Above: Two kittens born to a feral mother are checked out by staff with the West Olympia Pet Hospital at today's Pet Paw-Looza event at The Pet Works in downtown Olympia.
By Janine Unsoeld
www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com
The Pet Works, a new pet and pet supply business
located at the corner of 4th and Adams in downtown Olympia, was bustling today with
even more ooh’s and aah’s than usual as it hosted a Pet Paw-Looza,
complete with free pet health exams, dog washes, pet nail clippings, and more.
Owners Eric and Rebecca Smith say they have seen
continual, weekly growth in their business since opening a couple months ago.
“We groomed 119 dogs last month, we’ve expanded our
product lines, like adding Avo Derm dog food, we just got parakeets in
yesterday, and have over 100 species of fresh and brackish water fish now,”
says Eric. Eric is pleased with the work of Zeigler’s Welding and Olympia
Powder Coating for building and painting their new fish stands.
Eric says rabbits and lots of other critters are
coming, as well as salt water fish.
Today, Pet Paw-Looza provided space for a variety of
local animal related services to offer their information. Volunteers with
Thurston County’s Animal Services offered a variety of adoption and animal resource information, including a list of much-appreciated needs for the shelter. Most
needed is quality kitten, cat and dog food (first ingredient not corn and no
red dye), milk replacement for kittens, cat litter and boxes for foster homes,
critter bedding, hand towels, gift cards, and much more.
Dogs on Deployment volunteers were also on hand.
Dogs on Deployment is a 501(c) non-profit which promotes responsible pet
ownership and provides an online network for military members nationwide to
search for volunteers to help their pets during their service commitments.
Amy Evans of Lacey says she started to volunteer
locally for Dogs on Deployment when her pre-school daughter kept asking where
her friends were going. Her friends’ parents were in the military, and Evans
discovered that they had animals that were being left behind.
“I wanted to do something to help,” she said.
Today, Steve Hoag of Puyallup came down to Pet
Paw-Looza and show off his two year old pitbull, Bullet. Hoag says he will be
away for military police training starting in late July and is looking for
someone to take Bullet while he’s gone for two months.
“He’s great with kids, older people, everyone but
cats. He’s super intelligent and mild mannered – you know, pit bulls are not
aggressive unless trained to be. He’s very easy going,” says Hoag. Hoag says he
got Bullet from an animal shelter in Pennsylvania one and a half years ago.
“He’s kennel-trained, and came 3,000 miles cross
country with me….” he says, as Bullet gets excited about a potato-based pig ear
given to him by Laura, a Pet Works staff member who just gave him a bath.
Above: Bullet gets special treatment today at The Pet Works.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nathaniel Stewart, DVM with the West
Olympia Pet Hospital, and staff offered free pet wellness checks, seeing plenty
of adorable cats, dogs, puppies and kittens.
Dogs of another kind – hot dogs – with chips and
soda were provided by South Bay BBQ.
“A lot of local effort has been involved in all
phases of our business and new people are coming in every day,” says Eric Smith.
For
more information about The Pet Works, go to
www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com and use the search button to type in
key words.
Above: The Pet Works at 407 4th Avenue in downtown Olympia has seen continual growth nearly every week since its opening just over two months ago.
