- February 24, 2025
All Creatures Pet Sitting has been accused of violating the city’s code.
Sylvia Leykamm and her daughter, Amanda Driscoll, have had a passion for animals for their entire lives. When Driscoll was 9 years old, she put a sign up in their community pool with for dog walking services. Her mother was very confused when she started receiving calls from pet owners looking to book a stroll for their pup.
“She pretty much started the business that way,” Leykamm chuckled. She’s currently the owner of All Creatures Pet Sitting, which has been operating for two and half years. A licensed and insured pet sitter, Leykamm does most of her business outside her home in the Timbers Edge community within The Trails. After working full time at a job that was paying her less than what she could live on, she decided to open her dream business. When she first opened, she mainly collected donations to her missions trip to South Dakota that she tries to go on every year with her son and daughter.
“My friends would ask me to watch their pets, and they kept encouraging to me start the business,” she said. “I wanted to do it right.”
Leykamm encountered her first major obstacle this past month, when a next-door neighbor complained about the barking dogs that her business was bringing.
“I first noticed the barking in the summer of 2014,” Her neighbor, Robin Hamlin said. “They never bark when she’s there, but part of her business is to go to the pet owner’s house. They bark when she’s gone. When I saw her come home with new business signs, I knew trouble was right around the corner.”
Hamlin wrote a letter to the members of the city of Ormond Beach back in October 2014, and received a response from Manager of the Neighborhood Improvement Division Joanne Naumann. In the email, Naumann said they made a visit to the Leykamm’s home, and told her to cease operations. Hamlin wrote another email Feb. 19 that stated “Sylvia Driscoll, may have stopped pet boarding in her home temporarily. I don't know what type of follow up, as noted, was done. Last night the barking went on for hours. I finally decided to go to the door and again she is in business.”
According to Leykamm, the two dogs she was sitting were a 13 year old that needed daily medication, and a formerly abused dog that was very skiddish. Neither dog could be put in a kennel.
“There is not way my dog, or these two dogs barked all night,” she said. “I sleep here and my daughter sleeps here. It’s quiet.”
Leykamm said that when she watches pets at her home, it is usually for friends who donate to her missions trip. Naumann said that’s still breaking the code.
“Bartering animal care is a part of this business,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re doing this for your friend when you’re getting compensation.”
Another visit was paid to Leykamm’s house in February by the neighborhood improvement division, and she said that she had no problem compiling to their requests.
“I was fully cooperating and said that it was not a problem,” Leykamm said. “I’ve done everything I needed to do, and they continue to harass me. Even after I told them I would be cooperative, they have been blowing up my phone, showing up to my door and talking to my 15-year-old daughter without my presence. There’s an animal patrol truck casing the neighborhood, and parking in fire lanes where they should not be parking.”
Leykamm said this over-active involvement in her case continued even after she told them that the two dogs she was watching would be gone by March 1. The animal control department could not be reached for comment, but Naumann said the barking dogs were not the issue for her.
“There is a wide range of ordinances and codes we address,” she said. “The list is expansive. There are issues of dogs barking all the time. We don’t handle that, but because the barking aspect of the case had to do with animals she was sitting in her home, it was ours.”
Commissioner Bill Partington and City Manager Joyce Shanahan were also involved in getting the situation solved. Though Partington pushed for a quicker reconciliation, Shanahan said she had to go through all of the proper channels, which can sometimes take awhile to do.
“The primary purpose of code enforcement is to gain voluntary compliance with the regulations. The code enforcement process is a quasi-judicial process and is governed by Florida law as well as city ordinances. “
Shanahan said the city must follow these steps:
1) Determine a violation exists
2) Provide notification to the violator that a code violation exists
3) Provide a reasonable amount of time to correct or cure the violation.
“In this case it would be to stop pet sitting in the home,” Shanahan said. “I believe our code provides up to a maximum of 30 days to correct most violations. But the code enforcement officer has discretion on what is a reasonable time period given the violation. In this specific instance, Leykamm was given 10 days to comply.”
As of March 1, Naumann closed the case after visiting Leykamm’s house and finding no extra dogs. Though her primary hope is the cease the barking, Hamlin doesn’t wish any negative impacts from this issue to affect Leykamm’s business.
“I know she quit her job to do this,” Hamlin said. “I’m not out to ruin her business or cut into her income, but I pay a mortgage and I should be happy to come home everyday too. I shouldn’t suffer for her business.”
Leykamm said she hopes that now the letters and visits from the city will stop. She claims her personal dog is not causing a disturbance, and that the tight neighborhood is filed with other dogs that do bark.
“This neighborhood is riddled with dogs,” she said. “I am very respectful of my neighbors. My dog will bark when someone rings the doorbell or comes up to the gate. But hey, that’s why I have a dog.”
