Passion, Purpose, and Partnerships
are Key for PetCakes’ CEO BY SUSANNAH MAYNARD
A
fter ten years in business, Melinda Stenger isn’t stopping anytime soon. Stenger is the founder and CEO of Lucky Paws, LLC, a company she started a decade ago with the launch of her PetCakes products. PetCakes are healthy, microwaveable treats you can make at home for your dog or cat. Stenger launched PetCakes at the Global Pet Expo in 2010 and won best new product of the year. She won again in 2016 for her PetCakes Celebration line. Today, Stenger sells thousands of dog and cat birthday kits each month at Amazon.com and Chewy.com. Even though PetCakes has been a tremendous success, Stenger isn’t resting on her laurels. She recently launched a new product that features new ways to use her treat mixes with the PetCakes Brunch Box Club, a quarterly subscription service. Each Brunch Box contains three unique, monthly themed recipe cards and pouches of ingredients to make brunch-inspired dishes for your dog. Subscriptions also include access to how-to videos of Stenger making each meal, including helpful tips and tricks. Over two years in the making, the Brunch Box Club was inspired by Stenger’s dog, Bella, and her “Date Night, Dog Night” videos. Stenger was spending a lot of time in the kitchen with her dog while Bella recovered from an accident and was on limited activity. As she was cooking for her family, Stenger thought about the quality time she was spending with Bella, and her series of “Date Night, Dog Night” videos of cooking human-inspired dishes with and for
her dog was born. From there Stenger expanded into putting on fabulous dog parties featuring healthy and tasty dishes for canines and their human parents, including the wedding of CincyPet Magazine’s own, Mr. Bojangles, and his bride, Coco. Next up was a series of dog brunches at local restaurants from Hotel Covington to Keystone. Finally, Stenger decided to take her business up a notch with the launch of the PetCakes Brunch Box Club. A quarterly subscription to the Brunch Box Club is $45 for one box with three months of recipes or $138 for four boxes with 12 months of recipes. If you sign up for a year, you also get free shipping on your first box, a calendar, and two extra months of recipes. If you’re not sure about committing to a full subscription, you can try out a special one-month brunch box for only $20. As part of Stenger’s commitment to helping others, 10 percent of sales from her website (ilovepetcakes.com) will be donated to a partner pet charity of the month. When Stenger is not cooking or throwing parties for pets, you might find her creating fun activities for the residents at Ronald McDonald House to help the therapy dogs at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Stenger is also the Pet Lifestyle columnist for CincyPet Magazine and contributes recipes to our magazine, as well as monthly on our website. CP
CincyPet Magazine publisher and founder, SUSANNAH MAYNARD, is a Cincinnati native. She is the owner of Pet Love Photography and the author of three books about rescue pets. She is the pet mom to her three rescue dogs and one rescue cat.
22 CINCYPET MAGAZINE | ISSUE 4
