90,000+
visits completed
★★★★★
5
Average owner rating
- Years On The North
Side - 11
- Visits Completed
- 90,000+
- Visit Window, Seven
Days - 7am–
9pm - Sitters Bonded &
Insured - 100%
Care That Comes To Them
Boarding means a strange building, strange smells and strange dogs.
Everything here happens in your home, on your pet’s routine.
Drop-In Visits
Thirty or sixty minutes, one to four times a day. Feeding, fresh water, toilet or litter, play, and as much lap time as the visit allows.
From $26
Overnight Stays
A sitter sleeps at your place, arriving by 8pm and leaving after the morning routine. The closest thing to you not having gone anywhere.
From $110
Holiday Care
Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and spring break, booked months ahead. Same sitter across the whole trip, mail brought in, plants watered.
From $30
Medication Visits
Insulin, thyroid tablets, eye drops, subcutaneous fluids. Every dose photographed with a timestamp, and no surcharge for the time it takes.
From $26
Cat Care
Litter, feeding, fresh water, medication and the patient business of coaxing a hiding cat out. Half our clients are cats and none of them like us at first.
From $24
Every booking starts with a free meet-and-greet at your home — you will meet the actual sitter, not a coordinator.
About Hearthpaw
Eleven Years, Nine Sitters, One North Side
Hearthpaw is nine sitters covering six neighborhoods, all of them employees rather than contractors, all bonded, insured, background-checked and trained in pet first aid. We are not an app and we do not match you with whoever is nearest. You get one named sitter and one named backup, both of whom meet your pets before a single booking is taken, and most of our clients have had the same sitter for years.
- Employees, not gig contractors
- Bonded, insured and background-checked
- One named sitter and one named backup
- Pet First Aid and CPR trained
Why in-home
Why Staying Home Beats Boarding
For most pets, the stress of boarding is the boarding, not the separation.
The Routine Survives
Same food, same bowl, same window, same 6am wake-up. Almost everything that upsets a pet when their owner travels is the change of place, not the absence.
No Kennel Cough, No Strange Dogs
Nothing shared, nothing contagious, and no group dynamics to navigate. For anxious, reactive, elderly or unvaccinated pets, that is the whole argument.
Cats Stay Cats
Cats are territorial, not social. Moving a cat to a cattery costs a week of stress at both ends; a sitter three times a day costs nothing but the fee.
Your House Looks Lived In
Lights on, mail in, bins out, a car that moves. A pet sitter is also the reason your home does not look empty for a fortnight.
How it works
Four Steps, Then You Can Stop
Thinking About It
Free, at your home, no obligation
Start With A Meet & Greet
Meet the sitter who would actually be coming. Most people book the moment their cat comes out from under the bed.
Every visit
What Happens While You Are Away
The same list every time, whichever sitter is on and whatever else is going on.
Fed To Your Schedule
Your food, your portions, your times — written down at the meet-and-greet and followed exactly, including the fussy-eater workaround.
Fresh Water, Clean Bowls
Replaced, not topped up. Litter scooped every visit and fully changed on longer stays.
Medication On Time
Photographed with a timestamp so you can see it happened, including the twelve-hour-apart doses that are the reason people call us.
Actual Company
Play, brushing, a lap, or just sitting quietly in the room with a nervous animal. The visit is not over when the bowl is full.
Your Home Looked After
Mail and packages in, bins out, plants watered, lights and blinds varied so the place looks lived in.
A Photo And A Note
Sent as we leave. If something is off — not eating, limping, hiding — you hear it from us first, not on your return.
Reviews
What North-Side Owners Say
“Two insulin jabs a day, twelve hours apart, while we were in Rome. Each one photographed with the time showing. We actually slept.”
“The overnight stay was the reason I made it to my brother’s wedding. Same sitter, our own sofa, and the dog barely registered we’d left.”
“They rang at 8pm on a Sunday about a rattling radiator and a cold apartment. That isn’t pet sitting, that’s minding our whole home.”
“We asked about Christmas in October and nearly lost our slot. Now we send our holiday dates the day we book the flights. Says it all.”
If something goes wrong
The Plan You Hope
Never Matters
Every care plan names your vet, a second vet for after-hours, a spending limit you set in advance, and a local contact who can get in if we cannot. Our sitters are trained in pet first aid and CPR, and if your pet needs a vet we take them, call you from the waiting room, and keep calling until we reach you. It has happened eleven times in eleven years, and every one of those owners still books with us.
- Your vet and an after-hours vet, both named
- A spending limit you set before you travel
- Pet First Aid and CPR trained sitters
- A local backup contact with access
Good
Questions
Weekdays, a few days is usually plenty. Weekends, two weeks. Holidays, the moment you know — Christmas fills by October and Thanksgiving not long after. If we can fit you in without shortening anyone else’s visit, we will.
Your sitter and your backup sitter come to your home, free, for about half an hour. They meet the animals, learn the routine, note the quirks and the sticky lock, and take a set of keys. Nothing is booked until you say so.
Keys are logged into a coded safe and tagged with a code, never your name or address. Between bookings they stay in the safe. If you prefer, a neighbor can hold the spare and we collect it each visit.
Service area
Where We Visit
Lincoln Park & Lakeview
Full coverage, seven days, with the shortest lead times.
Logan Square & Bucktown
Full coverage; overnight stays subject to sitter availability.
Roscoe Village
Daily visits bookable online; holiday weeks fill early — send a request.
Andersonville
Covered three days a week; if we can stretch it without shortening anyone else’s visit, we will.
Holidays book early
Check Your Dates
Tell us the dates and the pets. We will confirm availability and the exact price the same day.