We dedicate our entire lives to the welfare of the creatures we share our homes with. The pets that carry us through the highs and lows of this life forge deep connections with us that bring color to the world around us.

In an industry where anything goes, we commit ourselves to the responsibility of serving human and pet alike to better our holistic welfare—meaning, we offer nothing less than the best of the best.

When searching for pet services, it’s important to ensure your values align properly with the professionals you choose to entrust with your family. Read below to see real client stories from those whose lives we have been invited into, and how we have had the privilege to be a support for people just like you and I in our community.

When a dog comes to us severely anxious, it is going to take more than a single lesson of with tips and tricks to help them. We met Skittles due to her inability to perform simple activities of daily living, from potty breaks to going on daily walks.

Enter Behavior Intensive, our behavior package designed for in-depth behavior modification for dogs presenting with severe levels of distress in their daily lives.

We spent our time with Skittles working through a behavior plan designed to get her up and moving while equipping her busy family with the support they needed to help Skittles adjust through adolescence. She went from complete shut-down and avoidance (shaking and urinating on herself) to exploring the Kalamazoo area, welcoming new friends into her circle of trust, and walking around her neighborhood with focus on her people and a social bond to carry her through.

We are so proud of Skittles, her family, and all that’s to come in our long-term support to help Skittles through her nerves and bring out her playful, joyful zest for life!

If your dog can’t leave your house to walk beyond the neighborhood because of their anxiety levels, addressing those barriers becomes our top priority. For Finn, he faced a catch-22: he needed to get out of the house to decompress in nature, true to his Schnauzer instincts, but his anxiety in the car prevented him from being able to do so.

Introduce weekly regular field trips! After Jordan and Nicole collaborated to introduce Finn to the routine of services, we then transitioned him into our recurring field trip services to get this boy out and about in the car.

Finn now has enjoyed over a year of three weekly field trip outings where he gets to explore the world beyond his backyard, with minimal triggers to constantly re-set his barky-lungey behaviors from scratch. With better energy levels at home and the family’s FIRST EVER pet sitting away with us covering all care for Finn and his brother, Watson, we were so thrilled to see the two of them thrive as their humans continue to live their life without having to worry about their dog’s needs being met. Way to go, team Finn, through self-paced exposure this guy needed to hit his stride and transform his quality of life!

When you have a rescue that didn’t get the best start in life, and all the cards are stacked against them, resolving their fear, reactivity, and any other behavior challenges that come with them. While it’s true that we can’t unwind the hand we’ve been dealt in terms of their genetics, upbringing, and temperament, that does not mean all hope is lost.

Ezra participated in our Behavior Intensive Package, field trips, and day camp. His humans have committed to bringing him out of his shell to encourage PLAY, and we continue to provide him new exposures to bring him out of his shell and trust the world around him.

From a reactive dog that would freak out immediately to a tail-wagging, cool-as-a-cucumber pup that is a HELPER DOG in our reactivity cases now, seeing Ezra thrive has been a DELIGHT of ours over the past year of 2025. His friendly face, precious tail wags, and INITIATION of CURIOSITY toward new dogs and people have warmed our hearts, even as the weather cools down. We are DELIGHTED to be entrusted with his care and training and to have seen him start to blossom to the point of initiating play with his sister and becoming loose and wiggly throughout his daily life!

“Help! There has been an aggression incident at home!” Always a difficult message to receive, we were readily there when Boomer’s family needed us most as he engaged in aggression which was targeted at another small dog in the home. After subtle cues of conflict built up to an attack, Boomer’s anxiety experienced in daily life reached a peak.

We saw Boomer in class and then our day camp after originally connecting over help needed with anxiety that was not easing as Boomer grew. His family saw a complete turnaround in his behavior over the summer thanks to their dedicated data taking and hard work with him. That behavior then changed again with a change in season and routine.

Thanks to the data taken and support of his VERY dedicated household, we were able to determine Boomer’s needs required he move to a different household and we assisted with finding him a breed-specific rescue to foster him. Complicated and complex cases take a village, and we are here to support ALL households through informed, emotionally-supported decisions for their high-stakes cases while balancing the needs of humans, dogs, and community alike.

We first connected with Bindi after her family reached out via Instagram. There was a LOT of understandable anxiety around coordinating care with multiple providers, especially while working long 12+ hour shifts in the medical field with a high-energy breed. We started VERY slow, with extensive shadow visits and a very small, consistent staff team. Enrichment quickly became a focus, including trips to the “dog park” (an empty dog run) and using her own fitness and agility equipment since the family lived in condos and rental properties. Over time, we built a TON of trust, to the point where there were eventually no staff limitations at all. We had the privilege of staying with Bindi through a move to a new home and supporting her through a medical diagnosis. Bindi unfortunately passed away young from lymphoma is July 2023. We have since cared for “rainbow” pets, Along the way, we also helped navigate nail trims for Twix the bunny and later welcomed Greta the bulldog. This story truly grew from Bindi into the whole family. 💛

I met Poppy’s person in 2019 when I was still working on my own before Cloud 9 started. When we met, it was before Poppy had even come home yet. Our first meet and greet involved sitting on the couch laughing about an “imaginary dog.” When I finally walked in and met Poppy on her first day, I squealed with delight. She was SO little!!! I’ve been with her since the very beginning (and even slightly before, LOL). At a time when I was working solo and on the verge of burn out, Poppy was a light. She was always sweet, fun, and eager for someone to come and walk her after a long day. We watched her grow up before our eyes and “graduate” to free-roaming between visits—as long as she had her reliable midday walk! She has met the vast majority of our staff and is universally loved. We supported her through health concerns, including thyroid management, and helped her manage reactivity on walks after a dog park incident using pattern games and enrichment. Poppy’s human’s work schedule intense, but we are SO grateful to still know both of them seven years later at the time of writing this.

We met Java (nicknamed Ravi) shortly after his humans adopted him as a rescue in 2019. He was shy at first and benefitted greatly from shadow visits, but he and I became best friends VERY quickly. Over time, care expanded to include pet sitting, pet taxi services, buddy walks, and playdates.

As Java matured, behavioral challenges emerged that we never observed during our visits, which led to close collaboration with his behavior consultant and a temporary pause to ensure consistency.

This experience fundamentally shaped our approach to behavior-informed services and followed us as C9C evolved, shifting from traditional dog walks to decompression outings, field trips, and “enrichment” beyond plastic puzzle toys to fulfill and manage dogs as a team rather than only with Nicole and Jordan. Java and his person, who spent time employed with Cloud 9, helped build SO much of what C9C is today. Saying goodbye when they moved was HARD, but filled with gratitude and pride to hear how they are doing now as their family continues to grow. Thank you to our Ravi, whose picture sits in our office. <3

Miles and Shelby’s humans valued their daily walk with the belief that all dogs need DAILY exercise: even the little friends! When health decline required additional support, we stepped in for walking the Yorkie duo.

Miles knew exactly when it was time to go. He started recognizing cars pulling up and would get so excited the moment he realized a walk was coming. Back then, Shelby was just a tiny puppy: small enough to fit in one hand. We walked the same loop every day, rain, snow, or shine, to get their walks in. That consistency helped them settle, relax, and feel secure.

The last walk with Miles was a hard one. Partway through the loop, he was gently picked up and carried the rest of the way home by our wonderful staff provider: he had walked all he could and we made sure his life was full of sniffs and hellos around the neighborhood.

Now Shelby leads the way. She’s fully taken over the loop, walking with confidence and purpose. She used to be very scared of new people walking her, hesitant to move forward, or even redirecting onto Miles when a dog appeared. Today, she proudly leads the entire route on her own as a brave girl keeping up the routine.

MY PIP! Pippa’s people were commuting at distance, so I saw her twice daily. Gosh, we did SO MUCH together! Long walks, taking her to the dog run, training at pet stores…. we did it all! Her feeding routine was like she was a person; they put SO MUCH effort into it and made me think hard about how I wanted to ensure the staff we brought on knew how important it was to follow everything to a T.

Pippa was my “escape” in a personal rough patch I was going through and starting my business around: C9C would not be here and I would not be where I am without them, which spurs our top value of Community. She turned my day around and brought me out of really deep, dark periods countless times. This family and the work I go to do was never “just dog walking/pet sitting” and it truly changed my life as I worked through Pippa’s anxiety and my own, giving me the basis I needed to create meaning and agency in my life. When they moved, I had a souvenir “pumpkin toy” gifted for my personal dog, Morgan, who was too shut down to interact with toys…. but she LOVED that pumpkin toy. It was her “squeaky” she chewed on, carried, and snuggled with. I buried the pumpkin toys with her when she passed away in December 2022.