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Pets And Friends Offers Products and Crematory Service

By MELISSA CROWE
- Tyler Morning Telegraph, Feburary 14, 2010

Puppy-faced T-shirts line the paneling walls, while neon-colored leashes hang from racks not far from the door, provoking dreams of summer dog-park days.

The small, family owned shop seems pet- and human-friendly enough. Charlie Brown, a spoiled Boston terrier, peers over the counter, perking his ears when someone walks in.

Customers come here for a variety of reasons, the main being collars, leashes, flea shampoo and other pet supplies.

They also come for stamps from the post office counter, a workout session in the women's fitness center and on a on a more solemn note, to pay their final respects to four-legged family members.

The business ventures all fall under the name Pets and Friends, located in a metal building on Texas Highway 110, just west of Tyler.

The business was launched in 2006 and has been expanding ever since.

Sue Ann Richardson co-owns the business with her daughter, Susan Allen, and son-in-law, Gene Allen.

"It's an opportunity to help people," Allen said.

Seeing a Need

Gene Allen and his wife are self-proclaimed pet lovers.

Their two dogs, Charlie Brown and Buddy, and two cats, Andy and Ziggy, come to work with them every day. The animals are part of the family.

While spending 13 years in California selling pet supplies on the flea market circuit, the Allens noticed the growing popularity of pet cremation. When they finally settled down in Tyler, where Allen grew up, it seemed no one had given pet cremation a second thought.

"We felt like the crematory was a service that was needed in this community," Mrs. Allen said.

The pet supply store started in June 2006 and after months of paperwork filed with the Environmental Protection Agency and other government offices, the crematory opened in November.

In many cities, Tyler included, when pets are euthanized at the veterinarian's office, the pet is taken to a landfill unless the owner takes it home.

"But you can't blame the veterinarian," Allen said, noting many do not have the capability to arrange for pet funerals.

In other circumstances, health codes and neighborhood restrictions prohibit backyard burials, leaving pet owners at a loss for how to deal with the following steps of a pet's death.

Pets and Friends formed business relationships with a few area veterinarians, including Dr. Carol Black, owner of My Vet of Tyler, to make the decisions associated with pet deaths easier.

"We complement each other," Dr. Black said.

Dr. Black owns a mobile veterinarian clinic that refers clients to Pets and Friends for supplies as well as for arranging funerals.

She even uses the Pets and Friends parking lot as a halfway point when meeting animals from Brownsboro or further that are in need of medical care.

Pets and Friends provides "a really welcomed service and there's nothing else like it on the West side of Tyler," she said.

"It's such a dignified way of handling our pet's remains," she added.

Allen said the business offers an alternative for pet owners and helps provide the closure many seek.

"It's not something I cherish doing, but it's a service that needs to be done," Allen said.

Allen noted a number of reasons for the business to exist: Pets have become part of the family, lifestyles today have changed and people are not as sedentary as they once were.

After burying a pet, many people worry whether five or 10 years down the line they will still live at the same residence, he said.

"Susan's favorite pet growing up is buried over in Hallsville and no one in the family lives there anymore," Allen said.

Cremation gives pet owners an option to keep their loved ones close.

Finding Closure

Pattie Temple, 61, of Lindale, remembers meeting the Allen family like it was yesterday.

"They were just terribly compassionate and kind," she said.

Duke, Mrs. Temple's 9-year-old Harlequin Great Dane, was not his normal self.

She could see it in his eyes.

She raised Duke from when he was just a pup and for six years, he worked with Therapets, an East Texas pet ministry to hospitals, hospice and prisons.

Duke was having trouble "loading up," Mrs. Temple said. His back was damaged and she was doing everything in her power to help him, including trying holistic and homeopathic medicine.

Though she and her husband, Mike, have always had pets around -- at one time, she said there were eight dogs -- Duke was, by far, the hardest animal she ever had to let go.

"The experience was very, very emotional," she said.

It all happened Labor Day weekend in 2009. She saw a commercial for Pets and Friends and called. Even though it was after hours, they agreed to meet and begin the process of finding closure.

A federal law prohibits cremations on national holidays, so she and her family left Duke with the Allens and waited for a call when it would all be over.

"They know the people they're dealing with are grieving and having a very difficult time," Mrs. Temple said.

What helped the most was despite being after hours and a holiday weekend, she did not feel rushed to say goodbye.

"Gene and Susan and Sue Ann are just wonderful, wonderful people with hearts of gold," Mrs. Temple said. "They helped to bring closure to the loss of a family member -- and that's really what it is."

Note: For more information in dealing with the loss of a pet, visit www.petsandfriendsllc.com or www.aspca.com.

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