Your Creature Comfort Specialists

Purrie Home Companions Pet Sitting Service (PHC) consists of partners Terri Baines and Richard Willings who operate the business out of their home in the Zanoni Store in Gloucester, Virginia.

For ten years, Terri was the Director of Wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and saw first hand how difficult it could be for families to travel if they had to worry about their pets' care while they were gone.  Terri's friends call her their "Cat Whisperer" and rely upon her to help them choose their new home companions and to help them understand just what makes their cats tick.  For years she has taken care of pets for her friends and family on an casual basis.

Richard has lived in the Gloucester area for over ten years and has run an unofficial pet rescue from his home for almost the same period of time, taking in unwanted dogs and cats and trying to find forever homes for them.  When that isn't possible, he continues to take care of them himself, giving rise to the "Zanoni Zoo".  He can take the most unsociable of canines and turn them into lapdogs -- even those as large as his 110 pound Rottweiler mix, Casey.  He truly loves all furred and feathered creatures and lavishes attention on them whenever they are near.

Between them, Richard and Terri now take care of over a dozen cats (most of them outside and semi-feral), three dogs and three parrots -- an Amazon, an African Gray and a Goffin's Cockatoo.  All of their pets are animals whose original owners no longer wanted to provide homes for them so they found their forever home in the Zanoni Zoo.  It seemed a natural step for Terri and Richard to take their love of animals and begin a pet sitting business so that they can extend their special brand of devotion to other's pets as well.

PHC is a member of Pet Sitters International and its "Creature Comfort Specialists" (Richard and Terri) have received certification training through that organization's program.