About ThePetly – A Monthly Pet Care Resource

Meet Our Team

Jeffry-bio-photo

Jeffry Thornton

Founder – ThePetly.com
Focus : Dog Care

Jenny Watkins

Researcher & Writer
Focus : Cat Care

Hi there, my name is Jeffry Thornton.

Pets and animals in general have been part of my life since I was young.

Growing Up On Acerage

When I was young I grew up on a 5 Acre block of land, and together with my father we hand-built fencing to create three individual paddocks. In that space we ran about 20 sheep and 6 goats.

We also built a chicken shed to house around 15 chickens, and created a duck pond by digging a hollow and cementing it – along with a shelter house for them.

We constructed a metal shed that we could milk the goats in, and was also a shelter they could freely walk in and out of. I learned by the age of 12 how to milk goats, as we had to do this daily.

Milking Goats!

Milking a goat is quite different to milking cows. You need to form a tight ring at the top of the teat with your thumb and forefinger to prevent the milk going back into the udder as you sequentially squeeze the other fingers on your hand to extract the milk.

For a few short years we also had a big white rabbit and a guinea pig who shared the hutch that my father built for them.

Our Family Cats

Also on the little farm we had 3 cats – a big tabby cat named Tim, a Siamese named Mailee (Chinese for ‘beautiful’), and an older long haired tortoiseshell cat named Cissy that my parents got at the same time I was born.

A few years later after a couple of our cats passed, we inherited a very timid scared Devon Rex kitty who had been abused by her former owners. It was terrible to see the fear in that cat’s eyes, and it took a long time for us to gain her trust.

No animal should have to go through that, and seeing it first hand really gives you more compassion toward animals.  

But wait …there’s more!

Our Dogs

We also had a German Shepherd dog for many years, who unfortunately had been mistreated as a small pup by the breeders before we got her, and despite being a wonderful dog for me and my siblings, had to be put down after attacking a good family friend.

After this we got a Corgi, and funnily enough the cats were initially scared of a dog that was at their eye height – as they were used to weaving between the legs of a large dog!

My Cockatoo

There was one final character that arrived later on, and this was an Australian Sulphur-Crested cockatoo. We rescued her from a shed at the back of a friends property, where she had been placed many years prior when they had a baby, and the cockatoo had become very jealous and menacing toward their baby.

We just named her ‘Cocky’ and I spent many months gaining her trust until we became inseparable. I used to ride my BMX bike around with Cocky standing on the handle crossbar and flapping her wings.

Those are good memories.

So we were quite busy on that little farm with all those animals, and there are endless stories to tell of their different personalities and antics they got up to!

I gained many skills having so many animals around, like how to round up sheep, how to milk goats, how to look for ticks and fleas on animals, how to clip a birds wing feathers, amongst many others. Being on acreage we also had neighbors who owned horses, so we became familiar with feeding, grooming, and riding them.

When you spend so much time growing up around animals they become part of who you are, and am still passionate about pet care today.

My Dog & Cat Now

My current dog Rex is a bully breed and fetches me whatever I want. In the field he makes me feel energetic. He loves fetching, though he is a bit lazy in the mornings.

His competitor is Joy (a cat) who always give me smooth purrs every time I sink into my couch exhausted after a long day. She is a great little companion. However these two close allies come with responsibilities – from general care and feeding, as well as accessories to make them happy.

Love Our Pets

Owning pets can be a special thing, sometimes a visceral feeling that you can only feel deep inside. A special bond for the good and for the worse, both for the young and for the old. A relationship you can’t replace with anything else – Pets are our family.

Nothing else quite has the special place in our hearts that pets hold, and frankly we’d be lost without them. They fill our lives with happiness and good memories, and are committed friends who provide the best company.

My vision is to create a pet information resource with topics covering:

  • General Pet Care   
  • Best Pet Nutrition
  • Best Pet Products 
  • General Pet Information

Our Mission

Our mission at ThePetly is to put a smile on the face of every pet owner, knowing they have found the best way to give their pet the right care. This is by giving everyone a platform to learn, share, and gather valuable information about their pets on.

My team and I have dedicated our energy and resources to bring you the best pet information we can. We research topics and provide you, our awesome readers, with information relating to pet needs and problems.

Also we review products we firmly believe will give your pet the best care, and solve their problems – ultimately solving YOUR problems!

Our Content Plan

My team and I aim to provide content on everything about pet care – both information and product reviews.

We will be adding information in a sequential order, with our goal being to expand this site by adding resources on commonly kept pets, using both our knowledge and writers who specialize in particular pets.

Product Reviews

In regard to giving product-reviews, we will be reviewing products that we have used and some that we have not.

Our assurance is that we strive to give you honest and thorough content that is well researched to the best of our ability. We sincerely hope this will save you time finding the right products for your pet family members, and the right information to help you when trying to resolve both their problems and yours.

Affiliate Disclosure

Alongside discussing these topics, we will be participating in affiliate and advertising programs.

This allows us to cover the expenses of running this website, and also give us a platform to help pet lovers give the best care to their pets.

If you make a purchase via a link on our site we will receive a small commission – thank you!

Should you have a suggestion, question, or just a thank you note, don’t hesitate to reach out via our contact us page.