I wish I could give 6 stars to an outfit like Just Walk. The short review is: they care for your animals as much as you do, and provide invaluable peace-of-mind knowing that your fur babies are getting personal and compassionate attention. It is probably important to note that Just Walk is a Co-op, so the employees have a vested interest in developing long-term ongoing relationships with clients, and that shows. If you want more detail, read on. If not, just give them a call, you won’t regret it, especially in the Shaw/Bloomingdale area.
A year ago, we got a Great Dane puppy and a Bengal kitten. We tried other walkers but were a little disappointed with the level of service. We met with Kotu and were immediately drawn to him because of his very obvious excitement and interest in our animals. In the beginning, our pup couldn’t even go out because his shots were not complete, but Kotu would come over and spend plenty of time playing with him, multiple times a day, helping our puppy and kitten get used to each other and continuing the training we were working on. It was clear that Kotu cared about our little guys as much as we did.
One of the most impressive aspects of this organization is that they really go out of their way to keep clients satisfied. We both travel for work, and so Kotu would stay at our house when we were gone. But they are in high demand, and there were times when Kotu would have multiple clients who wanted overnights. Over the course of a year, there was not a single time when the Just Walk team did not find a solution. One of the owners, Meg, has covered for him (and our animals loved her as much as Kotu), along with others. If it was someone who had not spent much time at our place, Kotu would bring them over (at no cost), show them around the house, explain the routines, the animal’s personalities, etc. Above and beyond the level of effort that most organizations would put in.
Over the past year, there have been times that our dog or cat was not feeling well, had injuries, etc. Kotu was always very communicative about what was going on, and always coddled them the same way we would have. I never once worried that they were not being treated like precious cargo, and people would repeatedly comment about how happy our dog was when he came to the park with Kotu.
In the end, I can sum it up with one anecdote: my wife was walking our dog (115 lbs), and they happened to see Kotu on the street. She said that he has never pulled so hard, and she has never seen him so excited to greet another human.