What do you get when you combine a pandemic, a hemp farmer and one nervous Shih Tzu? If you’re entrepreneur Tiffany Lewis, you get a fabulous business idea.
A pet-sitting service that Tiffany launched in high school has grown into a large, successful business 25 years later called Pet and Home Care, which offers doggy daycare, boarding, dog walking, and plenty more.
When Tiffany was about to take her own dog, Millie the Shih Tzu on a long flight, her veterinarian advised medicine to calm Millie. Instead, the medication made Millie “violently ill,” recalls Tiffany, who vowed to find a better way. Around the same time, Pet and Home Care was dealing with a huge loss of business since clients were home with their dogs during the pandemic and didn’t need daycare or boarding for their pets.
“So, I talked to my mom, the hemp farmer,” Tiffany says, referring to Dawn Furman, who owns The Fingerboard Farm in Frederick County. “She reminded me she had made hemp pet treats at one point and then we came up with an idea,” Tiffany adds. “Prior to that, mom only made hemp products for humans. Scientists on her team worked with us to come up with a hemp oil product for pets called The Pleasant Pet. It makes me so proud and happy. It’s a true mother-daughter success story.”
The Pleasant Pet, available at PetAndHomeCare.com/shop, uses a broad-spectrum hemp oil that Tiffany says provides relief for many common pet ailments including pain, anxiety, arthritis, seizures, allergies, skin conditions, digestive issues, and sundowner syndrome; a cognitive degeneration disorder in senior dogs. The product is made from just four ingredients: organic cold-pressed hemp seed oil, organic broad-spectrum hemp oil, sunflower lecithin, and a blend of terpenes. It does not contain THC.
The Pleasant Pet is packaged with a dropper and the label recommends dosage according to the size of the dog.
“They can mix it on the dog’s food or put it on a treat,” Tiffany says. “It’s so safe, you don’t have to worry about an overdose and you can adjust the dosage when you see how it works for your dog,” she adds. It helps Millie handle the stress of fireworks, airplane rides and more.
At Tiffany’s Pet and Home Care pet resort in Clarksburg, clients come from across Montgomery and Frederick Counties.
Tiffany says, “Our approach is a free-range open plan. Dogs interact together so we are cautious and have tough restrictions on the dogs who come. We do have optional crates available. We are out in the in country and surrounded by tall trees and open land, with about a half-acre fenced in.” The boutique facility can handle up to about 40 dogs at once.
In addition to doggie daycare, boarding, bathing and walking, the company’s services include in-home pet visits and service for clients who are away from home, including bringing in the mail, checking for plumbing leaks, watering plants etc.
Earlier this year, Tiffany was accepted into a competitive Goldman Sachs program called 10,000 Small Businesses, that helps entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunity.
Tiffany says, “I graduated from the four-month program in April with tons of new ideas and a business plan for The Pleasant Pet to ensure Pet and Home Care stays nimble and profitable in today’s economy, still recovering from the pandemic.”
Currently seeing a surge of new and old clients, Tiffany says. “We are excited for what the year is going to bring.”
