First, I hope each and every one of you is doing well during this really challenging period. I know that so many of you have been facing job and schedule upheavals these past weeks along with health worries for you and your family members.
We are doing well here and staying busy, walking Barli and Tiki twice a day as usual. We are very lucky to live in the country and work from home, so our daily routine is much as it has always been.
However, the dogs, Tiki especially, have been restless that they haven’t been able to visit family or friends for five weeks now.
Just two days before the shutdown began, we lost one of the four relatives of ours for whom we are guardians. He was a lifelong dog lover, and loved seeing Tiki and Barli visit him at the nursing home; I know many of you have seen the photos here of Barli and Tiki visiting the nursing home.
Barli and Tiki accompanied us to his funeral to say goodbye…then, less than 48 hours later, the shutdown began. Now our visits with our remaining nursing home relatives take place via Facetime, an experience that I know many of you everywhere are now having as we all find ways to remain in touch.
On our last hotel stay for that visit, we took our next PawZaar product with us, a prototype of our new folding dog mat for use when you take your dog to a patio restaurant or day trip. The mat is being produced for us by a woman-owned sewing factory in our hometown of Austin. We are going to be really excited to share the mat with you as soon as the factory reopens and we can get it into production!
Like our dog walking bag and Yucky Puppy poop bag carrier, it will be an accessory that is exclusive to our PawZaar store!
During this quieter time, we’ve been trying to put our heads together for what’s next…for DogTipper and for PawZaar. We want YOUR feedback as to what you’d like to see both here on the blog and in the store.
If you have a free minute, can you take our quick, anonymous survey below? It will mean so much to us as we, like so many small businesses everywhere, figure out where to go next.
Thank you all…and please stay safe!! Paris
