It’s official: Christmas is going to the dogs at the Dee-O-Gee in Longmont.
Store owner Rachel Shannon knows just how much people love their pets and that they want to show affection to their non-human family members during the holiday season.
“They’re just like children,” Shannon said.
It’s that understanding that led Shannon to partner with Tamar Hendricks, owner of Crackpots pottery store on Main Street. Together, the two small businesses collaborated to give dog owners an opportunity to create a keepsake ceramic ornament during a day-long event hosted in the Dee-O-Gee store.
Pet owners pre-registered for ten-minute time slots online, and then brought their furry companions to the Dee-O-Gee on Saturday where employees at Crackpots used a non-toxic ink safe for people and pets to capture a pawprint on a ceramic tile.
“We will put the pet’s name and the date of the impression on the tile for them, and then fire the tiles at Crackpots. From there, they can pick them up in about a week,” Hendricks said.
Kaia Atkisson is a long-time employee at Crackpots and a mom to five dogs of her own.
“Everything we use can get on the dogs or be ingested by them without causing them any harm,” she explained. “Most of the dogs we have seen have been really cooperative, so it hasn’t been a messy process at all.”
Cricket, a four-year-old goldendoodle, had no problems getting her paw print taken so long as the helpers from Crackpots kept plying her with treats. She even donned some antler ears for a quick photo in front of a holiday backdrop at the Dee-O-Gee.
“I have thought about doing something like this for years,” Hendricks said. “When Rachel approached me with the idea of doing this in partnership, I jumped on it.”
“I first met Tamar at a meeting of the Downtown Business Association,” Shannon said. “Getting businesses to work together not only helps both of our locations, it also means that we can offer really unique opportunities to the community. It’s great to be able to do things like this together.”
Crackpots has long offered take-home kits so pet owners could make their paw print ornaments, but the Crackpots retail space wasn’t conducive to bringing dogs into the store and doing the prints on-site.
Shannon provided plenty of treats to assist in gaining cooperation from the dogs getting printed, as well as a hot chocolate bar and snacks for their human companions.
About 25-30 dogs were pre-registered for the event, and things went so smoothly that the Dee-O-Gee was able to accept a few dogs who just happened to be shopping with their owners and wanted to participate, too.
While Hendricks and Shannon are not planning to add any more dates to make holiday ornaments this season, Hendricks does want people to know that there are still DIY kits available at Crackpots located at 505 Main St.
“For some pets, it might even be easier for the owner to take the impression instead of trying to have strangers do it for them,” she added.
