The pioneers looking to leave 9-to-5 behind

Pets and profits offer perfect antidote to the office

Yu Ying is a catsitter. The 30-year-old runs an online operation on the e-commerce website Taobao. Whenever cat owners in Beijing need someone to look after their pet while they are away, they can book the service online and Yu and her colleagues will show up.

Just over a year ago, Yu was desk-bound and working in the marketing department of a medical company. When she decided to give up her job and turn to petsitting, her family thought she was crazy. To them, marketing is a decent white-collar job, whereas petsitting is more like being a servant, especially when she has to travel across Beijing to provide her services.

"They thought I had lost my profession and my expertise," she said.

Yu is a cat lover. She has an American Shorthair who has an envious disposition and gets angry if her owner carries the smell of other cats.

Having a pet at home, Yu quickly realized that her cat would be left unattended when she was on holiday or took business trips, a problem encountered by many cat owners.

At first, she and her cat-owning friends helped each other, and she sometimes received gifts as a token of appreciation. She realized that she could make her efforts pay by charging a small fee whenever she visited other people's homes to feed their pets.

She searched online and discovered that some online stores provided petsitting services, especially in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai where many residents are migrants and often return to their hometowns for festivals and celebrations.

Yu said cat lovers often distrust catteries, centers where pets can be boarded, because they don't know how the staff members will treat their animal. Unlike other pets, cats easily become stressed when placed in a new environment, and there are risks of cross-infection or fights when too many are placed together.

That means the best thing is to leave them in the family home and have people come to feed them and clean their litter trays.

"There is often a strong demand, especially during holidays when many people return to their hometowns. Migrants tend to have quite small social networks, so they rely on services such as mine," Yu said.

Early last year, Yu took the plunge, quit her job and started her online operation offering services in the Beijing area and selling pet food.

When a customer places an order, she contacts them to obtain the address, contact details, the relevant dates and ask them to mail her a key. She charges 80 yuan ($11) a day for dealing with up to two cats and 10 yuan for each additional animal.

She puts on shoe covers when she arrives at each client's home, informs them and films the entire process, including providing food and water for the animal, cleaning their litter tray and interacting with them. If the cat is not in the mood to play, she sends a message telling the owner, "Your kitty is feeling a bit down today."

Initially, she wondered if customers would trust a stranger to enter their home, but quickly realized that it was not an issue for most owners. "The demand is there, and they feel reassured once they have experienced the service. Besides, raising cats is quite expensive, so they wouldn't do it if they worried about the money," she said.

Her operation has gained very good reviews online and she has attracted a number of regular customers. To expand her operation, she has hired 20 catsitters since October. They are of different ages, do a wide range of jobs or are university students and all have one thing in common－they are cat lovers and are experienced at caring for felines.

Yu said one of her employees has five cats at home and spends more than 100,000 yuan on them every year. "They don't lack money. They are just doing the job to meet more cats, and they feel comfortable helping other people care for their pets," she said.

She has decided to devote herself completely to the business. She said that when she started recruiting employees and formed the team, her family gradually realized that she was not doing random manual work, but running a legitimate business.

"They now understand that this can become a proper career and that I'm not just malingering or being idle," she said.