23 Reasons It’s Great to Be a Pet in Seattle

For starters, we teach dogs how to talk. Not really, but if Penny here could, she’d tell you she never wants to leave.

By Matthew Halverson

Photo: Radius Images/Corbis

1 Because Someone, 
Somewhere Is
 Willing to Walk
 Your Dog

That’s actually a blessing and a curse. Sure, it’s great that we’ve got more dog-walking businesses than you can shake a gnawed-on stick at (a search of Yelp shows more than 100 in Seattle and on the Eastside), but how to know which one is right for Rover? Kelley Goad, owner of Ballwalkpark and KING 5’s best dog walker in 2010, has some advice:

• Go under cover The best way to pick a pooch handler is to watch them in action at an off-leash park. Some will stand around while the dogs play. Others will get down and dirty with their four-legged clients. Do we need to tell you which one to hire?
• Peruse the pack Chances are, a walker already shepherds a group of pups, so it’s worthwhile to find out how many dogs are in it and what breeds are represented. “If your dog hates huskies,” Goad says, “you don’t want him to go with a bunch of huskies.”
• Trust your gut “A dog walker is going to be a bigger part of your life than you think,” Goad says. (She’s in her clients’ homes so often, they make her lunch and buy her Christmas gifts.) So it’s not only important that they’re good to your dog, but also that they give you a “good person” vibe. Ballwalkpark, 206-659-9027; ballwalkpark.com

Reader’s Pet! Reader Andy Gomez: “One day, I found an extra pair of glasses and wondered how our cat, Kayla, would like wearing them. Too bad she can’t read.” Find more photos of readers’ pets.

2 Because We Care About Feline Education

Well, sort of. The Seattle Humane Society calls its catcentric class Kitten Kindergarten, but we’re not talking about ball-of-twine book learnin’. Instead, the wee, whiskered students wrestle each other and work on their people skills, all in the name of not wearing out their welcome at home. “The more we can socialize cats, the less likely they are to end up back in the shelter,” says Jennifer Schneider, the Auburn-based trainer who developed the one-hour, one-session program. (The class is typically offered from June to September.)

It’s the first class of its kind in the state, no doubt because cats—what with their independent, indifferent, and generally inscrutable demeanor—have always seemed better off left to their own devices. “People think, Well, it’s just a cat; he’s going to be fine when I get him home,” says Emily Keegans, the Humane Society’s behavior program manager. “That’s mostly true, but this is a good way to head off problems.” Problems like refusing to use the litter box, biting and scratching, and launching sneak attacks from the top of the refrigerator—you know, the stuff that makes a cat a cat.

And even if your kitty is already well on its way to being well-heeled, Schneider can teach it a few new tricks—like how to sit, shake, and wave. Wait, really? “You can train cats to do pretty much all of the same things that dogs do,” Schneider says. “You just have to motivate them.” Motivating a cat…that’s a class all its own. Seattle Humane Society, 425-373-5385; seattlehumane.org

Reader’s Pet! Reader Allison Melton: “I put this necklace on Mirabelle and she went into a Zen catatonic state of misery, which made for a cute photo. She doesn’t like to accessorize.” Find more photos of readers’ pets.

3 Because We Accessorize with Kittens

When Madrona fashionistas stop into Juniper, Lisa Clinton’s boutique on East Spring Street, they’re just as likely to be shopping for a cat as they are for the latest Virginia Johnson frock—especially if said fashionistas are under the age of 10.

By 2007, when Clinton opened Juniper, she’d been fostering felines out of her home for a couple years. But with three cats of her own, she’d maxed out her live-in-kitty quota and needed to make a change. Then inspiration came clawing: Nothing—save for a few errant hair balls—was keeping her from letting a homeless cat shack up at the store.

Four years and 19 successful adoptions later, she’s built a cottage industry of connecting orphaned cats with new owners. And thanks to a fastidious cleaning regimen (she vacuums the store’s floor twice a day), the fur has yet to fly. Of course, it probably helps that she’s decided to foster no more than one cat at a time. “I’m already the neighborhood’s go-to person for people who want to adopt,” Clinton says. “I don’t want to be the crazy cat lady.” Juniper, 3314 E Spring St, Madrona, 206-838-7496; juniperinmadrona.com

4 Because Our 
Dogs Can Belly Up
 to the Bar

Steve Habecker didn’t court dog-owning clientele after opening Norm’s Eatery and Alehouse eight years ago. They just started showing up. First it was the regulars who wanted to bring in their new puppies. Then it was people who were walking their dogs through Fremont and wanted to stop for a quick beer. And then, well, it just kind of became a thing. “It’s something I never advertised,” Habecker says. “People wanted me to put it on the web, but I wanted to keep it low-key.”

Photo: Bettmann / Corbis

Not anymore. Walk into Norm’s on any given night, and you’ll come face-to-snout with half a dozen canine customers—tethered to their owners, of course. The pub even hosts birthday parties for pooches in the back room. “We’ll have 20 people and 15 dogs, all with birthday hats on,” Habecker says. “It’s kind of weird, but whatever.” In fact, the only times dogs aren’t welcome in Norm’s are Friday and Saturday nights after 10pm.

In case you’re wondering, yes, King County Public Health does prohibit non–service animals from restaurants and bars, but it’s a toothless law that carries no fine. Not that Habecker takes health concerns lightly. “We decided that, if we’re going to do this,” he says, “we’re going to make sure we do really well on our health inspections otherwise.” He’s only had one complaint in eight years. Norm’s Eatery and Alehouse, 460 N 36th St, Fremont, 206-547-1417

5 Because
 Our Dogs Moonlight as Legal Eagles

Have you ever looked into a dog’s eyes? Like, actually looked into them? Lock sights with a dog long enough, really get past the “awww, they’re so cute and doleful” thing, and you’re struck, not by what’s there (affection and a hunger for reciprocity, the glimmer of a primal spirit that no amount of crate training can ever completely break), but by what isn’t. There’s no resentment. No superiority. And not an ounce of judgment.

That’s partly what inspired Ellen O’Neill-Stephens to bring a dog into the King County Courthouse seven years ago. The King County senior deputy prosecutor had watched one young, shame-wracked victim of sexual abuse after another stammer through pretrial interviews, and what they’d recount was enough to make the average adult cringe. But their interviewer—required to remain unemotional and impartial—could do no more than coldly offer a tissue. Surely we can give these children some comfort, she thought. Why not a dog?

It was a tough sell, but as O’Neill-Stephens experimented one day a week with her son’s service dog, Jeeter, other prosecutors saw how calmly he sat beside young witnesses during those interviews, listening but not judging, and started asking if they could use him, too. Then she landed an endorsement from longtime King County prosecutor Norm Maleng, and the big yellow lab’s schedule was so full that the office needed a full-time service dog.

In 2008, she partnered with vet Celeste Walsen and began visiting any prosecutor who would listen, preaching the benefits of having a trained service dog on staff. (As much as they appreciate offers from civilians who volunteer their pets for the job, they only employ dogs from accredited training schools.) By the beginning of 2011, they’d sold a dozen counties across the country on the concept. “It’s been difficult to explain to judges and prosecutors,” O’Neill-Stephens says. “But usually when a victim’s advocate hears about it, they think, ‘That might work….’ ” Courthouse Dogs, courthousedogs.com

6 Because 
Bunnies Are Our Business

The thing about bunnies is that they’re chewers. They’ll gnaw on table legs, masticate rugs, and munch on couch cushions. And unless you sleep with one eye open, they’re liable to nibble your toes down to the bone.

Reader’s Pet! Reader Lindsay Schuette: “Once Olive, a baby cav-ajack, stopped chewing on Lola’s ears, they settled into an easy friendship.” Find more photos of readers’ pets.

All right, that last one’s a lie, but Jennifer Johannsen will corroborate the rest. “If you don’t give your bunnies some toys,” she says, “they’ll chew your house to pieces.” Johannsen owns and is—for the most part—the solo operator of Bunny Bytes, a West Seattle–based e-tailer of all things rabbit. She stocks food, litter, and digestive supplements, but not long after buying the company from its founders in 2002, she learned that the cornerstone of any successful bunny business is toys. “Far and away, it’s the biggest portion of our revenue,” she says. “Some bunnies really like to throw things around and some bunnies really like to roll things around.” But almost all of them like to chew.

So she sells dried-yucca dumbbells. She sells rings made of willow. She even sells little dolls made out of cactus chunks. At any given time, her mini warehouse is stocked with more than a hundred styles of bunny toys, and she makes most of them herself—with help from her own multibunny R&D department. “There are toys they like and toys they don’t like,” she says. “But I design my toys with an eye toward making them attractive and based in something that works with their natural behaviors.” Like, say, habitual chomping… Bunny Bytes, bunnybytes.com

7 Because Dry Pet Food Doesn’t Cut it Here

Gary Tashjian isn’t a vet. He isn’t a nutritionist. He’s just a guy who winced every time he watched Max, his 10-year-old arthritic Old English Sheepdog, try to stand. “I took him to the vet, gave him all the medicines they had, but nothing worked,” he says.

So as a last resort he took the shaggy, sagging dog to a naturopath for, of all things, acupuncture. But instead of needles, the vet prescribed a diet of fresh food. Like, fresh human food. “Aren’t you listening?” Tashjian asked the vet, incredulous. “He has arthritis. What do you care what I feed him?” “Just try it for a month,” the vet said. And 30 days later, Max was up on his feet again. “I finally got it,” Tashjian says now. “You are what you eat applies to them, too.”

That was 20 years ago. Thirteen years later, he launched Darwin’s Natural Pet Products in Seattle after hooking up with local vets and nutritionists to cook up some raw meat-and-veggie recipes that could be packed, frozen, and delivered direct to customers’ homes. Today, he’s got rabidly loyal customers throughout Seattle and the rest of the country. Now, this puppy chow is pricier than your average dry food—a two-pound bag of the beef-and-vegetable mix costs from $6.70 to $8.30—but delivery is free for Seattleites and Portlanders. Plus it’s got that whole “nutritious and delicious” thing. In fact it’s so good, Tashjian is planning to start a promotional Darwin’s-only diet this March. “It’s just meat and veggies,” he says. “It’s healthier than anything I eat.” Darwin’s Natural Pet Products, 877-738-6325; darwinspet.com *


* Updated February 16, 2011. Gary Tashjian has postponed his natural-pet-food diet from March, as originally printed in the March 2011 issue.

Pages:123

Published: March 2011