Silver Springs, Md. ? Walking a dog on a beautiful day, playing with kittens – for money. Sound better than the job you have now?

Whether you’re interested in working for an established company or starting out on your own, pet sitting is a growing business. Combined membership in two major professional pet sitters associations doubled between 1999 and 2005, according to David Lummis, a senior pet market analyst with market-research firm Packaged Facts. Part of a much bigger picture, consumers spent $4.73 billion on non-veterinary pet care services, including pet sitting, last year, or 32 percent more than they did in 2001, he said.

Those in the industry say people see their pets more as family members these days. They need extra care while their humans lead busier lives, and they need more than just a kennel when the people go on vacation.

Jaime Deason started a Fetch! pet sitting franchise in Silver Spring franchise partly because she had trouble getting quality care for her own dog and cat.

“We struggled to find people who were reliable enough, ” she says, and it was difficult to accommodate last-minute changes in their complicated schedule.

Deason meets the needs of families like her own with more than just dogwalking. Fetch! offers services like overnight visits where a sitter will stay at your home from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. the next morning, as well as boarding in sitter’s own homes.

When hiring, “our main requirement is that people love animals,” Deason says.

But spend a day with a pet sitter and you’ll see it’s more than cuddling puppies.

Gabe Schneider of Silver Spring, Md., works for Deason’s pet sitting service.

“It’s always different, not the set nine to five,” says Schneider, 21. “It’s always something new.”

On a recent Thursday, Schneider’s first two assignments went from one extreme to the other. The day started with Jake, a yellow Labrador retriever who’s just a year old and full of energy. Schneider’s job is to take him out for an hour “and tire him out.”

Jake runs out of the house with Schneider with great enthusiasm. But his attitude changes when he sees the open back of the car: He doesn’t want to jump in. He sits, lies down, hangs out, and does everything but get into the car despite Schneider’s repeated coaxing.

After a while Jake wins the battle – as you he knew he would – and Schneider gives up and lifts the nearly full grown retriever into the back of the van.

They drive to Rock Creek Park, where they walk, play fetch, and greet some other dogs who stroll by. Then, best of all for a retriever, Jake goes for a swim in the creek.

Now the job is done, and Jake is tired out, making the idea of jumping into a car especially unappealing for him. Jake’s wet and muddy now. But after watching the dog put on a great show of exhaustion, Schneider has no choice but to pick him up again.

As Deason says, in this job “you’re going to do a lot of laundry.”