When Wendy Thomson Melling started her cat sitting business back in 2017, it was to earn a bit of extra cash caring for creatures she loved.
She didn’t expect that in just a few years she’d be able to ditch her old career as an accountant and set up a franchise business caring for cats across the country.
My Three Cats first started in Warrington, Cheshire, and now Wendy has 350 clients across Warrington, 18 sitters on the team, and FIVE franchisees already operating in Blackpool, Bury, Preston, Sidcup and Orpington and Lowton, Atherton and Leigh.
We recorded this interview in March 2026, and in just two months by April 2026, Wendy had two new franchisees come and join her.
Wendy and I have known each other since the 1980s when we went to St Wildrid’s Primary School in Grappenhall, and when she started My Three Cats we worked together on a press release.
That was back in 2021 and it was the fastest story published – we had the call and her story was online the same day.
We’ve worked together more closely for a few years now in Pets Get Visible, and watching everything she has done growing My Three Cats, then starting her Cats Deserve More and now franchising has been amazing.
In this episode Wendy talks about what it was like leaving a secure job in accountancy to standing on stage at The Cat Show Live and all she’s learned.
Listen in on the player link below and you can read the key points covered as a blog post. All the links to connect with Wendy are at the bottom of this post.
How did My Three Cats start?
“I started cat sitting in 2017, never intending it to be anything more than just a bit of pocket money. I’d not long been divorced and I just wanted a bit of extra money to take the kids on holiday.
“So I set up a Facebook page, put out some posts, and got pretty much straight away a few clients just in my local area.
“It seemed to be very popular. I think people liked the fact that I was a cat-only pet sitter, because the other options were either a general pet sitter who seemed more dog-based, or people just used friends or family who may not know anything about their cat. It just kind of grew through word of mouth.
“In the first couple of years I was doing it alongside my full time job in accountancy. Then Covid put a spanner in the works – it was on hold for the whole of the lockdowns.
“But in summer 2021, it really started to take off. That’s when I started taking on a team of cat sitters. And it’s just continued to grow ever since, to the point where we’ve got 350 clients and a team of 18 cat sitters.
“But I still think we’re going to need more, because every summer we can’t keep up with the demand.”
What made you take the leap and leave accountancy?
“By the time I reached a point where I was really getting bogged down, snowed under and burnt out, I knew I had to make a change. But the thing is, I had a well-paid, secure job. That’s not easy to walk away from.
“What helped was my background in finance and small business. I’d worked in other small businesses before and seen them grow to huge sizes. I’d seen the issues they’d come across.
“So a lot of the things I’m now dealing with, I’ve already had experience with through other people’s businesses.
“The financial side of it has never daunted me because it’s my bread and butter from my past career.
“So when the decision came to go full time, I felt like I had the tools and the understanding to make it work. That made it feel less risky, even though it was still a massive step.”
How has having Eloise work alongside you changed things?
“About three and a half years ago, I asked my daughter Eloise to come and work with me.
“She’s 24 now and had helped me out doing some cat sitting before, but she wasn’t happy in her job at the time, and I wasn’t happy being completely bogged down.
“What I knew was that she works very differently to me. I’m very much a ‘things happen when they happen’ kind of person – not very organised.
“She’s methodical and has a really good routine. I think some people weren’t sure it was a good idea that we should work together because we’re family and live in the same house.
“But it’s been the best thing I could have done for the business. The minute we started working together, she just organised everything.
“I trust her completely, so I can give her things and know they’ll be done properly. She pretty much runs the entire Warrington business now – all the new clients, bookings, client communication, speaking to the cat sitters.
“That leaves me free to focus on the franchise business. We do it together, and it’s amazing.”
What support has helped you along the way?
“I do struggle without an office environment. When I was working from home, I’d get really distracted and find other things to do.
“So I now use a co-working office space in Warrington- usually one or two days a week – where I can just get my head down with my headphones on and get a whole day’s work done.
“But I’ve also had amazing support from people like Helen McCue, a franchise consultant who’s an ex-NatWest business bank manager.
“I met her at the franchise show in London on a complete whim, just because franchising had been on my mind for a few years. She’s been absolutely invaluable in helping me understand what it takes to be franchise-ready.
“And then there’s being part of your membership. The workshops you’ve done on press releases and visibility have given me the confidence to approach media outlets directly, rather than just telling myself the business story I want to share. It’s made a real difference.”
What was it like taking a leap of faith and investing in The Cat Show Live?
“I was absolutely terrified, but also excited. I felt like I was taking a massive risk, but at the same time, I had huge confidence and faith that we’d built something that really works.
“There’s no reason why it couldn’t work in other areas. But knowing that I’d put my heart and soul and my bank balance into it, the fear was huge.
I kept thinking, what if we do all this and it’s just tumbleweed and everyone goes home? We had this massive stand – I didn’t even realize how big it was going to be at the time.
“We’d been talking to people all day and were really tired. My talk was moved to four o’clock, which seemed like bad timing because surely everyone would have gone home by then.
“I was terrified of doing that talk. I actually lost my first page of notes just as I was about to go on stage. But I got up there and did it anyway.
“When I came off stage, I was just relieved to have got it done. And Eloise said, ‘Mum, we need to go back to the stand because there’s people waiting to speak to you.’ I was like, ‘Really?’
“As it turned out, our first franchisee, Rachel from Blackpool, was sitting at the back of that talk at four o’clock.
“She’d made her family stay and listen to it. She’d been walking around all day trying to get a chance to speak to me, but each time she tried, we were busy talking to other people.
“So she waited for me after the talk, and she was the one who signed up first. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it.
“We had loads of people interested filling out forms after the cat show, and less than six months later we had our first three franchises signed up.”
Tell us about the Cats Deserve More campaign
“It came about because me and my daughter Eloise went into a new pet shop in Warrington.
“We were excited to see what they had for cats, because we love looking around and finding completely unnecessary new cat products.
“But there were so many aisles full of dog beds, dog leads, dog harnesses, dog bowls, and just such a small section for cats.
“I got myself all worked up and ranty about it. Then I started thinking, why is it like this? So I did a bit of investigating and putting posts out on social media.
“One pet shop owner told me that they didn’t stock many cat products because cat owners don’t spend any money. Apparently, you’d be hard pushed to get a fiver out of a cat owner.
“But that’s completely not true. Our clients have houses full of things they’ve bought for their cats – amazing cat trees, wonderful cat beds, all sorts of toys.
“They have to go searching on the internet and online and specialist shops for them, because you go into a standard pet shop and they’ve just got a couple of cat balls, a collar, and maybe a litter tray. That’s it.
“So I started the cats deserve more campaign with a view to getting people to think about it when they’re going into pet shops.
“I want to make some noise and try to get the pet industry to really start to take notice.
“Eventually, I’d like it to turn into something bigger – an accreditation scheme almost, so that cat businesses and cat service providers can sign up and pledge to offer equal services and products to cats as they do to dogs.
“To show that they’re offering as much benefit to their feline friends as their canine friends.”
How have you approached visibility and press coverage?
“We’ve always been pretty visible on social media. I’m a great believer in people knowing who they’re buying a service from, especially a service like ours where we go into people’s houses.
“There’s a huge amount of trust involved. So I like to put on our social media who we are as people. I like storytelling. I show my face, I go on video, we talk about our own cats and our own stories.
“I like to show the people behind the business, rather than just the brand. The branding is important to us, but so are we as people. We form a really nice relationship with our clients that way.
“I’ve also become a lot more confident with press release type visibility. Some of the workshops I’ve been on with you, and working with you directly, have really given me the confidence to actually go out and contact various media outlets.
“Only today I’ve had a piece in the Bury Times about our new Bury franchise. It’s becoming a lot more natural to write something that I believe readers will want to read, rather than just the business story we want to tell.
“I also worked with Bex Bates early on, who does social media training. She taught me how important it is to tell stories, and not to do social media for people but to teach them how to do it themselves.
“That really stuck with me from the beginning.”
What’s next for My Three Cats?
“I want it to grow in a controlled manner, rather than just for the sake of it. After our first five franchises, I’m putting everything on pause.
“I want to be 100 per cent sure that those founder franchisees are fully supported.
“We’ve got everything in place to give them full training in everything they need, but there are still things I want to enhance and improve on. There are new training courses I want to be able to offer to them.
“So there’ll be a bit of a pause while we get those first five completely up and running and confident and established in their own areas.
“Then I think we’ll look to have another intake, probably towards the end of the year.
“But I’m conscious that people are going to pay me a lot of money for something, and I need to be able to provide them with the tools and show them how to create the same sort of model that we’ve made here in Warrington. I can’t spread myself too thinly.
“We’re definitely going back to the Cat Show Live this year. We’ve booked a smaller stand this time, but now I’m thinking maybe we need a massive stand again.
“Everyone kept commenting on our pink carpet! We’re definitely going to be there because for us it’s just the ideal place to talk to people with our ideal clients.
“And it was such a brilliant show – full of cat businesses, cat products, cat services, and just amazing cat people.”
Want to connect with Wendy and My Three Cats
Website: www.mythreecats.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-thomson-melling-143910211/
Links mentioned in this episode
If you’re a pet business owner looking for support, community, and confidence to put yourself out there, come and join us in Pets Get Visible at www.rachelspencer.co.uk/pets-get-visible
Find out more about The Cat Show Live on September 12th 2026 here: https://thecatshowlive.co.uk/
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