Woman's job also her perfect pet project

Dianna Harris begins work daily at 6 a.m. and doesn't finish her day until 9 or 10 p.m.

It's the flexibility between those hours that inspires her to continue operating her home pet-care business.

The Southeast Las Vegas resident began Happy At Home Pet Care 4 1/2 years ago in an effort to have more time during the day to spend with her daughter.

Harris credits her choice of profession to a magazine story. Pet care was listed among the best home-based businesses.

"Animals have always been special to me, that's why I went into this kind of business," Harris said.

She started out doing a lot of research, both into starting a business and in caring for a wide variety of animals.

Loaded with knowledge and prescription medication to fight off her animal allergies, Harris began caring for dogs, cats, birds, fish, frogs, lizards, snakes, horses, cows, and has done just about every other animal job to come her way.

She did once turn down a job to feed a bear. The owners asked her to just come by, feed and check on the 300-pound bear wandering loose around their house.

"I said 'no.' I just had the image of that bear getting between me and the door. They said it was just a baby, but I didn't care," Harris said.

Much of her business comes as a result of her phone book listing, or by word of mouth. She's a member of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, so many people hear about her or meet her at chamber meetings. She also gets referrals from satisfied customers.

Many of her customers are regulars who want dogs fed or let outside in the middle of the day. Other customers call on her strictly during vacations. She usually does five or six jobs a day, seven days a week.

Since Harris works when others are away, there is no such thing as a holiday. She didn't work this past Christmas, but last year she had four jobs on Christmas morning.

Harris has customers all over town. She and her black Labrador retriever, Dixie, hop in her pickup truck and travel from Sunrise Mountain to Green Valley. She has a few regulars right in the neighborhood.

"Sometimes I just walk to jobs. I love to walk," Harris said.

Harris has her hands full just taking care of her own residence. She lives on 2 1/2 acres of sand and fine dirt near the Belz Outlet Mall. When it rains, the dirt gets hard as a rock.

When Harris arrived, the land was an arid slice of desert. It's taken 4 1/2 years to build it up to house 15 chickens, four ducks, two cats and two dogs.

"All my life I've had different little critters around," Harris said.

She eventually plans on putting in an arena for her daughter to practice barrel racing.

To contact Harris, call 269-9697.