Pet Care Specialist

Amandah is currently seeking a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education at Temple University. After working a number of retail and waitressing jobs, she finally realized that none of these would work for her; she had to work with animals. An animal lover since birth, Amandah has grown up with a variety of animals, volunteered at local animal sanctuaries, has done animal rescue, and has fostered countless animals while helping each one to find the perfect home. She is also vegan. She currently lives with her dog, Harriet, and hopes to add more animals to her home as soon as she find a lease that allows her to do so!

When Amandah is not walking dogs, hanging out with animals, or at school, you'll probably find her at a Phillies game, on the beach, playing one of a number of sports, reading in the park, or baking cupcakes.

 

Brendan Oram
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!

 

Nicole Cook
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!

 

Dan Rosen
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!

 

Sonja Bontrager
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!

 

Julie Malone
Pet Care Specialist

Profile Coming Soon!



Red Cross certified in Pet First-Aid and CPR = Completed Red Cross certification in Pet First-Aid and CPR



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