They say do what you love, and it won’t be work. They say lots of stuff. But when I really thought about it, the only thing I could claim to truly love was watching great TV. So when I pondered career choices in my 20s, I didn’t consider being a TV-watching homebody to be an asset.

Well, I also loved animals, of course, but I didn’t want to go to veterinary school or anything. That sounded like lots of homework and long office hours. So I drifted into newspaper journalism for most of my working life. I started petsitting on the side in my 40s after a friend asked me to cover a dogsit. After that, I started picking up more petsits.

When I moved to a new town, Asheville, NC, I picked up a few petsits on the side while I looked for a “real” job. But I was so rapidly overwhelmed with petsitting requests that I doled out some to my boyfriend, who, in turn, got some clients of his own. Eventually, we decided to form your favorite company and mine: Asheville Home & Pet Care LLC.

So I never had to get a “real” job!

A couple months ago, I had a revelation while stretched out on a great couch watching “The Handmaid’s Tale” with my favorite client, Charlie the Chocolate Lab, curled up at my feet: I’m being paid to stay at home watching TV with a wonderful dog! All my dreams have come true.

I guess They were right!