This is a topic/question I have researched and discussed for almost 16 years now, and I love it. Hello, my name is Jonathan, and I would like to tell you about my story and how we got here. I was 15 when my sister tricked my divorced parents into getting us our first dog. He was a 13lbs Dachshund mix that my father rescued off a busy street and we named him Batman. We were very allergic to Batman, we both have asthma, but who needs that much oxygen?

Batman would change our lives forever. Batman was the reason I got my first pet store job 2 months later and why my sister would later go on to run a rescue for 10 years.

We started as most new pet owners do feeding the cheapest food with the best marketing because the company said it was healthy.

Later that same year the pet food world was rocked as it was discovered that dog food was being made with Tainted wheat from China. This caused dozens of pet food companies to recall their products in the wake of thousands of dead pets around the country.

At 16 years old I witnessed hundreds of people shaken and trying to understand how this could happen and why. These were advertised as the healthiest option for their pets yet, “healthy pet food” ended up being the thing that killed their fur babies.

The ramification of the 2007 melamine recalls changed how the savvy pet parent shopped. For years to come every day when people came to shop with us they would ask if there were any ingredients from China in the dog food they were considering purchasing. And the industry evolved.

Eventually I moved on from that first pet store to my second pet store, and this one sold live animals including puppies. It was at this pet store where my next Big adventure started and her name was Loki she was a three-month-old mischievous Miniature Pinscher. She was beautiful, fast and easily the worst dog we ever had.

Loki was also huge for her breed as well as aggressive towards other animals and people.

It was for these reasons I think the men who wanted to buy her thought she would be a perfect bait dog. As you may know being a “bait” dog means filing down the smaller dog’s teeth and then putting her in a small room with a drugged Pitbull that has been given cocaine or some other stimulant to send it into a mindless rage. It is Horrifying.

Obviously when I heard what they were planning, I made sure they left the store and convinced my mother we had to Save her. Loki was my Biggest teacher on my journey to becoming a nutritionally savvy Pet Parent.

By the time Loki was 18 months old she was going bald. I had never seen anything like it before. The hair around her eyes was receding and her skin was covered in welts that she would scratch till they bled.

Naturally we went to the Vet. They gave Loki steroids and prescription food for allergies. This of course worked while the steroids suppressed her histamine response. Unfortunately, after the steroids were done, she got even worse.

So I started looking into other options for food and talking to people I knew who had been in the industry longer than I had and were more knowledgeable. As it turned out Loki had an issue with processed carbs in her diet. It took a while but eventually I discovered the items that didn’t work for her and Loki’s skin returned to normal.

I would say that was the moment I really got into animal nutrition. When I realized prescription medication wasn’t always the only choice for solving systemic issues. And what you feed you pets makes a huge difference in how long they live but more importantly how well they live. I continued to work in the pet industry researching issue as they arose and looking into problems that my customers had for which I had no answer. I would read articles on nutrition and peer reviewed medical journals. I certainly didn’t understand all of it right away. So I took small bits of information that made sense to me, slowly growing my knowledge.

After 10 years in the industry, the opportunity to purchase Pet Foods market came up. We would need to save money and apply for a bank loan, but after 3 years we were able to get a loan. A week before my 29th Birthday, I opened the doors to Sowley For Pets. It’s Named for my Grandfather who passed 7 months before I opened. He was so excited for me to own my own business. My logo includes a fisherman next to the Lighthouse as an homage to my Grandpa. We always went fishing together. Well as long as I can remember.

After 3 weeks in business California locked down. From the very beginning it has been a struggle to keep our doors open. Thankfully we were able to survive 2020 with the money we had saved for incidentals.

By 2021 all our savings were gone but it seemed like we might have made it through. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Since May of 2021 pet food has been in a state of flux. Companies have been dealing with mass ingredient shortages because farmers went an entire year with no restaurants needing supplies and many of those restaurants never opening again. Aluminum shortages halted canned pet food as human food took precedence, and numerous other issues halting the overall supply chain. Every week the prices would increase.

With all this in mind our little store in our little community can’t keep up with the increased cost of products while being anywhere close to competitive with online retailer prices.

We understand this and have always striven to provide something we felt is more important. We know and love the pets in this community and for most of us at Sowley, we have spent our entire adult lives caring for animals in one way or another.

Providing your pets with proper nutrition has never been about the money. My passion and why I do this is because I love seeing a dog or cat improve because something as simple as eating healthy food.

I have been able to reverse early kidney failure and slowed the progression of cancer with nutrition and standard of care.

There is much I still need to learn and so many furry friends to meet so I’m reaching out to my community because without your help we won’t last much longer.

Our little store on the hill is in trouble. I’m working as hard as I can to keep us going. I’m working as many as two other jobs to help with expenses.

Now it’s up to our amazing community if we are to survive.

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Sowley For Pets is proud to serve Palos Verdes Estates, CA and surrounding areas. We are dedicated to providing the highest level of pet products along with friendly, compassionate service.

We believe in treating every client as if they were our own pet, and giving them the same loving attention and care. We are a group of highly trained, experienced animal lovers who are devoted to giving your pet the best care possible.

If you have any questions about how we can care for your pet, please don’t hesitate to call us at (310) 377-1616. Thank you!

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