Thanks so much for the note, Tony!
We built this first version to make it easier for pet owners to go directly to their existing friends/ connections for help (boarding, for instance) when they are away. Like you said, pet owners find it difficult to locate trustworthy sources for this sort of thing, and many we talked with would prefer to go direct to friends, family, etc., but asking for help in those cases sucks. Non-pet-owners we talked with said they really want to help/ hangout with cool pets, but they simply don't get asked. We want to fix that issue first, so we make those connections easier to make by having coordination in one place, and helping to remove the "awkward" in asking for help. We want asking for help from friends to be as easy or easier than picking up the phone to call a kennel.
I mentioned in another comment here, but we're definitely thinking about ways we can grow each user's graph beyond direct friends, including some elements similar to LinkedIn (e.g. your direct friends giving an endorsement to their friends, so when you see a friend of friend come up as an option for help, you see 5 other direct friends have vouched for that person and their love/ ability to watch dogs). We envision something similar for professionals as well.
We're really excited about the possibilities here! Don't hesitate to drop a note with any other feedback or comments as you dive in.