A year ago, my dog sitter of many years could no longer take care of my needs, and he referred me to Mary Ellen of WAG ALONG PET CARE. This is the best referral I have ever received in any category!!Mary Ellen is an awesome individual, who truly loves animals. She came over to meet my K9 crew and felines and it was obvious from the minute she walked in that this was meant to be!!
She has taken care of my dogs, cats, mail, newspapers and several “accidents” along the way with great aplomb, never wavering in her care of my crew of dogs and cats.
I trust her implicitly, and feel so very secure with her attention to my crew.
I have used her services more than10 times over the past year, and she has even loaned me her carpet shampooer to clean my carpets, when needed.
When I text her to do an impromptu visit a day or 2 in advance, she is always not only willing, but excited stating “yay! I get to see your “kids”!”
I will be using her at least once per month, and sometimes 2-3 times per month over the next year, and feel utterly confident with not only my animal crew, but with her access to my home.
I would highly recommend WAG ALONG PET CARE and Mary Ellen to anyone. I feel very lucky and blessed to have found her in my life…
— David M.C.
Our dogs are pretty “special needs” in all kinds of ways. Food allergies, medication, separation anxiety, you name it. Our younger dog does not play well with others, so the ever-popular group boarding situation doesn’t work out for us when we travel. After all kinds of missteps, we finally found a pet sitter we truly love, but of course we love her for a reason and apparently word got out, so she’s occasionally booked when we need her. She referred us to Wag Along Pet Care for our vacation last week, and we are so glad she did.Mary Ellen went above and beyond in so many ways. She visited our dogs three times before we even left, and took a few trial walks with my husband just to get prepared. She was great with both dogs and took all kinds of extra steps to make sure they felt great while we were away. She texted us with daily reports, and really gave us peace of mind that our dogs were in great hands.
While we were out of town, I lost my ID (which of course I needed to fly home), and Mary Ellen helped out by looking through our entire messy house for my old school ID. This is obviously not part of her job, and she truly seemed concerned about us and how she could help!
Mary Ellen was terrific and I really recommend Wag Along Pet Care.
— Julia C.
We contacted Mary Ellen with very short notice to watch our precious pup, Maybelle. Not only was it short notice, it was also over the Christmas holiday–two things going against us! However, Mary Ellen happily agreed to watch her. At the meet and greet, Maybelle was her normal, skittish-towards-strangers self but remarkably more at ease with Mary Ellen than she’s been with any other “stranger”–Mary Ellen also was completely unfazed by her skittishness. Mary Ellen and her house exuded such a warm, loving energy…I think Maybelle sensed that. When the day came to drop her off, Mary Ellen was so thoughtful, deliberate and considerate in how she/we went about taking her in and leaving (and very empathetic when I started getting emotional). She is obviously very gifted and knowledgeable, as well as extremely caring. I never for a second had to worry about Maybelle; I felt so relieved knowing she was in such good hands. We received daily photo and/or video updates and also text messages detailing how she was doing–these made it feel like our Maybelle wasn’t that far away! Maybelle had a blast and loved all of the dogs she was able to play with. She ate all her food (for owners with skittish/nervous rescue dogs you know how big of a deal this is!) and slept soundly. Mary Ellen’s house is bright and clean (not sure how she pulls that off with so many dogs–seriously amazing!) with tons of room outside for the dogs to play. I highly, highly recommend Mary Ellen and Wag Along!
— Melissa A.
We recently boarded our 10 month old German Shepherd at Mary Ellen’s over the Christmas holiday and cannot thank her enough for the wonderful care she provided. The difference between her service and other boarding facilities is night and day. It’s basically like having your dog stay at a good, trustworthy friend’s house.
She provided regular check-ins with us (incl happy dog photos/videos) which really provides peace of mind when away. But the true test of how well our dog was treated was our dog’s behavior the past two days she’s been at home. A happy, healthy (perhaps better behaved) dog has rejoined our family and we have Mary Ellen to thank for that.
Mary Ellen is the best of the best. We’ll contact her again the next time we’re out of town. Thank you!! And Z says hi to Margaux 🙂
— David H.
My wife & I have been relying on Mary Ellen’s service for our older girl (14 now) for about 18 months. We love the service and most importantly we see that our pup loves to spend time there! Mary Ellen has always accommodated our last-minute-type schedule which really is the second most important thing that a dog-boarding service can provide. We like the fact that there are only a handful of dogs staying with Mary Ellen at any time especially now that our dog is in her senior years. We also enjoy the email updates we often receive from Mary Ellen about our girl. Though there’s always a bit of a heartbreak when dropping her off for a stay, it’s definitely not as potent in this case as we know she’s well taken care of and happy to be there. Wish we had found Mary Ellen years ago.
— Radek C.
Mary Ellen is amazing! I had never boarded my dog before, and I was so worried about leaving him for the ten days we would be gone for our trip to Hawaii. I found Wag-a-Long on yelp a few months ago, very intrigued that Mary Ellen runs her boarding facility out of her home, with the “comfort of home” atmosphere for dogs. I met with her after emailing her, bringing my dog for a meet and greet. I knew instantly that this was the place for my fur baby! She booked the stay and we were off on our vacation!Mary Ellen texted me every day and sent me pictures of my dog with updates on how he was doing the entire time. I am so pleased with my experience I cannot recommend her enough! She is a very kind, warm, and friendly person, and it is very obvious that she absolutely adores taking care of dogs. Any questions I had, she had answers. I was able to see where my dog would be sleeping, her backyard, and the areas he could roam in the house. I am so glad that my dog was so well taken care of! I hope he was as much of a sweetheart as she says he was, and she said he’s welcome back any time! 🙂
— April U.
Mary Ellen at Wag Along Pet Care is my dog Roxy’s favorite person! When I’m leaving for a long day of work and tell her that her friend Mary Ellen is coming later she wags her tail and looks at the door expectantly. I’ve made use of the boarding services and I will say that Mary Ellen has a very good set-up. Roxy truly enjoyed all the comforts of home, and probably a few extras, while she was there!
Mary Ellen is a true pet lover and a good business person. She always promptly responds to inquiries, is flexible with scheduling, gracious, trustworthy, and just a good and kind human being. I so appreciate knowing that when Roxy is with Mary Ellen, whether it is for a walk or a weekend, that she is safe, loved, and well cared for.
— Amanda W.
Mary Ellen is a gem. SE PDX dog owners, you can now relax – Mary Ellen is professional, super warm and friendly, and of course reliable, and her rates are at/below average. We were looking for someone who could do both regular walking, on-demand walking, and the occasional boarding, and Mary Ellen does all three! We moved here about a year ago and as non-natives it is so nice to know that there is someone around who our dog likes and trusts who could help out in case of sudden need or emergency. Mary Ellen goes above and beyond – she has been known to pick Lono up for boarding herself, just because the timing worked out better for all of us that way, and she didn’t charge extra for it as some other places do that just nickle-and-dime you to death. She really cares for Lono’s well-being and is aware of all his little foibles, and she also takes care to treat him extra nice when he stays with her, since she knows it could be stressful for a dog to be in a new place with other, unfamiliar dogs. She is always very aware of how a dog is doing and makes sure to keep everybody comfortable. She is great! Oh, and when we board Lono with her, she texts us a picture or two so we can see how he’s doing – he’s always smiling! Thank you, Mary Ellen.
— Annie F.
