Rest Assured
Animal Care
In-home and on-farm pet, horse and livestock sitting in Clackamas County, Oregon, and the surrounding areas.
Responsible, Reliable, Resourceful
Rest Assured Animal Care steps in when you need to step out. Our mission is to provide worry-free care for your animals when you are away from home, unable to do it yourself, or just need a break. We understand. We’re animal people, too.
What Makes Us Different
When you hire Rest Assured to care for your animals, you’re hiring professional animal caregivers, not the teenager down the street. We’re mature, responsible adults with a lifetime of experience caring for multiple species of animals. From start to finish, your animal care experience will be smooth and professional. First, you’ll receive an intake questionnaire that asks detailed questions about all your animals, their habits and routines, and the services you’d like us to perform. Next, if you are a new customer, we’ll schedule an on-site visit to meet you and your animals and go over your needs in person. Then, we’ll send you a written estimate, and you can reserve our services. When we arrive to care for your animals, we’ll be wearing uniforms and in a marked vehicle so your neighbors will know who we are. We’ll follow all of your instructions to the letter, so you can be confident your animals will receive the same level of care they would if you were home. No animal care routine is too complicated for us! While you’re away, we’ll provide you with as many (or as few) updates as you’d like, and if a problem arises, we’ll handle it. When you arrive home, your animals will be happy, and so will you.
Most people who offer in-home animal care and house-sitting do it on a casual basis, only accept cash “under the table” and have no insurance. If something happened to your animals or your property while in their care, you’d likely receive an apology and nothing more. If one of your animals were to seriously injure a casual caregiver, they (or their health insurer) might even sue you. In contrast, we’re a legitimate business, and as such, we have liability insurance as well as contracts that protect you and us. We also pay taxes on what we earn, so we happily accept multiple forms of payment, and you are welcome to send us a 1099.
Our Service Area
We travel! Our pet sitting and farm care services are available in Oregon along Hwy 26, I-84, I-205 and Hwy 99 within Clackamas County and in parts of East Multnomah County and East Washington County.
The following are in our regular service area: Beavercreek, Boring, Canby, Central Point, Clackamas, Damascus, Eagle Creek, Estacada, Fairview, Gladstone, Gresham, Hazelwood, Kelso, Lake Oswego, Lents, Milwaukie, Molalla, Mulino, Oregon City, Sandy, Sherwood, Southeast Portland, Southgate, Sunnyside, Tigard, Troutdale, Tualatin, Viola, West Linn, Wilsonville and Wood Village.
If your area isn’t listed but is nearby, please contact us.
About Us
We founded Rest Assured Animal Care because we couldn’t find the animal care we needed. Whenever we wanted or needed to travel, securing animal care was our most difficult challenge. Our trusted caregiver was frequently booked months in advance, so not always available. Other caregivers didn’t show up and/or didn’t follow our instructions. Nearly every time we were away, there was drama back home. Dogs got loose. Horses got stuck in the fence. The power went out. The caregiver locked themselves out of the house. We couldn’t rest assured.
Kris Christian, Animal Concierge and Co-Owner
The son of two veterinarians, Kris grew up working in his parents’ veterinary practice and caring for animals of varied species on the family’s hobby farm. During his teenage years, he worked as a veterinary assistant and bred German Shepherds, which he also showed in obedience and conformation. In college, he studied biology and photography. His first job after graduation was as an advertising photographer, which kept him indoors in studios with black paint on the walls and ceilings. Later, he made a career as a product manager for a large dental equipment company, which had him traveling inside flying metal tubes to distant lands and in metal boxes on wheels to conference rooms. When he wasn’t working, he was following his lifelong passion of living with and caring for animals. He especially enjoys working with the really big animals—the ones that live outdoors. Kris is now focused full time on running Rest Assured. He’ll care for just about any species of animal that won’t try to eat him.
Rachel Kosmal McCart, Animal Concierge and Co-Owner
Rachel is a lifelong horsewoman and the founder of Equine Legal Solutions, a leading equine law firm. She grew up on a horse farm in Ohio and competed as a youth rider in nearly every discipline at Appaloosa, Quarter Horse and hunter/jumper shows. She is a member in good standing of the United States Eventing Association and AQHA Professional Horsemen. As an adult amateur, Rachel earned numerous open and amateur American Paint Horse Association (APHA) points in almost every event as well as many year-end APHA regional awards in a wide variety of events. In 2012, Rachel switched to three-day eventing and has competed successfully up through Novice at USEA-recognized events. She is currently bringing along two young eventing prospects she started herself.
Like Kris, Rachel is a lifelong animal lover with a wealth of animal care experience. As a former small animal veterinary practice employee, she is alert to potential health issues in cats, dogs and birds. She has also owned and cared for pocket pets as well as a wide variety of tropical fish. Over the decades, Rachel has had many dogs and cats, and she and Kris currently have a German Shepherd, two Maremma Sheepdogs, a Peterbald cat, two Cornish Rex cats, a domestic shorthair tuxedo cat, a flock of chickens, a Betta fish, and even an African pygmy hedgehog. Having grown up with Australian Shepherds, Rachel has a real soft spot for Aussies and other herding breeds. She has also had two retired racing greyhounds, so she knows and loves sighthounds. Rachel never misses an opportunity to engage with parrots and other exotic birds, and she’s fascinated by bearded dragons and other reptiles.
Testimonials
We have known Rachel as a client and horse owner for many years. She takes outstanding care of all the animals in her life, and I have no doubt she would do the same for anyone else’s. Over the years she has always been reliable, responsible, and responsive in all of our interactions. I would not hesitate to have her look after my personal home or pets, and I am excited to be able to recommend her to more of our clients!
In my work as a farrier, I see a great variety of horses. I have visited Rachel and Kris’ farm to tend to their horses over a number of years. I can confidently recommend the care provided by Rachel and Kris of their horses as a demonstration their competence. I would entrust my own horses to their care.
Services & Rates
We are happy to provide as much or as little animal care as our customers need, ranging from one short visit per day to round-the-clock care. In addition, we are happy to perform house-sitting tasks like collecting mail, taking trash to the road, and watering plants.
We charge $25/hour for our services. To help defray the cost of fuel and compensate us for our time, we also charge a per-visit farm call fee that ranges from $15-80 depending on distance. If customers wish for us to stay overnight at their property, we charge an additional fee of $200/night. For every animal care engagement, we provide our customers with a written estimate in advance.
Deposit, Change and Cancellation Policy
Because we often receive service requests from different customers for the same dates, especially during popular holiday and vacation times, we require a 10% deposit to reserve our services (based upon the total estimated service price for the reserved period). Cancellations received 30 days or more prior to the reservation will receive 100% refund of the deposit or, if the customer prefers, a 100% credit toward a future reservation. Cancellations received 21-29 days prior to the reservation will receive a 75% credit of the deposit toward a future reservation. Cancellations received 14-20 days prior to the reservation will receive a 50% credit toward a future reservation. Cancellations received less than 14 days prior to the reservation will forfeit their deposit. “Cancellation” means a complete cancellation of the reservation, rebooking the reservation for different dates or shortening the reservation period by 50% or more. “Prior to the reservation” means prior to the reservation start date and time.
New Customer Policy
Before booking a reservation for new customers, we require an on-site visit at the customer’s property to meet the customer and their animals and learn about the animals’ care routines. This helps ensure we will be able to meet our customers’ animal care needs. We charge $25 for this initial on-site visit to help defray the cost of fuel, and it is payable prior to the on-site visit