Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonela Chatfield.
Hi Jonela, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I never planned on a career in finance, I actually stumbled into it when a friend recommended me for a data entry position at a trading firm in New York City. I kept moving into different roles and somehow that first job turned into a 24 year career. It even took me halfway around the world to Singapore for three years where I helped launch two operations teams. Singapore also happens to be where I became a cat lady. I adopted three cats while living there, Martini, Salem, and Ariel and moved all three back to the States with me. Martini or Tini as we call her was my first cat and just celebrated her 20th birthday this year. After returning to New York and eventually being laid off in 2011, I moved to Orlando, Florida and spent the final 12 years of my career at a major financial services firm. I was good at what I did and built a successful career but for a long time I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to spend the rest of my working life doing.
Working remotely during the pandemic changed a lot for me. I was happier, more productive, took better care of myself and had more control over my day. My wife Cassandra and I had been talking about moving to Baltimore for a few years and we had already talked about what we would do if my employer eventually required me to return to the office and we knew that going back wasn’t part of the plan so when my employer announced in June 2023 that we would be returning to the office three days a week later that year that was the push I needed. I texted her, “The email came. I’m going to resign. Let’s move to Baltimore.” By the next day, she’d already started the process of getting licensed to work as a nurse in Maryland. What followed was a pretty chaotic four and a half months, we sold our home in Orlando, bought a house in Baltimore sight unseen, Cassandra found a nursing job here and somehow we actually pulled off the move. I left finance that November without another job lined up and for the first time in my adult life, no real plan for what came next.
The funny thing is the idea of pet sitting wasn’t new. I’d first thought about doing it ten years earlier. I’ve used professional pet sitters for my own animals for more than 20 years and I’m an anxious pet parent myself so I’ve always understood how important it is to have someone you completely trust with your pets and your home. I’ve also spent years caring for my own animals and doing rescue work. Pet sitting wasn’t realistic while I was working full time in finance so I shelved the idea. After moving to Baltimore, I finally had the opportunity to seriously consider it. Cassandra encouraged me to give it a real shot and we decided I’d give myself six months to see if I could build a client base. If it was a complete flop, finance wasn’t going anywhere.
I registered Pawesome Care in February 2024, got insured, made flyers, posted in local Facebook groups and on Nextdoor and started trying to find people willing to give the new pet sitter in town a chance. That’s how I found my first client, Caroline. She posted in a local Baltimore Facebook group looking for someone to care for her dogs and I nervously sent her a message. My business was brand new, my website wasn’t even finished and I was basically asking her to trust me anyway. We had a meet and greet, she hired me for my first pet sitting job in May 2024 and she’s still my client today, which means a lot to me.
From there, I hustled. My first summer was incredibly busy and then fall came and things slowed down enough that I started wondering if I’d be dusting off my finance résumé after all. But in early 2025, I started adding recurring weekly dog walking clients, referrals picked up and more people began finding Pawesome Care through Google, social media and word of mouth. By that spring I realized my six month experiment had turned into a real, thriving business. Today, many of my earliest clients are still with me, my schedule regularly fills up and I’ve reached the point where I sometimes have to turn down new business because I simply don’t have room.
One of the things I love most about what I’ve built is how connected Pawesome Care has made me feel to Baltimore. I was born and raised in Queens and growing up there I always felt a strong sense of community. When I moved to Florida, I never quite found that same feeling and I don’t think I realized how much I’d missed it until we came to Baltimore. We landed in the Patterson Park neighborhood which we absolutely love and Baltimore started feeling like home very quickly. Now I know my neighbors, my clients, their families, their neighbors and so many people I see while I’m out walking dogs every day. I can be halfway through a walk and hear someone call my name from across the street or stop to talk with someone I’ve gotten to know simply because we cross paths all the time. That sense of community reminds me so much of what I loved about growing up in Queens. Baltimore feels like home to me in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time and building Pawesome Care has been a huge part of that.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t always been a smooth road, although I went into this knowing there would be some bumps. The initial income drop was enormous. I left a well paying career with a predictable paycheck and benefits to start a business with zero clients so there was obviously a financial adjustment. We planned for that and I had a feeling I could hustle and find clients, I just had no idea whether I’d find enough of them to actually make this work long term. Thankfully, I’m in a very different place with that now.
One thing I worried about that had nothing to do with money was whether I could physically do the job. I had spent 24 years sitting behind a desk and at a computer all day and suddenly decided I was going to make my living walking dogs, climbing what sometimes feels like every staircase in Baltimore, scooping litter boxes, cleaning bird cages, getting up and down off floors and generally being on my feet all day. I average about five to eight miles of walking a day now which is a pretty dramatic change from the way I spent most of my working life. And did I mention I have flat feet and bunions? Naturally, I decided walking for a living was my next logical career move. I also definitely didn’t anticipate how quickly I’d wear through a pair of HOKAs! There were moments when I wondered whether my body was going to cooperate with this new career but as it turns out, it did. Along the way I’ve lost more than 100 pounds and having a career that keeps me this active has changed my life physically and mentally too, I’m happier than I’ve been in a very long time, that was one of the biggest surprises of this entire career change.
As I became more confident that I could handle the physical side of the job, the business itself kept growing and that brought a completely different challenge: figuring out how much I could realistically handle. I went from wondering whether I could find enough clients to looking at my schedule some days and wondering how on earth I was going to get to everyone. Somehow, I always get it done but I’ve had to learn my limits. Setting boundaries was hard for me at first because when it’s your own business it’s very easy to feel like you should always be available. I’ve had to remind myself that owning Pawesome Care doesn’t mean I need to be available 24/7. I still don’t have many true days off and because I currently handle most of the care myself there are definitely stretches when it’s a lot. Cassandra has been incredibly supportive and helps when I need her. I’ve also gotten much better at knowing when I can squeeze something in and when I genuinely have to say no. But I’m also incredibly grateful that this is the challenge I have now. There was a time when I was worried about whether I’d find enough clients to make this business work and now I’m fortunate to have so many wonderful clients who trust me with their pets and keep my schedule full. It can be exhausting at times, but it’s a pretty good problem to have.
The part I probably wasn’t as prepared for is how attached I would become to my clients’ pets and honestly, to my clients too. I’ve been incredibly lucky to build a client base full of genuinely kind and caring people who trust me with members of their family. I walk into their homes and talk to their pets like they’re people because at this point I’m pretty sure they understand me anyway. I’ve had clients lose pets that I cared for and loved and those losses are genuinely heartbreaking for me too. I know how painful it is to lose a furry member of your family and after caring for an animal regularly, you grieve them too. Even when a client simply moves outside my service area, it’s hard knowing I won’t get to see that pet anymore. But I think those relationships, with both the animals and their people are also what make this work so meaningful to me. I’m not just building a client list, I’m building relationships with people and pets I genuinely care about.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Pawesome Care provides dog walking and in home pet care throughout my service area in Baltimore City. Dogs and cats make up most of my clients but I also care for birds, fish, reptiles and small animals. Every visit is tailored to the individual household and their pets’ routines, personalities and needs.
I always say that I’m more than just a pet sitter. When someone leaves their pet in my care, my goal is for them to receive the same level of care, attention and affection they would get from their own family. Their pets aren’t just my job, they’re in my care and I take that responsibility very personally.
I’m a big believer in meeting animals where they are. I let them set the pace, especially with anxious dogs or anxious and spicy cats. I’m never going to force an interaction just because I want a cute photo or because I think a pet should be comfortable with me by now. I follow their lead and give them the time and space they need to build trust. There’s nothing quite like the first time a cat who has spent every visit hiding under the bed finally decides to come out and say hello. Those little breakthroughs mean a lot to me because I know the animal made the decision to trust me.
I’m also comfortable caring for senior pets and pets who need a little extra hands on care. Over the years, both with my own pets and through pet sitting I’ve gained experience administering pills and liquid medications, transdermal medications, injections, Sub-Q fluids and other routine at home care. I know those needs can make leaving a pet feel especially stressful for their family so I’m happy to work with owners to understand their pet’s normal routine and how they prefer that care to be handled. At the same time, I know my limits. If a pet’s needs are beyond what I’m comfortable or qualified to manage, I’ll always be upfront about that and when I can, refer them to a colleague who may be a better fit.
Good communication with my clients is a big part of how I care for their pets. Most of my clients like an update after every visit so I send a message with pics from our walks, playtime and cuddle time. Of course, some pets have other plans so occasionally the best I can offer is a proof of life photo from under the bed. I’m also happy to adjust how often I provide updates based on what makes each client comfortable. As an anxious pet parent myself, I know exactly what it feels like to be away from your animals and keep checking your phone waiting for that update from your sitter. I want my clients to be able to enjoy their trip or get through their workday knowing their pets are safe, happy and being cared for.
I also pay attention to more than just the pet while I’m in someone’s home. I keep an eye out for anything that seems unusual, whether that’s a leak, a smoke detector chirping or something the pet may have gotten into. Twice I’ve arrived for visits and discovered that the dog had gotten into chocolate while their owners were away. In both cases, I was able to recognize what had happened, contact the client immediately, gather the information we needed and work with them to determine the appropriate next step. When someone trusts me with their pet and their home I’m always paying attention to what’s going on around me, not just what I’m there to do.
What I’m most proud of is the trust my clients place in me and the relationships I’ve built with their pets. I love when someone tells me their dog waits by the window for me because the truth is, I look forward to seeing them too. I also love hearing from clients after they return from a trip that their pet seems unbothered by the fact that they were gone. To me, that’s one of the best compliments I can get knowing their pet felt safe, comfortable and well cared for while they were away. And every time a client recommends me to a friend, neighbor or family member it still means so much to me. A referral in this business is incredibly personal. Someone is essentially saying, “I trust this person in my home and with a member of my family and I think you can trust her too.”
More broadly, I’m proud that I built something for myself that gives me so much joy and purpose. Pawesome Care has given me a career I love, relationships with animals and people I genuinely care about and a connection to my community that I had been missing for a long time. I’m happy, I’m thriving and I get to spend my days outside in the fresh air doing work that feels meaningful to me.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
For most of my adult life I defined success in pretty traditional ways, a stable job, a good salary, great benefits, financial security and the ability to afford the things I wanted. I had those things in finance and I was successful by those measures. I was good at what I did and built a career that gave me a lot of security. But I eventually realized that being successful at something and feeling successful are not necessarily the same thing.
Today, I define success much more by happiness and having a sense of purpose. Financial security is important to me and I’m proud that I’ve been able to build Pawesome Care into a sustainable business. But I’ve learned that financial success alone isn’t enough for me. Finance never gave me a sense of purpose. I had work to do, I did it well and then I did it again the next day. It was a job. What I have now is work I genuinely care about and a career I chose for myself.
I also value my freedom in a way I probably couldn’t fully appreciate until I had it. I built something that belongs to me. I decide how I run my business, what kind of experience I want to give my clients and what I want my working life to look like. And I have to admit, after spending my entire adult working life answering to someone else, not having a boss is extremely underrated.
I spent a lot of years thinking success was something you could measure by what you earned, what you achieved or how secure your career looked from the outside. Now I think it’s much simpler than that. For me, success is being able to support the life I want while actually being happy to live it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pawesomecare.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pawesome_care_baltimore?stkn=d3YzbWY4c3VvMjVx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Eyt4k4d9E/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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