About Sterling.
I built the pet care I wish I'd had.
Sterling started with an uncomfortable truth. Most pet care asks you to hand your animal to a stranger and hope it goes fine. I wanted something better than hope. So I built it.
It started with a feeling I talked myself out of.
Years ago, when I was traveling a lot for work, I left my pets with a sitter I found on one of the big apps. I did the homework. I read the reviews, asked the questions, and told myself they were in good hands. Looking back, I did everything you are supposed to do. It still went sideways.
I got off easy. A close friend did not. They came home from a trip to a trashed house and a dog that had been put in real danger. Partway through the stay they could tell something was wrong. The sitter had stopped answering. When they called the app for help, they got nothing. No information, no answers, just a flat “trust your sitter,” about a person who had gone silent. A friend of theirs had to rush over to the house. If that friend had not been around, their dog and their cat could have been badly hurt.
That is the whole problem in one story. The big platforms hand you a stranger and step back. When it falls apart, you are on your own.
So I built a company that stands behind its people.
Sterling is not an app that drops a stranger at your door. We vet every sitter ourselves, with background checks, references, and real time watching how they handle animals before they ever care for yours. We are licensed, insured, and bonded, so you are covered. And if a sitter ever cannot make it, we have backup, because your pet's care should never hang on one person having one bad day.
I'm a Denver native with a dog and a cat who are best friends.
When I was traveling a lot for work, I leaned on friends to watch my two, and I always felt like I was asking too much. I wanted a real option. People who love animals as much as I do, who I could trust the way I trust a close friend, without the guilt of calling in a favor every time I left town.
I also know the other side of it. I know how a trip sours when you cannot stop picturing what is happening at home. Half of you never actually leaves. Giving you a vacation where you genuinely relax, because you know your pet is safe, is the whole reason Sterling exists. Getting that right means the world to me.
Our promise to you.
We treat your pet like our own, because to the people who care for them, that is exactly how it feels. We tell you the truth, we show up, and we never cut corners on safety. If we would not trust someone with our own dog or cat, they do not work here.