FAQ
BASIC INFORMATION
BUSINESS HOURS:
Our trained and loving sitters care for pets all day long from 7:00 am to 8:30 pm.
OFFICE HOURS:
- M-Th: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
- Friday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Saturday: 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
- Sunday: Office is closed
OUR PROCESS or "How it Works"
A simple and easy, yet thorough, process to get you started
Step 1 - Initial Contact
Submit your inquiry through the "Registering Process" portion of our website and provide us with as much information as possible;
Step 2 - Setting up your Portal
Within one day, you will receive an email [from Nonie's] with a link to set up your portal and begin the onboarding process. If you don't see it, please check your spam folder.
Step 3 - New Client Meeting in Your Home
New client meetings are scheduled after your portal is complete and your pet(s) vaccinations uploaded. The meetings generally take 30 minutes and are free of charge.
GENERAL POLICIES
VACCINATIONS:
All pets need to be up to date on their vaccinations. We require that you upload your pet's vaccination records to your portal please.
You would also need for you to include the date when the vaccinations expire so that we can notify you when they are due.
This is just an added service to help you remember. Inside only cats MUST have at least a Rabies shot in compliance with Louisiana Law. Elderly pets, 12 year and older, must have at least a Rabies shot in compliance with Louisiana Law.
LAST MINUTE REQUESTS/RESERVATIONS:
ALL CLIENTS: Any reservations within a 24 hour period will not go through if you try to schedule through the portal. Our system has a security measure to avoid us getting overbooked. Therefore, you would have to request that, in the conversation feed, of your portal, or call us, so that we can schedule it for you and there is a last minute charge of $20. We are always happy to try to accommodate you, we just have to see who is available and possibly move a few visits around on the schedule to try to help you. Life Happens and we get it.
NEW TRAVELING CLIENTS trying to register with us and make reservations at the last minute (within 72 hours) of traveling, have a charge of $35 because we definitely have to move things around and schedule the New Client Meeting before you leave. We never handle any pet sitting or dog walking service without a completed portal, vaccinations up to date and uploaded and meeting the owner and the pet(s). For holiday travel it is strongly recommended that you make your reservations as soon as you know your plans. We book up very fast for Mardi Gras, July 4th week, Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you wait within 72 hours, it is likely we are booked.
CANCELLATIONS:
- Cancellations made with 7 days’ notice will be charged 10% of original invoice
- Cancellations made between 4-6 days’ notice will be charged 25% of original invoice
- Cancellations made less than 3 days’ notice will be charged 50% of original invoice
- If you forget to cancel a visit and we show up for the visit, 100% of that visit is due.
- Any cancellations due to severe weather will not be charged a cancellation fee.
HOLIDAY FEES:
- $5.00/visit - Lundi Gras, Christmas Eve, the day after Christmas Day, New Years Eve, Good Friday weekend, Labor Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend, Veteran's Day weekend
- $8.00/visit - New Year's Day, Mardi Gras Day, Easter Sunday, July 4th, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day
- Alert: We book up fast for the holidays; all holidays. We have a large staff so usually we don't have to turn anyone away. However, if you wait till the last minute to book with us, you might not get your preferred pet visit time(s). In other words, if you want your dog to be fed at 5pm, it might have to be at 6pm.
QUESTIONS
If your pet(s) are kenneled all day, we have a strict policy for the health of your pet:
If your dogs are kenneled all day, our Advisory Board of local Veterinarians tell us that any kenneled dog would need a minimum of 4 - 30 minute visits every day to stretch their legs, do their potty business, have human interaction, playtime and go for a long walk. Dogs, in general, do not like to be kenneled all day. It also can cause UTI's and early onset of arthritis. Kennels should be large enough for your dog to stand up, turn around and have a water bowl in the kennel as well.
What you can expect during our pet sitting visits.
All visits include bringing in the mail and newspapers, cleaning around your pet's food and litter box areas, sweeping up dirt, vacuuming up dog or cat hair, taking out the trash on the last visit, wiping down all kitchen counters and leaving your home cleaner than we found it.
We care for your pet and we respect your home. Based on the increasing amount of UTI's, according to local Veterinarians, we now have 3 visit per day policy; we prefer to include the late night, 10 min, before bed potty break, but we do require at least 3 visits; one being a midday visit. I have lowered the prices for the midday visit to accommdate this policy for everyone. It is what is healthiest for your dog.
What you can expect during our dog walking-only visits.
If you are home, we knock on your door and you give us your dog on a leash and we walk him the whole time that you requested, up to 30 minutes. If you are at work, we enter your home with a key that we obtain from a Lockbox you've put somewhere outside of your home, we start our timer, which sends you a message that we are at your home and the visit/walk has started. We walk the entire time requested but we do leave 5 minutes left in the visit to freshen your dog's water bowl, return the leash back to it's proper place and dispose of any poop bags used during the walk.
My pet requires insulin injections, do you all do this?
Should your pet require insulin injections or subcutaneous fluids, and only if prescribed by a Veterinarian, we can handle this for you. We have Vet techs on staff that will handle these more complicated medications. Nonie’s has been providing Vet-Tech services to our clients for over a decade with no problems or issues.
How do I pay for your services?
Your personal portal has an INVOICE section to pay for your services. We also email you the invoice that is due and it will go to your portal/conversation feed as well as your email. Invoices are due within 24 hours of our last pet visit. We take any credit card through your portal, (we do not see the card #s), Venmo or Paypal. If you do not pay your invoice by the 2nd day, then $20 will be added to your invoice on the 3rd day.
Is the portal safe to keep my information secure?
The program that we use is called "Time To Pet"
Security Information:
- Data Transport - All traffic to and from Time To Pet servers uses the same 128-bit level encryption your bank uses over HTTPS. Non-encrypted traffic is forced over to encrypted methods.
- Credit Card Storage - Time To Pet is fully PCI Compliant (for validation: https://www.timetopet.com/pci). Time To Pet never stores your Client's Credit Card information on our servers. All credit card information is stored at our integrated payment processor's secure storage solutions. All of our integrated payment processors are also fully PCI compliant.
- Physical Security - Your data is stored on our secure servers in data centers with 24/7 security with redundant backup power supplies in a natural disaster-neutral region of the United States.
- Access Control - Time To Pet has audit logging and strict policies for access to your data by Time To Pet employees. All personal Client data is only accessible via Authenticated methods (in other words you can only access details via strictly controlled authentication methods and this information is not available publicly).
If my dog were to get sick or injured, how do you handle this?
First we assess the dog and call you with the symptoms to discuss. If it looks like an emergency, and time is an issue, we take them to your Vet or a VET-ER while calling you on the way. We provide after-care to monitor recovery and administer any medications. If your pet is presently ill, injured or elderly, we do require that you complete and sign our Medication Form and Authorization for Medical Treatment just in case.
How do you handle access to my home?
We use Lockboxes that you can purchase from us for $20 and you control placing your key(s) in the Lockbox and where you put it outside your home. For example, on a door knob where it cannot be slipped off, an iron gate or fence or even on your hose spigot. Lockboxes are provided to you at the New Client Meeting. If you choose not to purchase a Lockbox and prefer to give us a spare key, then we keep your key in our Lockbox during our visits and we maintain client keys in our Key Safe, located in our office. Each key is labeled with your pet's name(s) only and with a corresponding number that is generated in our client management portal. There is no way to connect the key to an owner's name or address; that information is kept on the portal only. The information you provide us is uploaded onto your client portal, which only our staff can access.
How do I schedule pet sits with you?
After your portal is complete, with all information completed and uploaded vaccination records, the system will let you schedule your reservation. By making your reservation through the portal, it guarantees that something doesn't get overlooked.
Do you do overnights or board pets at your house?
Unfortunately, we do not board pets in our house(s) as we have pets of our own and we are gone most of the day working. We do have several Overnight services to choose from, and as an alternative, we have the Bed and Breakfast service. See Services/Rates.