From South Africa to Northern Ireland, couple are having a ball in Belfast with new pet care business

Launched in 2023, We Love Pets in Belfast is already having to turn away bookings with owners planning to extend the business.

Part of the largest pet care franchise in the UK, franchisees Karen and Philip Rhodes and their team of five employees look after any pets, big or small within the Belfast area.

Primarily they walk and board dogs, visit cats and can board or visit all small caged furry, scaly, feathery or finned pets. They can also care for horses, goats, chickens, ducks.

“If it is your pet, we can care for it,” said Karen.

Originally from Zimbabwe but having lived in South Africa all their lives, the couple followed their daughter and her boyfriend to Belfast to start a new life and are delighted with their choice of new home, enthusiastically agreeing that the people of Belfast have been “wonderfully warm and welcoming to our whole family.”

Karen loves animals; as a young girl she wanted to be a jockey, eventually becoming an assistant trainer, training flat racing horses in Harare. At 25 she qualified as a dog groomer, opening her own grooming parlour.

A childhood pin money idea by her daughter, Robyn, launched Karen into a world of pet care.

Karen explained: “At 16 my daughter Robyn wanted to earn a bit of pocket money. She dropped flyers through the doors of our neighbours in the compound we lived in, offering to care for their pets and got such a positive response that I had to start helping her with all the pet care.

“I even carried it on after she went to law school and then finally left to live in Belfast with her fiancé, it was a huge success.”

The business ran from 2012 to 2023. At its peak they had 60 pet sitters and two mobile grooming vans.

However with her daughter starting life in Belfast, Karen decided to offer international pet sitting, travelling to southern Ireland to care for people’s pets while they went on holiday, leaving husband Philip to look after their large countryside home.

In 2020, the pandemic hit just as she was moving from one house-sit to another and South Africa immediately closed all borders, so she made a dash for Belfast and spent two years living with her daughter until restrictions were finally lifted.

Eventually, with the pandemic over, the pair decided to relocate to Northern Ireland for good and Philip left his job in mining and explosives in the gold mines.

“We’ll never go back to South Africa,’ said Philip. “It’s just too dangerous and we love Northern Ireland, the countryside, the people, the craic, we love it all.”

We Love Pets is a franchise organisation, founded in 2008, with nearly 120 franchisees running their own independently owned branches across the UK and hoping to expand into southern Ireland soon.

Karen and Philip benefit from a full team of staff at We Love Pets head office giving them support daily, from keeping the website up to date to ensuring they are compliant with training and regulations.

Karen continued: “I know what it’s like to run a business on your own, it’s very hard work; being a franchisee with We Love Pets is the perfect balance for us; we still own our own business, but a lot of the heavy lifting is done, leaving us time to get on with looking after the pets, our staff and meeting new clients.”

Despite dog boarding being unregulated in Northern Ireland, all We Love Pets branches work to the same high standards.

Philip added: “We know we are different; we are an unashamedly premium service, and we are proud of that USP. We don’t pack walk and provide individual attention to our boarding dogs.

“Our staff are on full time contracts with us, meaning they receive sick and holiday pay. We take pride in the standards we set, and our clients tell us they like knowing they are working with a company that genuinely cares about its staff and, of course, their pets.”

The pair are rapidly expanding the business, with eyes on opening a new location in the next few months.

Of the future Karen stated: “Our five-year plan is to become the go-to name for premium pet care across Belfast and the surrounding areas; as such we are currently recruiting more dog walkers and dog boarders.

“The roles would suit anyone looking for an active but flexible role that will fit in around school hours, or possibly an active retiree who enjoys getting out and about in their local area, working with wonderful furry friends. We can’t wait to bring the We Love Pets service to many more clients soon.”