Pet owners snub GFC

Australia's largest pet feeding and dog walking company, Lonely Pets Club, has just recorded its busiest holiday season ever.

The company, which has six franchised areas in Melbourne, visits people's homes when they are away, feeding and cleaning up after their animals, bringing in the mail and bins and checking the house's security.

"We're a mobile pet feeding service," said director, Justin Cofield. "So what the clients buy from us is a half hour block of our time."

Over the Christmas and New Year period in Melbourne, Lonely Pets Club made 5,575 pet care visits for 803 pet owners and looked after 1,374 pets.

"We thought that due to money being a bit tighter this year, that pet owners may not be travelling as much this holiday season, however, the opposite was true," Cofield said. "Obviously we are thrilled that so many pet owners both trust and need our pet care service, but it is also fantastic that people are not letting this whole GFC thing get to them."

"We had about 380 to 390 half hour jobs booked on any one day over the Christmas period, so that's pretty full on considering our average is around 120".

Lonely Pets Club has been franchising since March 2008 and hopes to establish its first franchise in Sydney early this year.

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