Foster Pets Are Good for Your Business (and you!)

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The recent issue of the trade magazine Art Materials Retailer (easily found online at www.artmaterialsretailer.com) has an article about the benefit of having pets in your shop to make your customers more relaxed and eager to visit your shop. Additionally, they believe that having pets in the shop can relax and entertain the staff as well!

We couldn't agree more! While TKB Trading doesn't really have a shop for browsing in, we do have some folks who come by for "will call" pickup. We also have one staff member with strong mood swings (also known as Kaila) who needs regular stress intervention.

But rather than commiting to the responsiblity of a company pet, we enjoy fostering animals in neeed for short bursts of time. This allows us to a) do good, and b) not do good 24/7, just as time and space allows.

Our first bundles of love were three kittens with us for less than 48 hours before they were adopted. Next came three siamese mixes named Cricket, Bucket and Sweetie. We hosted them for about six weeks.

A few months ago, we grabbed the opportunity to foster Cookie, a Katrina Hurricane refugee with heartworm. Cookie (pictured above begging for a walk) was with us for about six months. (Lucky her, she was later adopted by a writer for Bark Magazine, a magazine devoted to modern Dog Culture).

Thanks to the article in Art Materials Retailer, we've been inspired to put in a call to our local resuce organization (www.hopalong.org) for more kittens. So, if you see little pawprints on your invoices in the next few weeks, you'll know that we've added a couple of furballs to our staff -- for the moment.

Won't you consider fostering a needy pet? It really is a short term commitment and can really bring good energy to your business, as well as save an animal's life.

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