October 2007

Happy Fall Everyone!

Welcome to Joy Pet Products' new blog. I'm Patti Wilson, the founder of Joy Pet Products (that's not me in the photo!) and I thought it would be a nice way to begin our blog by telling you a bit about the company and inviting you to send your ideas and thoughts directly to me. I'll add new postings about once a month or whenever there's something new to share with you.

Joy Pet Products is a small New England Company that began with our Goose Down Filled Dog Coats. Like many great ideas, the coats were originally designed to solve a problem, not with the idea of selling them or starting a business. With four Yorkies in MA, I needed something that truly kept them warm, actually fit them and that I could put on in a hurry - if you know Yorkies you don't always have a lot of warning when they need to go out. Nothing I found really worked very well for them, especially my little guy who was three and a half pounds.

One especially cold day when I was grabbing my jacket to go out I thought why not make them coats with down fill? My mother had sewn since I was a little girl and she passed the skill on to me, so I made four little coats. I had a lot to learn about working with down, but that's a subject for another day. My first four coats weren't nearly the quality that we now offer, but they did keep my four very warm, they fit and they stayed on them. My Yorkies were older then and whenever I'd have them out or at a vet's office people would always ask about the coats. People with bigger dogs with hip issues asked about them because the coats, unlike many others, cover the hip area. People with smaller breeds, short coated breeds, just about all breeds asked about them and soon it was obvious there were a lot of people who like me, had tried many coats that didn't really offer much warmth.

After several years of research and tweaking the design, the coat now has two US patents and is enjoyed by many dogs and their peoeple. It gives me great pleasure to read customers' emails and hear how the coat has helped their special pet. I'll never forget one of our first fit models. She was an older, larger mixed breed dogs with a health issue that prevented her from walking comfortably whenever it was at all cool outside. Her mom told me how much of a difference it made for her. She could actually enjoy walks again with her new coat

My Yorkies have passed on now, but of course they will forever be with me. I've since adopted a beautiful Papillon, Desi, who accompanies me to work every day. He's the VP in charge of moral and he's always happy to offer a paw with testing new designs. We recruit many other doggie models and testers too to be sure our coats and our new items currently in production work well for all sizes and shapes.

In future posts I'll be sure to include some photos and I'll do my best to include info on topics you suggest too. So once again welcome and thanks for visiting our site.

All the best,

Patti Wilson & Desi