Local shop hurdles quinquennial hump

Karen Dunlop realizes she has beaten the odds.

Celebrating five years of her First Avenue shop Fins, Feathers and Fur puts her in the minority of entrepreneurs (approximately 45 per cent) whose businesses last that long.

“It’s really exciting,” she said. “I feel a great sense of accomplishment to bring my dream through the first five years, which, generally speaking, are the toughest.”

To get there, determination and dedication were her watchwords.

“I spend a lot of free time in my store,” she said. “My sons spend a lot of their free time and we spend a lot of time around the kitchen table, discussing, researching, throwing ideas around.”

She thinks her customers appreciate the local connection and personal involvement.

“Keeping a lot of the animals myself, it gives me a better understanding what people need,” she said. “It’s not just, I have a dog so I know what dogs need; we have fish, we have reptiles, we have amphibians, we have everything.”

In fact, for Dunlop, it is all about the animals.

“It was a childhood dream, really,” she explained. “I used to work in a pet shop back in the 80s. Back then I had lots of dreams about what I wanted and did not want. There were some practices in those days that in my opinion are not acceptable and that society no longer thinks are acceptable, which is great.

“Of course, with life, raising kids, you kind of do what you have to do, usually the safe thing, and that’s what you do. Eventually, after 10 years at a job that I wasn’t getting any satisfaction from any longer, [the dream] came back to me when a friend of mine’s dog got really sick with hot spots and I started researching into dog food and then I got really passionate about it.”

She found Orijen, a Canadian company that makes dog food with all-natural ingredients and a very high meat content  and has been with them ever since.

The business started small, mostly supplies for dogs and cats, but it evolved.

“Initially, when I first opened I did not think I was going to get so heavily into the reptile part of it,” she said. “Then I realized that was one of the biggest needs in Yorkton.”

Now she has pretty much everything a budding herpetologist might need, including a goodly selection of the reptiles and amphibians themselves.

That also fills her with a sense of responsibility. As such, she works closely with Roblin-based D&P Reptile Rescue.

D&P will be on hand for the Fins, Feathers and Fur Fifth Anniversary event May 7 at the shop on First Avenue with some exotic pets and care tips. The SPCA is holding a fundraising barbecue at the event.

“The SPCA has always been an organization that’s true to my heart,” Dunlop said. “Another one of my dreams is to see the SPCA and the rescues working together for the best interests of the animals.

She is very pleased that things are moving in that direction and Guardian Angel Animal Rescue and the Animal Rescue Team will also be there Saturday.

There will be cake and coffee, door prizes, and other giveaways.