Yes, this is long, and I’ve been told to make it shorter but I’ve decided to leave it up in its entirety in case anyone is interested in knowing more about ‘the Amber’ of Amber’s Pampered Pets. 🙂
From a very young age, I have always had a love for animals. Every science project or English report I created was centered around animals. My dad grew up on a farm, so when would we go visit his parents, I would run around the barn playing with all the barn cats, naming them, cuddling them like babies, then crying when I wasn’t allowed to bring them home with me-although I did win that battle a couple times and joyfully went home with a kitten to call my own!
Through the years, some of my fondest memories are of the time spent with my dad at the farm, driving the tractors and caring for the livestock.
Near my high school graduation, I started volunteering at a local no kill shelter, Pet Refuge, and fell in love with a couple…a few…ah, ok, several dogs and cats. I gained a lot of experience handling pets with behavioral issues at the shelter, as well as learning how to administer medications, subQ fluids, and IM injections.
I also worked at a couple of horse boarding facilities taking care of 50+ horses, cleaning stalls, learning about horse behavior, and building muscles. One day, a family friend asked me to stay at her house and watch her two poodles for a week, then after she came home, word spread that I was pet sitting, and the rest is history as they say.
Since 2002, APP has grown into the most rewarding and fulfilling way to spend my time and make a living. I am so blessed to be able to make a living doing what I am passionate about!
In 2013, I was given the opportunity to go on a wild west adventure and work as a wrangler on a guest ranch in west Texas. I was hesitant to leave my clients and my comfort zone, but decided I wanted to live life to the fullest and accepted the job.
I loaded up my horse, my dogs, and drove white knuckled for 27 hours to the ranch. The first night I sat on my bed wondering what in the world I had done! But I was determined to learn and see what this change in life and culture had to offer!
I was the ONLY wrangler on the 1800 acre ranch, and I was in charge of taking care of 30 head of horses, doing all the leather work and maintaining 40+ saddles and bridles, leading guests on trail rides carefully around the resident herd of buffalo, through the running creeks, up the rocky hills, sometimes for 10 hours a day in the saddle, teaching those guests how to ride properly and how to throw a rope, and the less glamorous things like doing the dishes, changing all the sheets in all the bunkhouses and doing all the laundry-oh, and buttering 100 potatoes for suppers!
I learned to drive a limo to pick up guests from the airport, I trimmed the thorny mesquite back on the trails, helped the local ranchers move their cattle or catch the random renegade bull that got onto the ranch, slept under the stars.
I made sure every guest was happy and safe, made sure the horses were happy and safe, and I had the most amazing experience of my life!
I came back to South Bend at the end of 2013, with an added bonus to my Texas adventure, I met a handsome cowboy from New Mexico that I knew was something special.
I married Eric in August 2014, and May 22, 2015 we had a happy, healthy baby boy who we named Hunter Paul (after my dad).
Life changed quite a bit with the birth of Hunter, and I found some amazing girls to help APP grow! I searched high and low for pet sitters that were like minded and wanted to help people and pets the same way I did! I switched directions with my company and decided to make it a ’Match Making’ Service for pet parents since I was no longer able to do pet sitting myself while chasing around my little ones. I hand select the sitters to send to client homes based on their skills and personalities!
We added to our family again August 30th 2018 with the birth of Arrow Kay (my mom’s middle name) our cute little redheaded girl. And the number of sitters and clients has increased exponentially! And rounding out our family April 2021, baby Ryser joins the family as the final addition.
I am a pet parent myself-and I am a Worrier, to the extreme sometimes! But that made me good at pet sitting. I pride myself in paying attention to the little details. The APP sitters and I truly form a bond with our furry clients, and our human clients too. This is a very personal business, and I feel very privileged to have gained the trust of our clients. Being a Match Maker is different than being a pet sitter but I’m loving every minute of it!!
My pets are my babies, and the APP sitters feel the same way about their furbabies. They care for your babies as if they were our own, and they know the value of the peace of mind that comes from knowing they are well cared for—in fact, we pet sit for each other and we know first hand what matters to our clients through our own experience!
We have a heart for service and always aim to go above and beyond our client’s expectations!
Thank you for your support!
Amber Clay
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