How The Blissful Cat Began
How The Blissful Dog Found Its Blissful Cat
The Blissful Cat is a relatively new division of The Blissful Dog. We have a large distributor in South Korea and they asked us about a cat line a couple of years ago. We jumped in and started researching the world of cat products. While cats do not require as many skin care products as dogs do, due to less variety amongst their coats, there is still a wide range of needs of cat apothecary items.
As a child I was cat-crazed. We lived out in the country in very rural Mississippi. Somehow I managed to attract a herd of cats. My mom was VERY tolerant of my obsession. VERY, VERY. I picked up pecans to earn money for their needs and learned early on about responsibility toward animals we take under our care.
The Blissful Dog® Inc. began in 2001 as a side gig. More on that below.
The Beginnings of The Blissful Dog
Have you seen the movie BEST IN SHOW? I was pretty much the personification of the couple with the Weimaraner shrieking about the Buzzy Bee toy during my years of showing dogs. Let's say I was passionate about the dog shows, that's a polite way to put it.
For over twenty-five years I bred and showed Top Winning, Number One, fancy, schmancy French Bulldogs. As you know, show dogs have to look and feel great to bring home the big ribbons and French Bullodgs are notorious for having dry, crusty noses. There was nothing available for dog noses and the suggested options were full of petroleum by-products or didn't work. The wheels began to turn...
One day, back in 2001, I was slathering shea butter on my legs and two of my French Bulldogs rushed over to see if I had something for them to eat. Almost as if guided by the Ghost of Dog Noses Future, I dabbed some on their noses. Within two days they had soft, smooth noses.
The light bulb went off, I shouted “Eureka!” I felt I had channeled Archimedes, Einstein and Edison… my dogs had smooth noses! This stuff worked and FAST!
I bought more shea butter, used it on my own dogs and shared it with friends (yes, I actually had a few friends despite my aforementioned insanity at the dog shows).
The Blissful Dog Was a Bonafide Business
After many requests I began selling my concoction at dog shows and online (that first shop was ONE PayPal button that took me all day to configure). I began getting orders here and there and I was pretty proud of myself!
Soon, another light bulb flickered over my head and I realized there were other dogs with noses! Dry Noses! Dog noses that needed Nose Butter®! The first Nose Butter label was a drawing I did of one of our Frenchies, EZBoy and I was so proud. Eventually I shifted the labels to photos as more customers requested I add other dog breeds such as Bulldogs, Boxers, Pugs and more. Soon there were over 100 dog breed labels. Crazy, I know!
Soon, Paw Butter, Elbow Butter and Boo Boo Butter were added to the product line, to the relief and delight of dogs everywhere.
Fast forward through all the hard work, recipe tweaking and business building stuff to today...
The Blissful Dog has been 100% bootstrapped and was a one-woman show for the first few years. Only a few years ago did I add to the team and now we have several full-time and part-time dog crazy team members!
Ashley Hoffman Kelzer, Amanda and Teri Hoffman are beside me every day here at The Blissful Dog, working to make sure your dog's products are made properly and shipped fast. Tami Weber, Amanda Hoffman and Ava Borchert help out a couple of days a week (and as needed).
Last October we moved The Blissful Dog to The Blissful Farm, a 40-acre farm that had been in one family for over 100 years. We are now entrusted as caretakers of this truly blissful bit of earth. This part of the saga is still unfolding!
The Blissful Dog is now in hundreds of stores worldwide with more virtually every day. We look forward to making your dog’s life a bit more blissful.
The picture at the top shows our new addition and Kathy's office. Below are The Blissful Dog production and shipping areas. Larccan, the sassy smooth Brussels Griffon is the big picture above, Skadi and Tili and the happily running in snow dogs, Gio is the Black & Tan English Toy Spaniel and to the right of Kundun is Linus, the awesome Lab who stayed here when we bought the farm. Kundun, the yak is below also.
