Pets Boulevard was started by me (Jo Kermond) and some wonderful, supportive people, to provide the everyday pet owner resources to have the best possible life with their pet. Who Am I? I’ve been the owner and operator of a pet care business since 2004 in Melbourne. I started the business about a year after leaving an international marketing company where I had spent 11 years in a management/ director role based in different countries around the world. Based back in Australia (Sydney) in 1997, I became a pet owner (again). Since starting in the pet care industry in Melbourne, I have established a second to none network of amazing people and businesses who have a common goal; assist in the education of pet ownership and to look after and care for animals to the very best of their ability. 

Included in the household are my three boys: Ajax, my 14 year old ginger boy (cat), Zebedee, my 12 year old border x kelpie boy, and my tabby boy Levi who is 13.

Ajax is a sociable, active and adventurous boy. He visits neighbours and sits watching TV with them, so I’m told!  About three years ago, we thought we would lose him. I had been lucky to find Dr Richard Gowan at The Cat Clinic only weeks prior to him getting really really sick. Ajax only has one kidney (I found out when he was 11...) and that kidney was only functioning minimally. It took a long time of him ‘just hanging on‘ and a lot of patience and time.... and sooo much dedication from Richard, but he is still here. To this day, he still has fluid injected each night to flush his kidney. The fluid bag, with the needle and tube hanging off it, hangs on the wall in my office - always a conversation point with visitors!

Ajax

Zebedee

Levi

Zebedee is a vibrant, happy, friendly boy. When I travelled in my previous job, he would fly from Sydney to Melbourne and join my parents household for that 1 or 2 week period. Unfortunately over the last couple of years he has developed a degenerate nerve disease which affects the strength in his back legs. Mid 2010 he had specialised surgery to [simply put!] tie open one of his airway ‘flaps’. His condition although very obvious in his legs also affects the airway by it not opening properly, therefore causing overheating. We are forever grateful for this diagnosis as he would not have made it through this summer without this surgery. 

Levi is Levi! Sociable when he wants to be - always on his terms and a bit of a splodge. Never wandering very far from home and his creature comforts, if not inside sleeping, he’s under a bush in the front or back yard sleeping. Levi was taken from a house where he was being mistreated when he was 6 months old by a friend and he’s been with me ever since. Although Levi will entice a belly rub from you, he can get what I call ‘the devil in his eye’, where you have about one second to move your hand or be scratched and bitten! He is extremely loving in his own way, you just need to understand him!

Back to me..... 

I moved to Melbourne with ‘the family’ where I had become an auntie and wanted to spend time with all of my family.  With an affinity for animals since [apparently] birth, I had the idea of providing a service to pet owners offering what I had needed when I was in the corporate world and found difficult to find - in home visits. I started to do courses in pet first aid, handling other people’s animals, dog psychology, introductions to puppy and dog training and the like. I also became involved with an organisation called CASPA  (Companion Animal Services Providers Association).

Over the years I have gained information and experience (this increasing due to have 3 senior aged pets who have their issues), found some fabulous pet services people and been asked a lot of questions by clients. The idea of the Pets Boulevard website came about from wanting to have relevant everyday pet information out there, for the everyday pet owner to access. The contributors to the site are people and businesses that I have met along the way, that I know provide a good service and a lot of them we use personally - it took a while to find these people after I left Sydney.

The other positive of course, is the site having the facility to list Pet Service Businesses in the Directory for a variety of costs. I started my business from scratch, it’s a Small Business and I found it hard to get the word out sometimes due to lack of finances. With this directory, any size business is able to be listed. 

So, that’s a glimpse of me and the family and what we’re about. There will always be mentions of the ‘family’ along the way as we experience different things we think are beneficial to share.

CLICK HERE to sign up to be a member of Pets Boulevard and receive practical pet care advice for free.

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