Bakeries, toy stores and photography studios. Luxury retreats with personal flat-screen televisions. They are all business models we’re familiar with — or at least not surprised by. Around Michiana, however, four businesses offer these services to a unique kind of customer — one that has no form of payment, no access to the internet and no opposable thumbs.
This new shopping demographic is the four-legged family members otherwise known as pets.
Over time, animals have been domesticated to become workers, and eventually to serve as companions. Lately, they’ve begun to earn iconic and symbolic status in American households as “children.”
Owners of local businesses Two Dogs and a Cat, Renny Mills Photography, Bow Wow Bakery and Bath, Bunk and Biscuit and The Cat’s Meow have become a source for this shifting culture, offering pet-specialty products and services.
People enjoy pampering themselves and the ones they love … so why not their pets? The origins of these four businesses are rooted in the same passion and experience as the (human) customers they cater to. From young, single urbanite to rural empty-nester, the common thread is more than a common bond between pets and people — it’s the uncommon love of a cherished companion.
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