The CrittersMore Pics Coming Soon!
If you have read my Introduction (Part 1 and 2) then you saw that we had a pet business. So here's the scoop:
We had a tee-tiny little business based in Midland Texas for 2 years before we moved to Waco. It was a "mom and pop" place to say the least. We were unique because the shop was run from our house. (I said it was small..lol) We converted our living room to a show room, removing all of the furniture and lining the walls with our "stock". ( I told you I was committed to making it work. = ) In the center was the dining room table and sense I never cooked back then, we used it to meet with customers and help them choose a pet. The third bedroom was where we housed incoming animals in quarantine before they were put out on the "main floor". We also had a storage building where we bred all of our feeder rodents and small animals such as hamsters, gerbils and rabbits.
Another unique aspect of our business was that we were a traveling pet shop. We would cram over 100 animals and all of their supplies in a mini van towing a trailer full of tables and shop supplies and drive for hours to set up in towns all over west Texas to sell pets.
And why did we do this, you ask? Well, we were just plain sick of the quality of pets in the pet stores in our area and the fact that people were not being educated on how to take care of them. Education was our main goal, sales our second, which is why we never turned much of a profit = ) oops.
There were hard times, and disasters and I realize now it took all of the attention away from where I should have been putting it: my husband and son. But I look upon those times fondly. We learned a lot and we laughed a lot....oh the stories I could tell!
I mean, have you ever seen a gerbil bite through its own lip? (no, I don't know how he did it and we fixed it. He went on to father many wee gerbils)
Have you had a boa escape and eat a guinea pig?
We were told we were "devil worshipers" for selling snakes and had people offer to buy hamsters so their cat could "play" with them.
Through all the bad things we had many people thank us for doing what we did and we are proud of that. More than anything, we were in constant wonder of God's amazing creations big and small.
