I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and a month or so before my 21st birthday, I met Chevy, the Rottie mix puppy that would change my life's trajectory.  Chevy was supposed to be my partner's dog, but after we broke up, I was lucky enough to end up keeping the dog.  Over the years, Chevy taught me many lessons, the most important one being, that by feeding a biologically appropriate diet to your pets you can easily improve their overall health.

When Chevy was around 5 yrs old, our holistic vet suggested switching to a homemade raw food diet to help with her skin issues, incontinence, ear infections, lethargy and to help her slim down. With a little guidance from the vet and a basic recipe from a book he sold me, I got to work changing my dog's diet. Within a couple of months, the improvements were hard to miss.  Chevy had a ton more energy, her incontinence went away, her coat was shiny, her ears cleared up, and she slimmed down to a perfectly lean weight.  There was no denying that the change of diet was to thank for these improvements and I felt the need to tell everyone about it.  I couldn't stop talking about the positive shifts I saw in Chevy, how excited she got at feeding time and how small her poop was due to her using the new food efficiently. I was a bartender at this time, and my customers probably wanted to talk about other things, but instead they were learning about raw feeding along with me.

About a year into feeding Chevy, and my other dog, Blockhead, this new diet, I started wondering why there wasn't a pet supply shop in town that was focusing more on raw food diets.  The local holistic vets recommended it regularly and my friend at the New Season's butcher counter said they had a ton of regular standing orders for raw necks, feet, organs and grinds with bone.  It seemed to me that a shop with a raw food focus, one that had more information for folks interested in making their own diets or feeding fresh foods in general, would do great in Portland.  I asked the owner of my local holistic pet supply shop (shout out to Julie from the original Healthy Pets Northwest) if she thought this idea would work in town, and she thought it would do well and just asked that I didn't open the shop right down the road from her. Totally fair request.  My second stop was my holistic vet, Dr. Judkins, to see what he thought about the idea, he also thought it could be successful since he often suggested a diet change to help with different ailments his clients were experiencing.  He told me to read more books on the subject and after I opened the shop, he was helpful in answering very specific questions my customers had.  That was all I needed, two folks in the pet community and my butcher friend, to convince me that I should open a holistic pet supply shop that focussed on raw feeding.