Leslie

With any dog brand, there's always a dog muse that “started it all”.

In this case, it was Ally, a 3-year-old bearded scruff of a lady (who is now a 14-year-old "Grand Dame").  When I adopted her, I wanted her to be everywhere I was - it was instantly and mutually a co-dependent relationship -   But living in NYC and knowing that the streets are NOT paved with gold (but instead a lot of other stuff), I didn't want THAT everywhere I was.  And she wasn't into dog shoes.

As it goes with many "how I built this" stories, I couldn't find a product that would keep her paws (and other bits) clean without either stripping them of nutrients, having her lick chemicals off her paws, or including actual cleansing ingredients.  So I called up Angie - one of my favorite scientists and formulators, who is obsessed with dogs but with a family too allergic to have one, and we set out to research and develop one of our own.

At the same time, thanks to Ally I became interested in the animal rescue world, slowly homing in on seniors, hospice, and special needs dogs. They were routinely overlooked in shelters, abandoned as strays, given up when owners passed away or entered senior living facilities, or euthanized because of their likelihood of being adopted.

Who is to say which dogs deserve saving? And if not you, then who?

I started fostering these dogs, and then volunteering in dog hospice programs, and then running a grant program for rescues caring for hospice dogs. I became an End-of-Life doula for pets and their people.  And I had the chance to meet and learn about the many, many tiny rescues, sanctuaries, and organizations caring for dogs like these, even when the adoption odds are slimmer, or it doesn’t make good “business” sense. I figured there had to be more people like me in the world who cared about these dogs and the humans caring for them, but unsure of the best way to help.

Someone needed to fund the movement to care for these underdogs and celebrate the spectacular humans who nurture them.  And that someone turned out to be us.