I have always had a passion for animals. Taking in strays and volunteering for Guide Dogs for the Blind in Junior High, and always having animals follow me around. As I grew up, this passion remained. Animals are so much more than creatures living in our homes, they are family and deserve to be treated as such.
That is the feeling and desire I bring to my business. The short version of the story is just that: I wanted to created a great product that pet parents would adore and could trust and rely on to work and be safe.
When you purchase from me, you know that you are purchasing an item made strong and built to last. I refuse to send out any item that I am not 100% happy with, and thus refuse to purchase lower priced materials or attempt cost saving measures. I’d rather be out the money than provide my customers with anything but the best I can offer.
We really are little and local, so far having all our events held in Arizona, and just run by myself, my husband, and my sister helping with sales. It’s hard to run such a small business, bit very rewarding! We never cut corners, we never price gouge our customers, and we treat every single order as if it is going to friends and family, putting all the love and attention to the order as we can.
That’s the basics. This company started because health issues changed my life forever . . . twice . . . This company came from a desperation to survive as much as it did stop feeling like a victim and to protect the animals I love. To prove I had worth. I wasn’t going to just make something quick for a profit, my goal came to being able to provide my customers with peace of mind, security, and quality they deserve. People who love their animals deserve products from someone who cares about each order.
The long version starts when I was 26, I tripped and fell in my mom’s kitchen and broke my hip. It was discovered then that I have a low bone density disorder, making me fairly fragile. It was suggested that I get a dog to aid in mobility and to help me feel more safety in the world, as they had always brought me such great comfort. My apartment gave approval and off my husband and I went. I had a specific goal in mind! I wanted a female dog, medium sized, and I had a preference for a black dog as I knew they were less often adopted. I had all these ideals in mind . . . I wanted an older dog that was partially trained, to make sure I wouldn’t be hurt. I had my heart set on one that responded to all the tricks my trainer suggested for me “make sure they will play fetch with you, they need a drive. Make sure they prefer human company over being alone. Make sure that when they are out in the yard, their interest is still in coming to you, even if they run off to get a toy, you want them to come back to you.” As well as the age advice of, “whatever you do, don’t get a husky, or any stubborn breed.” The intention was for a loving dog that was easy to please and eager to learn, so that I wouldn’t have as high a risk of breaking bones or getting injured while training.
We went to a boarding facility and waited in a play yard for him to come out. We noticed the majority of the dogs there were smaller, so we assumed that the dog they were bringing us would be, too. Oh how wrong we were. Aladdin, all 75 pounds of him, dragged the rescue worker down the path and as soon as he was off leash, he was gone to the other side of the play yard. He ran back and forth along the wall, frantically sniffing around, stretching. He wouldn’t come near us, even as the rescue worker kept calling for him. My mother and I exchanged looks while she asked about any smaller female dogs they might have had, preferably ones that had some training already. The rescue worker shook her head and instead told us more about Aladdin. . . that wasn’t the name his original owners gave him, and they didn’t know what situation he was coming from, but that he seemed confused about how to behave around people (he didn’t like being touched) and also wasn’t sure how to play with other dogs. He’d been abandoned, they said, because of a $100 vet bill for an infected paw. His family simply couldn’t afford it, so they made the painful, but noble, decision to give him up to the rescue that promised to pay the bill and find him a good home. He’d been at the rescue several months, jumping between fosters and finally being put in the boarding facility. . . for three months he was in a kennel designed for a small dog, with limited human interaction to just an hour or two a day, whatever they could spare to make sure all the dogs were looked after. . . oh, and he was part husky.
My mother and I left, heading to the next place. Next on the list was a white German Shepherd/corgi mix that was already rattlesnake trained, housebroken, knew basic obedience, and was female, staying with the Animal Welfare League and described to me as “just perfect.”
We never made it to the facility. I spent the whole drive explaining about why Aladdin wasn’t the right dog. He was not interested in people, or toys, and even offered treats didn’t encourage him to even come our way. He was male, he was too big, he was the wrong breed, he was the wrong temperament.
All this was overshadowed, of course, by the one simple fact that when he finally had come over. . . I realized he was also someone who had recently been injured and because of that, his world changed. When I broke my hip I lost my job, a place I had volunteered at for years and finally been hired. . . friends vanished when they heard the news that it was a permanent medical condition, and I had to figure out how to deal with it. Luckily, I had my family . . . Aladdin didn’t. The rescue workers were amazing to him, but it was still temporary, it still wasn’t his home.
The very next day I drove back to the rescue and got him. He was expensive, he was a handful, but by God he was not going to spend another night in a kennel being fed whatever was donated and wondering if this was just what his life was now.
The rescue had me sign a contract stating that if I was unable to keep him, then he needed to go back to them. The last thing they wanted was to be worrying about where one of their dogs would end up, the contract was to make sure he never ended up at risk of being euthanized at a shelter, or given t some random stranger who might hurt him. It was a promise that no matter what happened, they were taking responsibility for him. However, I think they’re rather pleased to see how many years have passed without hearing too much from us. Aladdin got a new home, and a permanent family, as well as a new name. We named him Lakoda, after finding he wouldn’t respond to Aladdin. It is a name from a book I wrote, fitting as this was the start of Lakoda’s new story. It also means Peaceful Person on the Blackfoot language. Lakoda became my new friend, he also was the reason I started this business. I bought him collars and leashes, and the rescue provided a red, metal tongue-buckle collar. He broke it his very first walk at his new home. . . on a golf course, right after we had spoken with a dog trainer about how best to handle our new addition . . . The panic I felt in that moment was something I never wanted to experience again!
So you can imagine how upsetting it was when it happened again, this time with a plastic buckle style collar I had purchased from a pet store and trusted to be safe. Four collars he went through. The first had the metal tongue from the buckle snap. The second had the plastic buckle just come right apart. The third had the webbing snap while I was giving him a bath and he was pulling--it also stretched. The fourth and final one had the metal D-ring peel open and come right off the webbing! That was it, enough was enough, at that point I was done! I refused to use a choke chain on him--he pulled too much I feared it would hurt him. I tried harnesses, but he screamed and cried when we put them on. Even when I had a professional trainer put them on to be sure I wasn’t doing it wrong. This lead me to get to work. He was family, I was going to make sure he had what he needed. My mother was a seamstress as I was growing up. She was one of the best, designers fought over her and would wait over a year for her to have time to work for them. She had been teaching me to sew little dolls and things to sell at conventions, but we switched focus and I went to researching.
What makes a really good collar? A tensile strength that’s at least three times higher than the weight of the dog. UV resistance is a plus, as is mold, mildew, and stretch resistance. Something that can be heat-set so the edges don’t fray is a godsend! Meaning cotton was out as an option. For six months I tested different materials, even using the webbing to climb trees and make swings. I tested the buckles and d-rings by having tug-of-war matches among family members, my sister even going as far as making a swing out of a few test collars and seeing how much weight she could put on it. We dragged these things through the mud and muck, we put them underwater for 24 hours and then tossed them in a corner to dry to see if rust would form that easy. We left a few outside in the sun for two weeks straight, then hit the buckles with rocks to see if they’d become brittle. Anything that didn’t pass, no matter how much it cost or what the reviews said, was tossed. It was expensive! That didn’t matter, though. What mattered was finding the best materials, the best stitching method, and the best testing methods. One great way was to give Lakoda a bath while using one of the test collars to try and keep him in one spot. It added soapy water, and a dog that was very much against this whole bath idea, and then a walk immediately after as a reward. It had 75 pounds of dog pulling against it even while adding soaps and water. Which lead to another ideas and caused us to start tossing them into the washing machine, then the dryer, and hitting the metal d-rings with hammers and using them to drag things from my car. We went through 7 different materials and types for the d-rings alone before I found the heavy duty ones we now use. The buckles have to be a specific type, density, weight, as well as the webbing. We found light weight options that work even better than heavier ones, and are proud to say that we have never once had a collar, leash, harness, anything we make break on a customer.
All that experience paid off. We had a few locals who stated they refuse to buy anywhere else, and we got some major endorsement when Kiba the Cosplay Corgi (https://www.facebook.com/CosplayCorgi/) announced officially, multiple times, that they wouldn’t trust anyone but us.
Once we started gaining followers, and trust, it really showed us we were going in the right direction. After all, Kiba had thousands of followers, and could choose anyone! Nicole, Kiba’s owner, uses Kiba as a service dog. Because of that, she has to have the best equipment to ensure her medical equipment (in fuzzy dog form) stays safe. She also is looked at by every other service dog handler, and if she recommends something to them, she is putting her reputation on the line, something a public figure has to depend on.
Kiba’s needs also forced us to look at the company and decide what all we could do . . . working hard, we developed relationships that now allow us to print our own, custom designs. Meaning we were then able to add artwork done by artists who wanted collars for their pet or for their friend’s pets. It allowed us to even commission a few to make designs for us to use. Then it lead to us working with the amazing people at Ruff Life Bones to create custom lanyards and key fobs for their company!
We offer handmade, high quality dog and cat collars, leashes, pet beds, pet treats, pet shampoo, pet related gift items, posters, prints, iron on patches, and so much more.
The collars are adjustable, and allow for customization on design, as well as features such as metal buckles, reflective buckles, or Break Away buckles to keep your pets safe and looking amazing.
The matching leashes are made of high quality, heavy duty nylon and metal clips, tested using my German Shepherd / Husky mix, to be sure of strength and dependability.
Visit our store on etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RCrescentsCreations
