Pet ambulance service joins niche market

The list of businesses catering to pets and their owners is growing as fast as a newborn puppy. There are pet sitters, pet-friendly hotels, pet clothing stores and now a pet emergency ambulance service.

Critter Coach, as the Raleigh company is called, is the brainchild of animal lover Dennis Money, 49.

Money was running a pet sitting company when he realized that some of his clients had trouble getting their animals to groomers and vets, especially when they needed emergency medical attention.

Money decided he could turn that need into another business. He spent nearly $18,000 of his savings to get a minivan and an ambulance and then equipped them with cages and ramps.

He first began offering his service to his pet-sitting clients in Raleigh two years ago. Then he branched out to local veterinarians. He now offers his service -- which is transportation only, not emergency care -- throughout the Triangle.

"It's an extremely valuable service," said Michelle Hood with the Veterinary Surgical Referral Service in Cary, which performs surgeries. "He has specialized equipment to transport patients whose owners may not be able to handle them."

In addition to the emergency service, available 24 hours a day, he acts as a taxi service, taking pets to their regular vet visits or to grooming appointments.

The success of Critter Coach should come as no surprise. Pet owners continue to show that they're willing to spend on what for many is another member of the family. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association estimates that U.S. pet owners will spend $9.4 billion on vet care this year, up 8 percent from 2005.

Michael San Filippo, spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Association, said that pet owners are willing to spend more on everything for pets and that includes veterinary care -- from pet insurance to cancer treatments.

"I think that the [pet] ambulance service is something that people would desire and be willing to provide for their pets," San Filippo said.

He said that he was aware of at least one other similar company in California but it operates strictly as an emergency medical service. That business, San Filippo said, has eight medical vans equipped with oxygen tanks and other medical devices used to resuscitate and perform emergency medical treatment.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see more of this in the market in the future," San Filippo said.

Money has spent 28 years working with animals -- as a veterinary assistant, a veterinary surgical nurse and an animal hospital manager -- and said that helped him establish the business. He now has one part-time employee.

The number of calls he gets varies from day to day. One recent Monday, for instance, he received six emergency calls.

Vivian Adams of Raleigh has used Critter Coach to help her transport her ailing, 70-pound giant poodle to several medical specialists.

"My dog, Garcon, collapsed and Dennis came with the doggie wheelchair," Adams said. "Gosh, I don't know how I would have gotten him up."