78 Magazine

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Soul of 78- Chris Harvey

“In April we will be celebrating our four-year anniversary. We wanted to open FurBabies because we love animals (we have five dogs of our own) and Joseph wanted to do grooming. He began grooming school about 8 months prior to the facility opening, and during that time, I lost my job. I remember that we were on vacation when I got the call, and we talked about it and just decided we would take the leap and open FurBabies.

We offer grooming, boarding, and daycare. During spring of last year, we opened a second facility, called the LaundroMutt, which is a grooming-only facility. It was really to give us some relief here, since we had so many dogs. One time during spring break we boarded 140, with 20-30 dogs coming in and out for grooming. We were busting at the seams – so opening a second grooming location has been wonderful.

The LaundroMutt has 3 groomers and features a self-wash station, which was installed in October. It stays fairly busy, and provides clients with our professional-grade shampoo, and high velocity dryer – so hopefully you can achieve the same results as you would if we bathed your dog ourselves.

My favorite part about this whole thing is the boarding aspect. You get to meet a lot of different animals. People don’t realize what unique personalities each dog really has. I like working with the dogs who are really nervous. Typically, when you see a difficult dog it’s not because they’re aggressive or mean, it’s because they’re scared. It’s our job to put them at ease, to socialize them, and to have them enjoy their time here.”

-Chris Harvey, Co-Owner of FurBabies and the LaundroMutt