News & Awards
Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services, LLC is the proud recipient of 26 awards, 4 international and 22 local/national awards, celebrating pet care excellence and animal rescue efforts. JND has been featured in publications such as The Boca Raton Tribune, Newswire, The Palm Beach Post, Sun Sentinel, Pets+ Magazine, Pet Sitters World Magazine, Coastal Star, among others. JND has also been interviewed on iHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict, and locally on Delray Morning Live! Read more below.
NAPPS BUSINESS OF THE YEAR, 2025
The Business of the Year Award is presented to one member who has demonstrated outstanding business practices and vision in maintaining and growing their business.
Finalist, 2025
Winner Pending 2025: Best of Palm Beach County Awards are the highest designation for local businesses, celebrating and recognizing the best our community has to offer.
Best Pet Sitters, HALL OF FAME 2024
The Boca Raton Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community in Palm Beach County.
Best Pet Sitters, 2024
Winner Pending 2025: Best of Palm Beach County Awards are the highest designation for local businesses, celebrating and recognizing the best our community has to offer.
Local Business Person of the Year Top Ten, 2024 & 2025
TOP TEN Small Businesses across all industries in Alignable’s 2024 Local Business Person Of The Year Contest for Boca Raton.
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WINNER, 2024 Quality Service Awards
The Quality Business Awards recognizes businesses that achieve an average quality score of 95% or greater over the previous 12 months.
Best Pet Sitters 2024, WINNER
Nominee, 2025
Best of Florida is an annual round up of the best products and services you can find across the great state of Florida.
Pet Care Provider, FInalist 2024
Best Pet Sitters of Highland Beach, 2024
BusinessRate ranks local businesses by Google reviews, trends, comparing businesses fairly, using a formula to represent a business’s popularity.
Best Pet Sitters, HALL OF FAME 2022, 2023, 2024
The Boca Raton Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community in Palm Beach County.
Pet Care Provider of the Year, 2022
Best Pet Sitters, 2022 Finalists, 2023
Best of Palm Beach County Awards are the highest designation for local businesses, recognizing the best our community and Palm Beach County has to offer.
FINALISTS, 2021, 2022, 2023
Best of Palm Beach County collects thousands of votes each year to recognize local businesses for outstanding professional presence and community response.
Neighborhood Favorite, 2021
Annual Neighborhood Favorites awards are the only business awards program based on recommendations from real neighbors that live in the local community.
Pet Adoption Advocate of the Year, 2020
The Pet Adoption Advocate Award through Pet Sitters International recognizes Jill Merjeski in Delray Beach, Florida, for her efforts to help feral cats and promote South Florida pet adoptions and online pet advocacy.
WINNER, 2019, 2020, 2024 Nominee 2025
Best of Palm Beach County collects thousands of votes each year to recognize local businesses for outstanding professional presence and community response.
Petatarian of THE YEAR, 2020
The Petatarian Award honors an individual, company or organization that has made outstanding efforts to improve the pet care industry through humanitarian or animal welfare efforts or education and industry development.
Delray Morning Live Interview
Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services, LLC was interviewed on The Greater Delray Chamber of Commerce’s Delray Morning Live! Program in 2020. Jill highlighted her pet advocacy efforts, the launch of her JND Feline Alliance Program, and the benefits of hiring a professional pet sitter.
Pet Sitter Confessional Podcast Interview
Pet Advocate of the Year Building Cat Sanctuary for Elderly and Disabled Cats
Jill Merjeski Now Serving South Florida Communities with Award-Winning Company
Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services, LLC has quickly become a top choice for pet parents living and traveling in Palm Beach County, offering various services that ensure pets receive the best care possible. Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services, LLC, was founded by pet care professional Jill Merjeski, MS, CPPS®, CTNRP, and has become one of South Florida’s premier dog walking and pet sitting companies. Jill’s Next Door strives to provide pet parents with high-quality service and the peace of mind they need that their pets are in good hands.
Jill’s Next Door Dog Named the Winner for the IBPSA Pet Care Business Excellence Petatarian Award
Jill Merjeski was named the winner for the IBPSA Pet Care Business Excellence Petatarian Award. The award–through the IBPSA–honor those businesses raising the bar for professionalism and success in the pet care services industry. “As the pet care industry continues to explode and competition increases, it’s important to recognize those professionals who are setting themselves apart from the crowd,” said Carmen Rustenbeck, IBPSA’s founder and CEO. “Jill is helping to raise that standard.”
Petatarian of the Year Announced
Jill Merjeski was named the winner for the IBPSA Pet Care Business Excellence Petatarian Award. To meet the initial threshold for a nomination, pet care providers must have been in business for at least three years and a current member of IBPSA for at least six months. Next, nominees were required to submit information reflecting their financial growth in the past year, company description and vision, and company culture. Nominees were also required to provide information on how the business excels in animal welfare along with details on education and certifications completed by the business owners and employees.
Conversations with Ibby Winners With Clay Liebrum
The 2020 IBBYs were presented to the winners in multiple categories during the final session at the Eighth Annual IBPSA Virtual Conference & Trade Show. I was able to get a chance to talk with our five distinguished winners. We wanted to ask them some questions about their business and operations, but we also spent some time talking about the past year and all that went along with the many situations that almost everyone had been facing. It was a pleasure hearing the success these people are finding as a result of the passion they have for the pet care industry. I definitely learned a few things from these incredible people, and our hope is that you will, too.
Pet Sitters International names 2020 Pet Adoption Advocate of the Year
Pet Sitters International has named Jill Merjeski of Jill’s Next Door PSI’S 2020 Pet Adoption Advocate of the Year. Merjeski, owner of Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services, LLC, devotes countless hours to feeding cat colonies, fostering cats and kittens, and also uses her business acumen and online platforms to assist a variety of pet rescue organizations in her area. “There’s so much time, energy, passion, love, and resources involved in volunteering, but it’s all worth it to make a difference to at least one animal in need,” said Merjeski. “I am especially grateful to be a part of the PSI community and the impact we are all making.”
Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services Wins Prestigious NAPPS Business of the Year Award
ill Merjeski, founder and owner of Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services, LLC, has been honored with the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters (NAPPS) 2025 Business of the Year Award. This prestigious recognition highlights Jill’s exceptional contributions to the pet care industry and her unwavering commitment to excellence in serving the Boca Raton and Delray Beach communities. Founded in 2017, Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services, LLC has grown from a neighborhood service into a multi-award-winning, trusted name in pet care.
Paws Up for Pets: Need a top-notch sitter? Professionals outline their services
Jill Merjeski was interviewed in 2022 after being awarded and recognized 11 times–locally, nationally, and internationally for her pet care an animal rescuing efforts. Jill left a career as a Senior Academic Advisor at Drexel University in Philadelphia to launch her pet sitting business in Palm Beach County in 2017. Four years later, her company was named Pet Advocate of the Year by Pet Sitters International and last year, JND was tabbed as the Best Pet Sitters of Palm Beach County by The Palm Beach Post. “These are big honors, especially considering we started from nothing,” says Merjeski. “I am always educating people that my company is part of a professional association that provides continual education and certifications to its members. We rely on the latest technology to communicate with our clients.”
Reaching Prospective Clients with Both Four and Two-Legged Children
Pet Sitters International (PSI) member Jill Merjeski, owner of Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Services, LLC, in Boca Raton, Florida, shared about how she included PSI’S Early Education Program® materials in recent community outreach efforts. Jill presented to 111 students and 10 faculty members for PSI’s Early Education Program®, teaching the Pet Safety and the Importance of Animal Rescue. Through demonstration and student volunteers, she showed the students how to approach an unfamiliar dog and avoid bites. She also highlighted her career in pet care, and how the students can get involved in animal rescue. Each student “adopted” a stuffed dog or cat, complete with its on kennel and certificate for being a rescue hero.
Paws Up for Pets: Community rallies to support man who helps community cats
For years, Catman has gathered bags and cans of donated food to feed about 200 community cats in Delray Beach every day. He pedals to specific feeding spots morning and night. And the felines are waiting for him. He is also a man filled with gratitude. With the help of many, led by Delray Beach Vice Mayor Juli Casale and Jill Merjeski, founder of Jill’s Next Door pet services in Highland Beach, Mitchell is now living in a furnished one-bedroom apartment and pedals a donated e-bike to feed the felines.
Merjeski says, “This is a real miracle story. Catman has been fixing and feeding Delray’s community cats on his own accord for years. He is helping control our cat population while caring for legal homeless cats. He has a huge heart.
Paws Up for Pets: Senior Pet Month a reminder of the joy older dogs, cats
By Arden Moore: National radio show host, podcast host, professional speaker/emcee, best-selling author, Fear Free certified professional and master pet first aid/CPR instructor, NAPPS Magazine Editor
Jill Merjeski, founder of the award-winning Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking and Pet Services (www.jillsnextdoor.com), based in Highland Beach, does a high percentage of her business catering to senior pets.
“Although we always keep a keen eye on all of our clients’ pets’ health, we pay close attention to senior pets,” says Merjeski. “For senior pets, we perform a house check to make sure that their beds, food and water are easily accessible for them and that the home temperature is comfortable for them.” Merjeski also customizes play time for senior pets.
“On walks with older dogs, we may walk slower and take more time and maybe include backyard time in a secure, fenced-in yard to customize the visit,” she says. “For older cats, we may include wand toys that we move more slowly and at ground level to be mindful of the senior cat’s mobility.” Her pet-sitting service also offers Canine Aqua Fitness, which enables safe mobility exercises for senior dogs struggling with arthritis. Merjeski shares her home with 5-year-old cats named Jules and Izzy, but also fosters elderly cats from All About the Cats Animal Rescue (www.allaboutthecatsrescue.org).
“We absolutely love our senior pet clients,” she says, adding with a laugh, “They also don’t seem to get in trouble as much as their kitten or puppy counterparts.”
We Are Delray – There Are Ordinary Heroes All Around Us!
By Lynn Van Lenten
I am sure the word HERO brings a famous song to mind. The Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl claims that he didn’t look up to celebrities growing up. Instead, he admired the hard work and perseverance of ordinary people. This idea is embedded in his song “My Hero.” One line goes like this, “There goes my hero. Watch him as he goes. There goes my hero. He’s ordinary.” This month let’s look at some ordinary heroes meeting everyday needs. Their contribution, day in and day out makes the statement “We Are Delray” more than ordinary! Let’s see how:
Do you have a dog who needs daycare or daily walking? How about some companionship or pet-sitting while you travel? Securing the right “hero” to provide your furry family member with the care you need is often hard to find.
Meet local hero Jill Merjeski, owner of Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking & Pet Service. Her team customizes all pet needs because any animal owner knows no two pets are the same, right? “The foundation of our award-winning company is a genuine love of animals,” said Jill. “Our team is dedicated to providing reliable, trustworthy pet care while offering peace of mind to pet owners in our community.” Jill meets every pet’s need, making her a pet hero!
Paws Up for Pets: Growth of pet parenting has unleashed a pack of innovative services
By Arden Moore: National radio show host, podcast host, professional speaker/emcee, best-selling author, Fear Free certified professional and master pet first aid/CPR instructor, NAPPS Magazine Editor
These days, dogs, cats and other family pets are being invited to once no-pets-allowed events, like lavish weddings. Recognizing this trend motivated Jill Merjeski, owner of Jill’s Next Door Dog Walking and Pet Services, to add wedding pet attendant services for her clients.
“We offer different wedding packages, from just doing the pet transport back and forth to the ceremony to getting the pet cleaned, brushed, time to arrive early to sniff and explore the wedding location and working with the wedding photographer to include the pet in the pictures,” Merjeski says.
“And, if they want their pet to stay through the reception, we are there for them and we also offer honeymoon pet care options.”
Merjeski, from Highland Beach, recognizes that everyone is dressed up for the ceremony. Being in charge of the pet ensures that the wedding becomes memorable and free of pet disruptions.
“One of our first pet wedding services was for a couple with a yellow Labrador named Cody,” she says. “I have walked Cody for years, so I knew him, and he knew me. He has a good temperament and wore a bow tie that made everyone’s day at the wedding.”
Four Legged Life Show: With Arden Moore
By Arden Moore
On her national radio show, Four Legged Life Show, Arden brings her interviewing skills, knowledge of pets and edu-taining style to the air waves. She treats her experts like welcomed guests and makes sure her listeners stay motivated to tune in weekly to gain
practical pet knowledge.
“Ready to say, I do? How about, I dog? Here is a link from my recent Four Legged Life show airing on my YouTube channel that spotlights Jill Merjeski, an innovative professional pet sitter in Palm Beach County, FL. She is offering pet attendant services so your dog or cat can participate in your wedding for even more memories.”
The WEdding Buzz: PODCAST WITH SYDNEY
Jill Merjeski Named NAPPS 2025 Business of the Year
Jill’s Next Door: From Accidental UK Pet Sitter to NAPPS Pet Sitter of the Year! (And Elevating the Entire Industry!)
Jill’s story is full of valuable lessons. Here are a few key takeaways:
- Get Involved: NAPPS and other organizations offer invaluable resources and networking opportunities. Join chambers of commerce, women’s leagues, and build partnerships with local rescues.
- Be Creative and Find the Gaps: Think outside the box and offer unique services that meet your community’s needs. Look for those “gaps” in your community where you can make a difference.
- Give Back and Build Relationships: Pet rescue and advocacy not only help animals but also build trust and connection with your community. Cultivate relationships with key people.
- Leverage Your Team’s Passions: Jill encourages her team to incorporate their passions into their work, whether it’s baking treats for strategic partners or creating digital marketing content. This not only benefits the business but also boosts sitter retention.
- Elevate the Industry: By demonstrating professionalism and dedication, you elevate your business and the entire pet sitting industry.
- Find your Passion: Find what drives you, and incorporate that into your business.
