Volume One Pet Projects

PHOTO BY: DAVE POWER

VOLUME ONE'S FUZZY, HOUSEBROKEN RESOURCE OF ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIP Editor/Writer: Kinzy Janssen & Trevor Kupfer // Contributors: Katie McKy & Kelsey Swanson // Design: Brian Moen At 65 percent, pet owners are a solid majority among Americans. So it’s safe to say there’s a lot of puppy love going around, especially here in the Chippewa Valley. Even some bunny love. Pet owners and lovers of all kinds will find interest and intrigue within these pages, from a list of foods your pet should renounce to unfathomable pet hairdos your fellow humans dreamed up. Peruse a few of the local pet pampering places, as well a lengthy list of pet stores, groomers, adoption centers, breeders, kennels, trainers, and animal hospitals.

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PET PROJECT Bark Avenue

UNUSUAL PET HAIRSTYLES

FROM THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY AND BEYOND OPTIONS FOR YOUR PET OTHER THAN THE USUAL TRIM Maybe it’s because of The A-Team movie. We’re not sure. But Mohawks are apparently a popular request for local pet groomers. No less than seven local places have done them, the strangest of which are NorthSide Pet Hospital, which has done them for cats; Grooming Hut, which shaved a dog entirely except for the Mohawk; and Bark Avenue Grooming Salon, which has a regular poodle customer that gets a Mohawk every time and dyes it purple.

This same place also has a guinea pig customer that they regularly dye rainbow colors, and a cat that they dye blue.

(Always with pet-safe dyes, of course.)

Several places in town have experience giving cats the “lion cut,” but only emBARK has made a golden doodle (that’s a golden retriever-poodle mix) look like a llama.

Strange as it may be, this follows a national grooming contest trend in which people sculpt poodles to look like crazy animals such as a rooster, dragon, peacock, camel, horse, and (amazingly) a Teenage Mutant Ninja Poodle. Just Google them. It’s crazy.

Apparently they have regular grooming fun over at emBARK, because they’ve also braided the eyebrows of an Irish Wolfhound and send their regular customers home with similar easy-to-adjust surprises. Along with Paws & Claws, emBARK was also proud to admit that they occasionally paint pets’ toenails.

When we called these places asking what they have done, maybe we should have asked what won’t they do?

Bark Avenue

emBARK

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PET PROJECT

TAKING PET CARE TO THE

EXTREME!

REASONABLE &

EXPECTED

OBSESSIVE &

EXCESSIVE

Spay or neutering

Getting your dog equipped with Neuticles, or testicular implants ($919) for their fragile self-esteem

Treating your cat’s broken leg

Guarding all nine lives with a comprehensive insurance package

Finding a secondary caretaker for the kitty in your ripe old age

Establishing a trust fund (of which the average amount is $25,000)

Playing tug of war/roughhousing with your dog

Taking them to dog yoga classes where you stretch and manipulate their limbs

Keeping Fido smelling nice – with soap

Dousing them in “Sexy Beast,” a unisex blend of bergamot and vanilla infused musk combined with natural patchouli, mandarin, and nutmeg oils

Rubbin’ their belly

Hiring a pet masseuse ($80/hr)

Clippin’ their nails

Paying someone to give them fake ones

Overlooking your dog’s visible signs of aging, if not your own

Subjecting them to cosmetic surgeries such as eye lifts and nose jobs

Following your elusive cat to its mysterious hiding places

Strapping a “cat cam” to its collar and watching the footage

Enlisting a real-live neighbor to feed and check up on your dog

Releasing food remotely, using a cell phone and automated feeder

Learning the signs. Hissing is bad.

Purring is good

Investing in a Meowlingual or Bowlingual translator, which pinpoints an emotional state as well as an accompanying phrase

Thinking twice before leaving your dog in the car

The Hotdog digital thermometer sets off an alarm and lowers car windows when the temp reaches the suffering point

Give a dog a bone

How about a bubble gun that dispenses 4,000 meat-scented bubbles a minute?

Outfitting your pup with an informative leather dog collar

Cartier diamond-studded collar ($5,000)

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PET PROJECT

LOCAL POOCHES ARE DOGGONE LUCKY SOME GREAT LOCAL PLACES FOR PAMPERING YOUR PETS

ANDREA PAULSETH

These are the days to be a dog.

Once upon not-that-long-ago, dog care was limited to kenneling and cutting.

You caged or tethered your dog to haul them to another cage or tether, where they’d be boarded or groomed. It’s not so anymore.

Consider doggy Disneyland, also known as Happy Pooch Doggie Day Care LLC. Off of Highway 12 on the west side, Michelle Pacovsky oversees a cushy, cavernous canine paradise.

Rubber mats run wall-to-wall and it’s two-tiered, the top tier for small dogs and the main floor for large dogs and small dogs that like to romp with the big boys. Out back, there’s a fenced outdoor area with grass and a sand pit.

Pacovsky says, “Socialization is very important for dogs. It’s essential for them. After all, dogs are pack animals.

Having the dogs here, they’re not kenneled or cooped up all day. They’re taken outside every 20 to 30 minutes or even more if they go to the back door.

On nice days, we also take them for walks.”

Fran Schneider has a different job: to make grooming as cozy as home. The owner of Curbside Pet Spa, Schneider drives a Toyota camper up your driveway and grooms your dog right there.

“I got the idea from relatives in Phoenix. They have their dogs done by a mobile pet unit. I just thought we needed something like that around here. I think the closest one is in Madison and I can’t even find one in the cities.”

She converted the camper to a dog spa.

“I took everything out and put in my sink, my dryer, and my grooming table.

The dog doesn’t have to go anyplace. My camper has big windows, so they know they haven’t left the yard. It’s completely cleaned and sanitized between each

By Katie McKy

Paws & Claws

animal so there’s no chance of picking up any bugs. I give them all the attention they need. If I have to sit and play in-between, we do that.”

“(The dogs aren’t) kenneled or cooped up all day. They’re taken outside every 20 to 30 minutes ... and on nice days we also take them for walks.”

– Michelle Pacovsky, owner of Happy Pooch Doggie Day Care Then there’s Dawn LaFavor, who actually goes into your home. The owner of While Away LLC, LaFavor doesn’t just feed and walk your dog. She also cuddles and plays.

Paws & Claws

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“People book me because a lot of animals don’t do well in a kennel environment. I can keep them at home where they’re comfortable. It works very well with animals who’ve been sheltered or if they have a quiet spirit and don’t do well with the noise of the other animals. At home, they’re also not exposed to any kind of communicable illness like kennel cough.”

But LaFavor doesn’t just care for your dog. She cares for your house, too.

“I bring in the mail, paper, and packages that might be delivered. If they want me to open and close window treatments, I do that. I can even put timers on their lights.”

However, there are things, caninewise, worth a drive. Paws and Claws, located off of 93 just south of 94, has an indoor pool for your pooch. Owner Stephanie Sorensen says, “For three years, we toured kennels before we rebuilt. One had an indoor pool and there wasn’t anything like that in this area.”

So, at Paws and Claws, while you’re away swimming at some resort, your dog can do the same. “It gives boarding dogs something to do. It just breaks up the day.”

It’s also good for healing dogs.

“If your vet says swimming would benefit your dog after knee surgery, we’re the place.”

However, Sorensen’s dogs might feel otherwise.

“My Chesapeake Bay Retrievers think I built it just for them. They’re water crazy and just like to swim in a circle.”

PET PROJECT

PETS TRIM UP AND PROVIDE FERTILIZER FOR LAWN Most homeowners do everything they can to keep rabbits off their lawn, not to mention their gardens. Remember Mr. McGregor?

But Eau Claire East Hill residents Jessica and Josh Miller make sure their pet rabbits, Shamrock and Cassiopia, have as much access to their yard as possible. A circular rabbit pen – which is actually two connected dog pens – provides a sizable area for them to roam. Even better, the rabbits munch the grass, dandelions, and clover within about four days, after which the Millers move the pen so they can tackle another area.

“They don’t really mow it,” says Jessica. “We keep areas for them, but it’s not like they’re going to level the whole yard.”

However, the rabbits do provide the lawn with organic fertilizer. Josh showed me a curved strip of extra-tall grass, left over from the rabbits’ previous domain.

The set-up is definitely mutually beneficial, even if Shamrock and Cassiopia aren’t direct

By Kinzy Janssen

At night, Shamrock and Cassiopia stay in a multi-tiered cage in a shed, outfitted with hay, water, and pellets. The attic is their home during winter, where they can satisfy their urge to chew with carpet they don’t care to save.

Jessica and Josh are quick to express the amount of work involved with owning rabbits; they stress that they aren’t ideal pets for children.

Besides that fact, their seemingly cuddly bodies aren’t equipped for cuddling. “They have delicate backs and don’t like to be picked up,” says Jessica. “They squirm and struggle, and they can hurt themselves.”

The unexpected upkeep, coupled with the notion that rabbits can fend for themselves in the wild, can lead to abandonment. The Millers acquired both of their rabbits from rescue shelters.

But yard-conscious people need not swear off rabbits. Consider living in harmony with something that will happily remove weeds and shorten and/or fertilize your grass.

“It’s free food. They fill up on grass so we can feed them fewer pellets.

You can’t get anything healthier than that.”

– Josh and Jessica Miller on their open-air rabbit pen in their back yard replacements for a lawnmower.

“It’s free food,” adds Josh. “They fill up on grass so we can feed them fewer pellets.”

“You can’t get anything healthier than that – anything grassy,” says Jessica. “And they’re happy in the exercise pen. They run around real fast and do happy jumps.”

Relatively exposed to the elements, the Millers take several precautions. They cover the pen with a tarp and bungee cords on sunny days, making sure they’re shaded and comfortable.

Recently, Josh noticed a red-tailed hawk circling the area after spotting a wild rabbit diving for cover. Thus the tarp is protective against unlikely predators, too. They also refrain from putting any chemicals or pesticides on their lawn, and regularly treat them for fleas and ticks -- a necessary move with animals so frequently exposed to grass.

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ANDREA PAULSETH

WHERE THE RABBITS ROAM

PET PROJECT

RESOURCES

FRANK H. ROBINSON

YOWLING GOOD

PET SHOPS, ADOPTION, TRAINERS, DAYCARES, HOSPITALS, & GROOMING

PET SHOPS

Cozy Cockers • 559-6090 • cozycockers.com American

Awards & More 2425 Seymour Rd, Eau Claire • 839-

Cocker Spaniels; Grooming, Training Assistance, Canine Treats, Gift Baskets.

Fauna Boutique and Pet Grooming 1309 N Broadway,

• 726-1257 • English Springer Spaniels (puppies and pre-trained hunting dogs). Have on-site kennel for all breeds.

Petco 3731 Gateway Dr., Eau Claire • 832-0200 • www.

www.freedsbulldogges.com Bulldogs.

8666 • www.awardsandmore.com/index.php A trophy and award business that specializes in engraving dog tags and making custom mugs.

Menomonie • 231-4939. petco.com.

PetSmart 4142 Commonwealth Ave, Eau Claire • 8311532 • www.petsmart.com.

Pic-a-Pet Plus 2421 Hwy 25 North, Menomonie • 2354363.

Poochie Heaven 1728 Spooner Ave, Altoona • 271 -

4991 • www.poochieheaven.com/ Designer dog clothes, carriers, and beds.

Shure Pets • 829-3808 • jkippenhan.shopshurepets. com/Pages/Story.aspx.

Sue’s Dog Grooming and Supply 120 W Greenville St, Chippewa Falls • 723-2118.

Tropic Waters Pet Center & Bark Avenue Grooming Salon 3015 E Hamilton Ave, Eau Claire • 832-0174 • www.tropicwaterspets.com.

Waggin’ Tails Training Company & Doggie Daycare

N4668 471st St., Menomonie • 235-3188 • www.waggintailstraining.com classes: Puppy Kindergarten, Adult Pet Dog Training, Advanced Pet Dog Training, Canine Good Citizen/Outdoor Adventure Class, Beginning Agility, Personal Training/Behavioral Consult, and PreAdoption Counseling.

Woof Naturals, Eau Claire • 577 - 5634 • www.woof-

naturals.com Eco-friendly boutique and bakery that specializes in making and delivering natural and organic products for dogs.

ADOPTION CENTERS

Chippewa County Humane Association 10501 County Highway S South, Chippewa Falls • 382-4832 • www. chippewahumane.com.

Dunn County Humane Society 302 Brickyard Road, Menomonie • 232-9790 • www.dunncountyhumanesociety.org.

Eau Claire County Humane Society 3900 Old Town Road, Eau Claire • 839-4747 • www.eccha.org.

Hestekin Hills Pet Adoption Services 4147 Soley Lane, Eau Claire • 832-9091 • www.hestekinhills.com/a.htm

BREEDERS

Birdstone Labradors 6555 Kestrel Rd., Eau Claire • 835-6100 • www.birdstonelabradors.com Black and Yellow Labradors.

Brittany Hills Kennel N7130 740th St., Menomonie • 235-3106 • Brittanies.

Cut Away Kennel 8434 County Hwy N, Chippewa Falls

Freed’s Bull Dogges, Chippewa Falls • 523-9909 • Lakewood Labradors, Altoona • 833-1880 • www.lakewoodlabradors.com English-type Labrador Retrievers.

TRAINERS

Ann Braue’s Canine Training 800 Wisconsin St., Eau

Claire • 839-0993 • www.abctc.com classes: Puppy, Beginning, and Intermediate Obedience, Foundations for Agility and Advanced Agility, and Personal Training.

emBark 2109 Fairfax St., Eau Claire • 864-3263 • www.

emBARK After Dark

embarkdog.com Obedience, tricks, and puppy training.

Leerburg (Dog Training) Video & Kennel, Menomonie

• 235-6502 • leerburg.com can purchase training DVDs (over 120) and participate in discussion forums on Web site. Classes include obedience, training puppies, combating aggression problems, training police service dogs, etc.

Paws on Positive Dog Training W 573 US Hwy 10, Mondovi • 833-9915.

Rude Dog University Eastridge Center, Eau Claire •

833-1880 • www.rudedogu.com classes: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Obedience, Agility, Rally, Conformation Show Class, Hunting, Canine Good Citizen, and Private Training.

KENNELS / BABYSITTERS / DAY CARE CENTERS All Pets Great & Small Boarding S 12460 State Road 37, Mondovi • 926-3748 •

Canine Comfort Inn 2600 S. Broadway St., Menomonie • 235-8669 • www.caninecomfortinn.com Boarding, Grooming, Training

Cozy At Home Pet Sitting Service, Eau Claire • 835-

1930 • Pet babysitter, takes care of your pet at your home.

Daneville Kennels N 3485 390th St., Menomonie • 2351257.

emBark 2109 Fairfax St., Eau Claire • 864-3263 • www. embarkdog.com Obedience, tricks, and puppy training.

Happy Pooch Doggie Day Care 2208 Heimstead

Road, Eau Claire • 552-5298 • www.jobvana.com/profile/18989/ Daycare and grooming for dogs.

Hillcrest Kennel N 3485 390th St., Altoona • 830-8444.

Koda Bear Animal Kare, Menomonie • 271-6850 • Pet sitting, dog walking, and more.

Mecca Kennels E 9976 County Road C, Elk Mound • 874-6863.

Muddy Creek Kennels E 7561 370th Ave., Elk Mound • 664-8708.

Northern Paws Pet Lodge 25927 115th Ave., Cadott • 289-4244 • northernpaws.com.

Paws & Claws 3820 Old Town Hall Road, Eau Claire •

831-1885 • www.pawsandclawstotaldog.com.

Paws & Whiskers 3228 Pleasant St., Altoona • 5292408.

While Away LLC • 832-0224 • Professional home and pet care that comes to your home while you’re away.

ANIMAL HOSPITALS

Ark Animal Hospital 2914 Mondovi Rd., Eau Claire • 834-3221.

Brakken Veterinary Clinic 2215 Schneider Ave., Menomonie • 235-8404.

Chippewa Veterinary Clinic 14961 81st Ave., Chippewa Falls • 723-3655 • www.chippewavet.com.

Eau Claire Animal Hospital 2828 Mall Dr., Eau Claire • 835-5011 • www.eauclaireanimalhospital.com.

Kindness Animal Hospital 1902 Hallie Road, Chippewa Falls • 834-9201 • www.kindnessah.com.

Lake Wissota Animal Hospital 16780 County Highway X, Chippewa Falls • 726-8811.

Northside Pet Hospital 1727 Western Ave., Eau Claire • 835-0761 • www.northsidepethosp.vetsuite.com.

Oakwood Hills Animal Hospital 4616 Commerce Valley

Road, Eau Claire • 835-0112 • www.oakwoodhillsanimalhospital.com.

Painted Pony Equine Service N3302 630th St.,

Cindy’s Grooming 4720 W Folsom St, Eau Claire • 8356140.

Curbside Pet Spa LLC- Mobile Grooming, Eau Claire • 577-0940 • www.curbsidepetspa.com Grooming for your animal at home.

Daneville Kennels N 3485 390th St., Menomonie • 2351257.

Eau Claire Animal Hospital 2828 Mall Dr., Eau Claire • 835-5011 • www.eauclaireanimalhospital.com.

emBark 2109 Fairfax St., Eau Claire • 864-3263 • www. embarkdog.com Obedience, tricks, and puppy training.

Fauna Boutique and Pet Grooming 1309 N Broadway, Menomonie • 231-4939.

Fur ‘N’ Feathers 1032 Oak Dr, Altoona • 832-6228.

Grooming Hut 121 W Grand Ave, Eau Claire • 8352840.

Kindness Animal Hospital 1902 Hallie Road, Chippewa Falls • 834-9201 • www.kindnessah.com.

Northside Pet Hospital 1727 Western Ave., Eau Claire • 835-0761 • www.northsidepethosp.vetsuite.com.

Paws & Claws 3820 Old Town Hall Road, Eau Claire • 831-1885 • www.pawsandclawstotaldog.com.

Paws & Whiskers 3228 Pleasant St., Altoona • 5292408.

Menomonie • 664-8140 • www.paintedponyvet.com Preventative, medical, surgical, lameness and dentistry services for horses. Offers select dog and cat services as well (preventative care, neutering, and medical services).

Petco 3731 Gateway Dr., Eau Claire • 832-0200 • www.

Westgate Animal Hospital 2135 N. Clairemont Ave.,

Chippewa Falls • 723-2118.

Eau Claire • 834-7538 • www.mywestgateanimalhospital.com.

GROOMING PLACES

Canine Comfort Inn 2600 S. Broadway St., Menomonie

• 235-8669 • www.caninecomfortinn.com Boarding, Grooming, Training.

Chippewa Veterinary Clinic 14961 81st Ave., Chippewa Falls • 723-3655 • www.chippewavet.com.

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petco.com.

PetSmart 4142 Commonwealth Ave, Eau Claire • 8311532 • www.petsmart.com.

Sue’s Dog Grooming and Supply 120 W Greenville St, Tropic Waters Pet Center & Bark Avenue Grooming Salon 3015 E Hamilton Ave, Eau Claire • 832-0174 • www.tropicwaterspets.com.

Westgate Animal Hospital 2135 N. Clairemont Ave., Eau Claire • 834-7538 • www.mywestgateanimalhospital.com.