Creature Comforts: Providing Adventure for Pups

Animals crave and thrive on exercise, just like people do. One local business makes it a mission to ensure all pets receive the care, attention, and activity that their owners know they need. Creature Comforts of Columbia offers a strong menu of services to pet owners — including daily dog walking, adventure hikes, and puppy care.  

Creature Comforts of Columbia has been in operation since 2013. At its inception, the team consisted of just Jill Boone and her husband, Nathan, who still co-owns the business, and Jill said she happened onto the idea quite naturally. 

“I had graduated college with a degree in animal science,” Boone explained, “and I was working in a veterinary office. One of the pet sitters was moving to Kansas City, and she had discussed referring some of her clients over to me, as I was doing some pet sitting, kind of on the side, while I was still working at the office.” 

Boone said she’d already wondered about making the leap to full-time pet-related care. With the other pet sitter leaving and referring clients to Boone, the time was right. 

“[It] kind of showed me that there was a true need to make it a full-time job, and not just a side gig,” she said. “That gave me the courage to leave my full-time job and pursue pet sitting and dog walking full time.”  

By 2019, Boone was working fifteen hours a day, and knew it was time to expand the team — and, as she calls it, the family. She has chosen that team carefully, with special attention given to potential employees’ goals, experience, and expectations. There are now eight employees in addition to Jill and Nathan. 

“One of the major things we do is take care of the pets as the clients want them taken care of. Every family is different, and something as simple as following direct instructions is a big deal to us,” Boone said. “There are a lot of details that need to be taken care of and followed. We’ve found a lot of [our team members] through employees we already had, because they understand what it takes. Once you find what works, you want to stick with that, and that’s what we’ve tried to do. It’s so nice to have employees refer people they know and trust.”  

Creature Comforts prides itself on helping families keep their animals in shape when there are personal or professional factors that make doing so difficult. Sometimes families simply need to outsource an afternoon walk. Sometimes the clients commute and can’t make it home for a lunchtime stroll. 

Sometimes professionals have regularly-changing schedules, so their pets might need attention at varying hours. Boone said that is especially common in working families that have large dogs that need exercise. She also works with individuals who have physical restrictions and also depend on their fur babies for support and companionship. Boone’s goal is to help set up pets for success by working closely with and providing support to their pet parents.  

The adventure hikes became part of the company’s offerings last spring. 

“We try to pick different places that are close [to our clients]: people have different places they like to go with their dogs,” Boone said. The dogs get to exercise within their own households (no co-mingling with unfamiliar animals).” Those walks usually take place in the morning and last about two hours. Creature Comforts will pick up your dog at your home.  

“Mental and physical exercise and external stimulation is so important for all dogs,” Boone said, “and for larger dogs in particular, because they’re often more active in general, and if they don’t get the stimulation they need, they can do behaviors that aren’t desirable, like barking incessantly, or destructive behavior in the house, because they’re just bored, or because they have separation anxiety … We’re all busy, and sometimes we want to come home and sit down, but our dogs are like, ‘Dude, I’ve been here by myself; let’s play.’”

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Creature Comforts of Columbia
573-333-7387  
[email protected]  
creaturecomfortsofcolumbia.com