Just a Chicago Girl - Episode 5 Recap

Episode 5 - Just a Chicago Girl

In Episode 5, Jessica Abernathy, President of the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters, shares encouraging words about the pet sitting industry and its participants; each so resilient that NAPPS rewarded all of its members with the 2021 Business of the Year award.

Jessica and Isabel are old pals. They have both been members of the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters for over a decade, served on the NAPPS Board of Directors together, and shared lots of happy hours at conferences over the years.

During the show, Isabel asks Jessica about her cat's peculiar name and how he earned such an unexpected moniker. Jessica describes her kitten rescue efforts and her knack for giving her fosters terrible names, which, at least in this one case, stuck permanently.

Jessica is a true believer in pets as family and strives to be an excellent pet parent and care provider. She's recently started coaching pet sitting business owners and individuals, which is a new passion that she plans to nurture in the new year.

Guest Bio

Jessica Abernathy began her career at United Airlines and worked her way into corporate headquarters, where she ran one of the training departments, managing over 3,000 employees. Abernathy handled all the required year training, created new training classes, wrote FAA manuals and coordinated all the managers meetings and training sessions. The last 2 years of her airline career Abernathy was the customer service manager, in charge of scheduling for approximately 350 employees, in addition to running the day to day operations, complaints department and more. Altogether, she spent 10 years as an employee at United Airlines.

Following her airline career, Abernathy ventured into the beauty industry, owning her business for 12 years and loving every minute of it. Still, after the events of 9/11 Abernathy realized that she needed another form of income and was inspired by a client who requested Abernathy to watch her kitten. Thus, Professional Pet Sitter, Inc. began. In addition to Professional Pet Sitter, Inc., Abernathy is also the owner of Chicagoland Cat Sitters. Abernathy enjoys serving on the Executive Committee, not only for the contributions that she can make to the organization, but for the contributions that her experience can offer.