I love it when I go into a home, and I see all those wagging tails.

Sally McAvoy has turned a childhood passion into an adult career. When her clients are on vacation, she makes house calls on their pets. Sally, her husband, Dana Aikin, and their daughter, Nicole Ashley, live in Newbury Park.

I grew up in Verona, N.J. That’s when I really started liking animals. My first pets were two hamsters that I named Ham and Eggs. I was 6 or 7.

From then on, I was always bringing home rabbits, snakes, squirrels, dogs, cats, birds. The birds didn’t last with the cats. We even tried hanging the bird cage from a chain on the middle of the ceiling, and they still got to them.

We had a graveyard. We had the small animals in the front yard and the large ones in the back yard. Everybody had tombstones. I even used to have funerals. Now everyone laughs about it, but it was a very serious thing at the time.

I used to set chairs out on the front lawn, and I would stand up there with my Holy Communion Bible and say Mass for the dead over my goldfish or turtle or whatever it was. I was just very emotional when I was younger about a bird with a broken wing or a crow with maggots. My parents really loved it.

When I got out of high school, I had the opportunity to start working for a veterinarian at the Conejo Valley Veterinary Clinic, because I had a dog that had hip dysplasia. I ended up owing the doctor $600, so they offered me a job. I was thrilled.

It was hard at first. The job is so demanding. Not only do you have to love animals, but you have to be on top of things all the time when you’re dealing with medications, administering anesthesia and assisting in surgeries. It’s a very stressful job. I’ve worked in the back, and I pretty much have run the place for the last eight years.

I started pet-sitting in 1984. I go into the home, either once or twice a day. I take care of the dogs or cats, you know, poop scoop, clean up after them, walk the dogs. I feed and change the water dish and clean the bowls, bring the mail and the newspaper in. I do potted plants that need to be watered, even take the trash out on trash night if they need it.

The busiest time with my service was over Christmas vacation. I had 20 houses a day. People were real worried when I showed up nine-months pregnant to pick up their key to take care of their dog for two weeks. My due date was Dec. 27. I just let them know that I had someone lined up just in case and that they shouldn’t worry while they were away.

I started contractions at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of the 30th. I just continued to do my pet-sitting all day. My husband was driving me around at that point. I would just lean against the wall having contractions while he was doing things. I would say, do this, do that, to make sure that everything was being done correctly. That kind of drove him crazy.

It all worked out great. I did my last job on my way to the hospital. Nicole was born at 4:20 in the morning of the 31st. I started pet-sitting three days after she was born.

The other day, I was sitting here going, “Oh my God, what have I started?” I can never take off for a three-day weekend, because that’s when everybody else is taking off. There’s no more Sunday mornings of staying in and cuddling. I try to get my husband to stay in bed until I get home, but by the time I get home, he’s up and showered, and he’s having breakfast.

That’s the one drawback, but I’ve gotten used to it. It doesn’t bother me that I’ve got to get up on Christmas morning or Thanksgiving. It makes me feel good to to know that I’m busy and that these animals are waiting for me and they need me. They don’t know it’s Christmas Day. I love it when I go into a home, and I see all those wagging tails. It’s great. I feel like I’m wanted and I’m needed, and I really enjoy it.

This is what I want to do, I want to be successful at pet-sitting, I want to be so busy pet-sitting that I have 20 houses every day, not only holidays. I want to make money doing this. I want to be a successful businesswoman.