Saving Grace Services

We try our best to support local businesses. Thanks to our in home security system updates we now know that Saving Grace cannot be trusted. The company promises that their sitters will stay 20 minutes for cat visits; and clean their litter boxes and feed them. We discovered that the sitter repeatedly left our home before 10 minutes had passed. Unless the sitter has superpowers, there is no way two litter boxes and feeding took place.
We understand that employers can’t control every move that their employees make, but it is their responsibility to hire the right people. Until they can do that, I would steer clear of them.

What a fantastic company! My pet sitter took care of my dog and two cats as if they were her own. She left notes daily and sent a text photo every few days which made me feel relaxed being away from my pets. This company does background checks and has back up staff if one person cannot make it. Your pets will ALWAYS have the care that you require. This company hires people who truly are animal lovers and you won’t see them walking you dog with their cell phones to their ears. The company doesn’t allow that! I like them so much that I went to work for them, too!

I recently went on vacation for about a week over New Years. Since most of my friends were travelling for the holidays, I couldn’t rely on them to cat sit my two fur babies like I normally do. After some research, I e-​mailed Saving Grace to inquire. I had nothing but positive experiences with them from day 1. Mollie was incredibly helpful in getting my account set up and arranging for the meet and greet with Paul. Paul arrived promptly on the scheduled day and asked all the right questions about my kitties and made sure I didn’t have any lingering questions before he left.
I won’t lie — I was pretty nervous about having a relative stranger come into my home while I was out of the country, and was worried that something would go wrong. But Paul was great about e-​mailing me status updates and even sending pictures. When we got home, we found a pile of handwritten notes on the kitchen table from every day that he had visited with a little note.
I’ll definitely recommend Saving Grace to all of my pet-​owning friends and will certainly use them again in the future!

Saving Grace has been such a huge help.
They are prompt, responsive, trustworthy, and kind. What more do you need?
I’d especially like to call out two people, Karl and Christel.
Karl, the manager who schedules the dog care, is very quick to get back to me when I have questions and it is clear that he makes every effort to accommodate my requests — regardless of how frenetic my emails are :)
Christel is an amazing dog walker. I trust her inherently with my baby. Not only is she on time, transparent, and kind (and fun), she gives me feedback about what is going on with my pup. For example, my dog was getting really hyper on Wednesdays walks. Christel suggested I find a way to have her burn off more energy midweek — and it has helped tremendously (and fewer things in my apartment have been mauled as a result!)
I’m so glad I found Saving Grace on Unilocal a year ago.

These people are scam artists as I just posted a negative review 5 – 7 days ago and lo and behold it has vanished. They have a some kind of trick where they delete or reverse there locations, and then repost the reviews later. On the day I posted my negative review, I was the only review in their Capitol Hill east location and now there are 30 all 5 star reviews. I will be contacting Unilocal,but in the meantime stay away from saving grace. Don’t be fooled by their «spiritual» background, they are all about the bottom line and pay their employees miserable wages all while providing a subpar service. Especially look out for Bonny, the self proclaimed doggy lama, or doggy scama as we refer to her. She will charge you $ 250 for reading to you for two hours and call it «training.» Its interesting they only have 5 star reviews, I am very skeptical.

We sure were bummed to lose such a great business when we moved from DC back to NYC. My boyfriend and I are crazy about our pets, but always felt confident and at ease leaving their care (and the security of our home) in the hands of these folks.
Paul was so wonderful to our two cats that they barely lifted their heads when we returned. He also brought in out mail, left us little daily notes, and sent us pictures. We joke now that when our cats get miffed at us they are saying, «Where’s Paul? We want Paul. HE would give us treats.»
A+ all-​around!

These guys are seriously a saving grace! When I got a puppy I was so worried about getting home in time to walk and play with her but these people have helped so much! I can sign up for walks online and get monthly invoices. The security system with the house keys keeps me at ease and even helps if I lock myself out of my house! The dog walker always leaves me a note about where they went on the walk and who my puppy played with. It seems like everyone in Capitol Hill uses them too because everyone recommends them!

I use saving grace for cat and dog sitting, and they have been wonderfully reliable. My dog has some anxiety and behavior issues, and I felt that both the sitters I’ve had really took the time to understand him. I like that the sitters leave detailed notes after every visit. Also, they’ve been able to accommodate some last minute scheduling requests, which is a lifesaver!

I adopted Sunny the greyhound this fall, and Saving Grace has been wonderful. Sunny had some health issues in the beginning, and Bill did a great job providing me with detailed updates on how she felt while he was there. In addition, I was concerned that she may be aggressive towards small dogs… and Bill worked to socialize her at the dog park on their walks… she’s adjusted beautifully in large part to his help!
Sunny stayed with Adam for about a week while I was in Mexico, and she LOVED it. So much better for her than going to one of those large-​scale pet hotels. Greyhounds are notoriously bad at going up and down stairs, and Sunny is no exception… when Adam realized that she wasn’t going to be able to negotiate the flight up to his apartment… he CARRIED her (a 60-​pound dog) up and down the steps for a week. I’m so grateful so the folks at Saving Grace! They’ve made adjusting to pet parenthood a smooth transition. :-)

These guys are super reliable, easy to deal with and reasonably priced; what more could you ask for?
We love knowing that our cat sitter Paul will be looking after our pets when we are away.

We’ve been using Saving Grace for almost two years now and Selena has been wonderful. She walks our dog and has looked after our two cats during long vacations. I agree with the other reviewer about Saving Grace’s ability to be kind, professional, and flexible with changing schedules. If you are looking for someone to take care of your pets, look no further!

Yeah, I won’t belabor the obvious since the ratings for Saving Grace say it all, these guys are awesome and always deliver above and beyond what they promise. They’ve accommodated all kinds of crazy last minute requests, cancellations and other nonsense that we’ve thrown at them, and they continue being nice to us. So either they’re crazy or they’re just that awesome!
As an added bonus, they already walk a bunch of dogs in our building, so we didn’t have to go through the extra hassle of getting them keys, etc. and Patrick who has been walking Buddy is opening up a new offshoot in the DuPont area, so if we ever go hipster and move over to trendy town, they’ll be our first call!

I found Saving Grace on Unilocal,when I was looking for a temp solution for getting a housebroken adult rescue dog acclimated to my work schedule. I came up with this wack-​a-​doo schedule for a dog walker… in the attempt to get the dog’s bladder and mind adjusted to a new home and my 10 hour days away from home. I had emailed a few services, but Saving Grace was the one that I felt most comfortable with based on response and feedback via email.
Its been great so far and I feel totally comfortable with the set-​up. My new dog has adjusted quickly and she’s coming out her shell quickly, and I absolutely give Saving Grace kudos for being a part of that. I know that if I even have an emergency, I can count on them or at least they will try their best, and that’s a lot. Woohoo!

I had a strange job, I needed a heavy «leg lifting machine» mounted into a solid cement poured wall. All of my other handy men didn’t respond to my e-​mail requests (smile). But I came to Unilocal reviewed the ads and reached out to Saving Grace. They accepted the job and sent Brad out to help. Because it was a strange job, he brought the wrong wall anchor mounts and had to leave a go buy more; which was fine because I was home for the afternoon. He returned and drilled in the wall and removed the insulation, he then mounted the device very securely. One of the bolt secure mounts was a bit unstable and since it wasn’t load bearing, I told him that it would be fine, but he refused my offer and assured that it was properly installed which meant a lot to my family. First class service, done quickly and properly, he did forget his vacuum, but I agreed to clean because the area needed to be cleaned anyway, but If not for the wrong screw, which anyone could have done and forgetting the vacuum, I would have rated it a 5. But since 5-​star is perfect, I give them a 4.5 – great work! They also arrived right on their scheduled time – 3:30pm on the dot. I will use them again, if I have any home repair issues around the house.

I recently moved to DC from Florida and within three weeks of my move I had to leave my dog to go on a four day business trip. I was very anxious about finding a pet sitter because my dog is from the pound and she has attachment issues and doesn’t do well with other dogs. She has never been boarded and I had a pet sitter in Florida that I had used for three years that provided all services in my home. I wanted to find the same type of service in DC.
After much searching and sifting through many reviews I found Saving Grace. In the less than two months that I’ve been in the city Saving Grace has provided six overnight visits and nine walk/​feeding visits for my dog.
The staff has been incredibly professional and my dog has been very happy and well taken care of when I’ve gotten home. It is a huge relief to know that I have found a pet sitter that provides in home services that I can trust! I highly recommend Saving Grace for pet sitting and dog walking services.

As a dog owner, Saving Grace has been a real life saver. I have a dog, Ellie who has gets an attitude when she runs into other dogs on walks, Saving Grace gets it and works around her situation. I cant praise Ellie’s daily dog walker Laura G and Laura W enough, they are fantastic. Ellie has never had an issue and we’ve been using Saving Grace for almost 2 years. They are reliable and easy to work with, you can rest easy knowing your dog and home are in the best of hands. I recommend them to anyone, even the dog owners who are super protective over their pets (like me).

Saving Grace is just that, a saving grace. My dog walker, Selena, is so great with Lindy and my two cats. She is reliable and I can tell that Lindy loves her daily walks that keep her socialized with other neighborhood dogs and people. Not only do they provide dog walking services, they come and check on my cats and plants when I’m on vacation among a myriad of other services they offer (including house cleaning, handyman services, etc.). They leave daily notes about what happens on the walks (great for those whose pets are more like children) and I can tell that everyone that works for Saving Grace is passionate about the pets and the people they serve.

The company is super responsive. I’ve used lots of dog walking services back in Chicago, and the responsiveness of Saving Grace (as well as the convenience and ease of their online payment/​reservation system) is among the best I’ve ever experienced. I had a lot of questions initially, and they were very friendly, patient, and prompt in answering them.
I used Saving Grace for cat sitting this time, and since I’m obviously not there when the sitter comes, I can’t really speak to how the visits go, but the sitter left a nice note, and it seems like everything went well. Will continue to use them for cat sitting and will probably use them for dog walking/​sitting as well when I need to in the future.

Saving Grace has been providing daily walks for my dog for over a year now, and we have been consistently thrilled with the service. Our walker is fantastic, and the gentleman who manages the schedule is responsive and flexible with my many schedule changes. I love the little notes that our walker leaves for me every day — after a year, my dog has much more of a journal of his daily activities than I do!
It’s a big deal to give a stranger the care of my dog and the keys to my house. I completely trust Saving Grace with both.

On Capitol Hill, it is near IMPOSSIBLE to find anybody reliable to do handyman work.
I have been through 3 or 4 contractors and, when they found a bigger job, I would never see them again.
saving grace helped me and were reliable. I have had some small projects, woodwork, installing air conditioning, gardening and some bigger problems, water leaks and these people at are very reliable and good workmanship.
unlike other contractors, I don’t feel like I have to worry about leaving them in my house alone.
And they didn’t rip me off with their pricing. Also, i tend to want things done now, and they usually come through fairly quickly.

With as long as we’ve had them, this should be 5 stars. It’s a solid 4, though.
I suspect it has less to do with them, compared to persnickety clients complaining, and acting as the «squeaky wheel.» Why cater to the lowest common denominator?
Here’s where I’m coming from:
Somewhere, somehow, SG made the decision to stop taking out trash. Moreover, they will no longer even TOUCH the recycling in your home. In my experience, having used a few different cleaning services before we settled on Saving Grace, that’s not competitive.
I would bet that one of these self-​important Capitol Hill residents had one of their dear Aunt Petunia’s vintage flowerpots thrown out with the recycling, lost their minds, and complained to SG, who instituted the «we won’t touch trash» policy.
When I come home to a SG-​cleaned house (1 per week), I –used– to see this:
–Bedsheets changed
–Clean floors
–Trash cans all emptied and dumped outside
NOW when I come home, I see:
–Bedsheets changed
–Clean floors
–Piles of bagged trash –in my HOT sunroom– waiting for me to take them outside (meanwhile the bags have been «cooking» in the sunroom all day).
Additionally, the piles of recycled materials aren’t even put in trash bags. They’re left untouched. Hell, even the BAGS I put on TOP of them, to make it easier for the cleaners to bag them aren’t touched.
In my basement, where I have yet more recycling, they won’t change out the bags. The recycling can contains Diet Coke cans, not Plutonium.
Someone, somewhere, went nuts over them actually bagging and taking out recycling (and apparently trash). It really is lame, and a letdown every time I come home from a «cleaning» day, and have cleaning to do (particularly the trash in my sunroom).
None of this is enough to get rid of SG for house cleaning. They will change the linens on the bed if you leave the bed stripped and new sheets out for them. Many other cleaning services will not do that. YMMV.
We use SG for the other services I’ve reviewed, so we kind of stay with them out of consistency and ease with the integration of all the other services. But I’m really not impressed by the decision to (barely) touch the trash and not touch recycling. It annoys me every time I come home and have to finish the job I’m paying them to do.
So if you’re comparing possible companies, perhaps ask about each of these two factors:
1. If you’re comparing cleaning companies, perhaps ASK them ahead of time about changing out your linens if you strip the bed and put out clean sheets. Count that as a plus (I mean, we ALL pick up for the maids the night before they come, so that’s hardly onerous).
2. Ask about trash/​recycling removal. If they will do it, great, that’s a plus. If not, figure in that when you get home, you’ll have to still clean up. You can decide for yourself if that’s enough to go with one company over another.

So, I travel a fair bit, and while my cat is all right for a couple of days by herself, sometimes I am gone for quite a while and my neighbors are not able to take care of her. This was the case at the end of October when I was going to California for 10 days.
Previously, I had used Metro Pet Services, but it has been harder and harder to get in touch with them, and after I hadn’t heard from them for a few days, I decided to look elsewhere for someone to take care of Luna. I got numbers from my vet’s office, from the internet, and from the coffee shop, and I have to say, it is HARD to connect with pet sitters! In total, I contacted 5 places, and Saving Grace was the ONLY place that I heard back from. Some places don’t answer their phones, others don’t reply to emails, still others have disconnected phones, vanished websites, etc. etc.
Anyway, despite my bad luck in general, Saving Grace was responsive, nearby, professional, and competitive in prices. Even better, they also have a home cleaning business, so I have hopes of combining pet services with a good deep clean on my apartment one of these days. Thea was my pet sitter and she even sent me a text message after the first visit to let me know my cat was doing all right.