It all started in 2018 when I wistfully wished for my own family Christmas, just me and my dog.
I had gotten my black lab Olive, just two years prior, roughly 8 months after I had lost my mom. I was in my late 30s at the time, and was just finding myself getting past the worst of my grief from losing the love of my life is a nasty ‘divorce’, just two years prior to that.
I had lost the two most important people in my life in two short years, the memories and still fresh feelings of loss and anguish leaving me both in utter pain and total numbness, and I wanted to do just about anything to feel something different.
Enter Olive.
I’d like to say she was an easy puppy, or that from the second I got her at 8 weeks old, we were smiles and best friends … but, that wasn’t the case. I cried every day the first week after I got her. By the second month, I was a walking zombie, sleep deprived and emotional, with a whole new appreciation and bafflement, for how mothers (and fathers) of human babies, could possibly even manage it.
I had bite marks covering everything in my house (including my own hands, feet and ankles). Anything on the floor was ripped apart within minutes. I had made countless trips to the Vet or Emergency hospital already, because while I had puppy proofed everything in my house… this little 10lb stinker could get into zipped up backpacks, closed cupboards, and of course sn**ch anything gross or inappropriate off the Chicago city street sidewalks, faster than I could scream “No! Are you serious!?!?”
Around month four though, we got into a groove. I had learned quite a few new training techniques, we were through the worst of the biting, and one day I realized that I had stopped holding back my love for this dog, something I hadn’t even realized I was withholding from her in the first place… the thought of losing yet another ‘person’ who I loved with all my heart, had kept me from giving my heart to this little pup in the first place.
From then on, we were what I would call soulmates. When people say owners and their dogs are exactly alike, they are dead right… I was a difficult child too.
It was late December 2018, a few days before I was set to leave to go to my sisters to spend Christmas with her and her family, when I decided I wanted my own “family” Christmas, at my place, just Olive and me.
I was sitting in front of my decorated Christmas tree (one I had cut down by myself that year), I had cooked a big meal for myself (something special for our ‘family’ Christmas night), and had given Olive a special dinner too. She was now opening her presents up under the tree.
“You know what would make this feel even better,” I thought with a smile as I watched her. “What would make it feel really special?”
Was if Olive could have bought a gift for me too.
Well, days later, I was embarrassed to share this wistful thought with other people. After all, there are still those out there that think it might be crazy. Or if nothing else, a little weird. But over the course of the next few months, this idea of her getting me a gift of her own just kept popping out…
“That is SUCH a good idea,” I would get in response.
Really!?!?!
Well, I had to agree.
I was burned out on a long career in marketing and while I was living a pretty great life, I still had my struggles with being ‘alone’, and found myself wishing for a bit more laughter in my life, and just more fun.
Olive always made me laugh I thought… and she was always there. My constant companion, with positive energy and unconditional love. She always saw the best in me, never focusing on my flaws. And I got to see myself the same way through her eyes.
‘That’s the magic of animals in our lives’ I thought., ‘unconditional love, acceptance and even adoration… WITH our faults!’ And whether single or married, or in a large family… I saw people experiencing this same magic with their pets, everywhere I looked.
So, I decided I wanted to be a bigger part of that magic. I wanted to MAKE it bigger in my life, and in the lives of the people around me too.
And I could do that by re-creating moments of that magic, re-creating those feelings of being loved no matter what you do and feeling amazing and important no matter what our flaws.
I could do this be creating gifts and products from the very beings that have the magical power to make us feel that way already. Be it with a single look, a fury touch, or a slobbery face lick that can always make us laugh. I could do this by creating gifts and products… that come from our pets.
So, I left behind an unloved career for good and my idea became a start-up.
FromYourPet.com
Gifts and products that make people feel connected. Gifts and products that make people feel loved. Gifts and products that remind us of how amazing and important we really are… Gifts, that come from our pets.
