Carrie Maria

Founder, CEO, Manager

 

After getting her undergrad in Sociology and Urban Studies, Carrie headed overseas in search of adventure. She met Lindsay (co-founder of The Monster Minders) in New Zealand and they lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia and England. Carrie and Lindsay love immersing themselves in unfamiliar cultures and ordering food that they can't pronounce. Her love for travel was a jump start for The Monster Minders. She figured that other people must love to travel too and worry about leaving their pets behind. Why not offer them peace of mind while they’re away on an adventure? (or just at work in Center City?)

  

Other than Monster Minding, Carrie enjoys running, quilting, reading, eating spicy food, dancing under disco balls, and gardening. When she can get a weekend off, she lives to spend days in the mountains hiking & camping. She tries to grow as much food as possible at her community garden in Bella Vista during the summers (with varying degrees of success...). Carrie also sits on the Mayor's Animal Advisory Council for the City of Philadelphia and was on the Board of Directors for Animal Care and Control Team of Philadelphia (ACCT Philly) from 2014-2018.

 

As a runner, in early 2010 Carrie started a volunteer running group, The Monster Milers. The Monster Milers pairs shelter dogs with volunteer running partners, and rescues dogs from ACCT Philly. The runners visit Philly shelters to take dogs for runs while they await their forever home. (Shelters are highly stressful places for dogs and the regular runs help take the edge off.) The ‘Milers also hold regular adoption events (“Adopt a Running Buddy”) at races and and host Philly's only road race to benefit rescue, The Rescue Run 5k. The 501c3 charity has trained hundreds of active volunteers to run with shelter dogs.

 

Carrie and Lindsay share their lives with Jax, a rescued collie-lab mix. He's not the smartest dog in the world, but will do ANYTHING for a treat or a cuddle. He's Loyal with a capital L and lives to go swimming and hiking. Their human-monster was born in 2015, Frannie Jo. (AKA, Jax's BFF.)

 

**Max, the big beautiful mastiff mix pictured above passed away in 2012. He was actually one of Carrie and Lindsay's first dog walking clients, and they ended up adopting him from his owners (their clients) in late 2005. (He was Carrie's dog soul-mate.) Lola, the cute pit-mix above was adopted in 2007 and passed away in 2019 at the age of 13. She was a joy to be around, constantly moving and loved to run with Carrie. She was Carrie's inspiration for The Monster Milers. Over her lifetime she clocked thousands of miles, running by Carrie's side.***