THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409130158
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 169 lines
TUEY, NUTMEG AND WOWO rarely miss a day of work. There's no reason to.
They get to do pretty much what they want around the shop all day. They're allowed to take naps, help themselves to treats right off the display shelves and they can have friends drop by.
It's all OK, because they own the place.
Well, sort of. Their masters do.
Dick and Robert Clarke own Care-A-Lot, a large mail order and retail pet supply store on Diamond Springs Road.
The dogs, Tuey and Nutmeg, two Airedales, and Wowo, a black Lab, accompany their masters to work each day and have the run of the place.
The dogs hobnob with customers' pets just like the Clarkes do with the customers themselves.
And when the canines feel like a treat? ``My dogs help themselves once in a while,'' Dick Clarke said. ``They go pick out their own bones.''
Pets that hang out with their masters at work are not one-man dogs or one-man cats or parrots, that's for sure.
These animals are every man's dogs, cats and parrots. They are public pets, entrancing customers and being indulged by customers in return.
Sometimes they even outshine the merchandise, because the novelty of an animal in the work place is the main attraction.
When Bridget the parrot is front and center at Hillegass Lighting on Military Highway, selling lighting fixtures is not always easy, said owner Reon Hillegass.
One of Hillegass' customers, Vincent Harris, was a good example. He was shopping with his wife recently. But Harris got distracted. He was letting Bridget use his arm for a perch instead of looking at the chandeliers and other fixtures.
``Customers come by and bring friends with them,'' Hillegass said. ``They walk in to see the parrot and walk out and never look at the lights!''
Bridget, a macaw, has feathers in shades of green, yellow and blue. She has a white face with black eyes and markings that look like they were sketched by an artist's pen. The handsome bird has been queen of the roost for 17 years at the Chesapeake establishment.
``Hello,'' Bridget said to no one in particular, though most everyone in the store looked up one day recently. ``Cracker?''
There were no crackers. So Bridget climbed up the chair rungs onto the lap of a surprised Bob Ritter, a salesman from New York who was sitting at a table studying a catalog. Then Bridget climbed on the table and proceeded to tear up the catalog.
Everybody in the store just smiled.
Customers bring Bridget toys, like little bells to hang in her big cage that sits in the middle of his store, Hillegass said.
Princess, a black Labrador that's a fixture at Stoney's Produce on First Colonial Road, gets her share of treats from an adoring public, too.
``One lady brings her a dog bone every day. It's gotta be that big,'' said owner Billy Hudgins, stretching his hands almost a foot apart.
Princess, 11, has been going to work at Stoney's with Billy and Lynn Hudgins since the produce stand opened three years ago. Although she came to her profession as a public pet late in life, she adapted quickly to her role.
In fact, Princess also has an act. She loves corn on the cob and customers come by just to watch her song and dance with an ear of Silver Queen.
Hudgins tossed one down to Princess and the dog went to work, shucking the corn with her teeth. Then with great gusto, she gnawed the kernels right from the cob.
``We've got customers who will actually buy corn from us to give to Princess,'' Hudgins said.
Other customers don't buy a thing, he added. Take the folks who bring their children in just to see the dog.
``If Princess doesn't happen to be here, the children start crying,'' Hudgins said. ``Teeny toddlers will lie all over her.''
The Hilltop area appears to be a mecca for public pets. In addition to Princess, there's Jake, the golden retriever at Kitchen Barn in Hilltop North. The aisles at Kitchen Barn are crammed with everything from racks of fancy cookie cutters to imported upscale cookware.
As Jake came down one of the aisles, his beautiful feathered tail wagged back and forth enthusiastically. And there went the cookie cutters, off the rack and onto the floor. Jake's master, Joel Feldman, and Kitchen Barn manager, Ninon Kimel, just beamed.
``We just try and keep him out of the porcelain aisle,'' Feldman said, sheepishly.
Feldman has always brought his pets to work. Jake is the third of three golden retrievers that have captivated Kitchen Barn customers in the past 20 years. Jake is the kid lover of the group, however.
``He really likes kids,'' Feldman said. ``We've got customers that make it an event to bring the kids by to see him.''
Jake perks right up at the sight of a stroller, he added. He'll get up, go over to a basket full of pot brushes and pick one up as a token for the baby.
Among those cookie cutters on the rack are cutters in the shape of dog bones. And, Feldman said, some customers who buy the cutters to fix home-baked bones for their dogs indulge Jake, too.
Jake always lies down ``right in the way,'' Kimel said. He's either right in front of the check-out counter or right behind the cash register. But that doesn't matter. Like Bridget and Princess, it's a two-way street. Jake makes everyone happy and they make him happy in return.
On the south side of the Hilltop complex, Jackie-O, a lithe, young cat with pretty yellowish fur, stretched across the back of a chair. She was gazing out the front picture window at Admiral Signworks on Donna Drive.
``She's waiting for the mailman. He brings her treats,'' said Jean Muehlen, vice president of the sign shop. ``The chairs are all full of cat fur.''
Muehlen and others who work at the shop really are softies when it comes to cats. Seems that the big hollow pipes out in the storage yard, which are used to hold up large outdoor signs, have become maternity wards for some wild cats in the neighborhood. Several employees have taken little wild kittens home with them.
Jackie-O was about a month old when she was abandoned in one of the pipes by her mother. She was rescued and has become the public pet at Admiralty Signworks. A public pet was nothing new for the business. Jackie-O joined a small green parrot who had been at Admiralty Signworks for years.
The parrot died recently and now Jackie-O is queen bee. As if to say she knows it, she leapt up on a drawing board, walked across the art work and settled in on a poster an artist had been working on.
Muehlen just smiled.
Two stools meant for customers are the favorite perches of the cats at Moti Tailors on Virginia Beach Boulevard at Lynnhaven. Myomi, a black long-haired Persian, is usually seated on a stool in front of the counter near the entrance. Lolly, a tiger cat, sits across the room on another stool.
Like Jackie-O, Myomi and Lolly were orphaned kittens. They were rescued by another cat softy, Nia Christopher, owner of Moti Tailors. Now the happy pair vie for the affection of the public.
``They like it here,'' Christopher said. ``The cats know who loves them.''
A customer sat on Myomi's stool. Myomi, who was on the floor, eyed the interloper and immediately turned to leave. She knew how to solve this dilemma.
Myomi went behind the counter and jumped up on the sewing table where the seamstresses were at work. They smiled knowingly as Myomi jumped up on the counter and came face-to-face with the customer on the stool. Then Myomi stepped down into the customer's lap, just like she owned the place.
Christopher said folks going to lunch at the nearby Boulevard Cafe stick their heads in the door just to see how the cats are doing. And they bring them dried or canned food at Christmas.
All over Virginia Beach animals in the work place are being petted and catered to by an adoring public. There's Butch, the boxer who goes to work with master Phil Wellman at Cape Henry Hardware on Great Neck Road. Butch lazes in a black chair at the store and receives visitors, bearing gifts like bones, and once even a camouflage dog coat and a lamb's wool throw to sleep on.
There seems to be one thing public pets all have in common. They have their masters and their adoring public wrapped around their paws. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by PETER D. SUNDBERG
Color cover photo
[parrot sitting on a bowl]
Jake, a golden retriever at Kitchen Barn in Hilltop North, feels
right at home with dog-bone shaped cookie-cutters. Some customers
even bring him baked treats.
Princess, a black Labrador at Stoney's Produce on First Colonial
Road, loves corn on the cob and customers come by just to watch her
shuck an ear with her teeth and gnaw the kernels right from the
cob.
Two orphaned cats - Lolly, a tabby, and Myomi, a Persian - greet
customers at Moti Tailors, owned by Nia Christopher.
Jackie-O, a lithe, young cat with pretty yellowish fur, checks out
the artwork at Admiralty Signworks. Since the shop's pet parrot
died, store vice president Jean Muehlen says Jackie-O is the queen
bee.
by CNB