By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Dave Flora moved his One Stop Pet Shop from Cassopolis to Dowagiac and will officially open Tuesday, Jan. 2, as the first new business of 2007, although curious customers were already nosing around the former Marketplace at 225 S. Front St. on Thursday afternoon.
"I bet I've had 100 people knocking on that door in the last week" as he cleaned and stocked his shelves.
"A big percentage of my clientele was from Dowagiac," he said, as well as Mishawaka, Ind., and Edwardsburg. "So far, quite a few have followed me here."
Flora knows from first-hand experience how people pamper their pets, and product lines reflect that, including gourmet dog food – venison and brown rice, sweet potato and fish and potato and duck.
Between meals, dogs can snack on chicken jerky.
For dessert, there are doggie delights such as brownies.
Flora surprises visitors when he admits he's sampled the chocolate treats made from carob.
"They're good," he insists. "I tasted them. Something else that's good is these chocolate chip kisses. I figure if my dog's going to eat it, it's not going to hurt me."
Or, if your pampered pooch lacks a sweet tooth, perhaps it needs jewelry, a second fur coat, paw wear or sunglasses.
"When it comes to pets and most people, a lot will spend money on their pets before their kids," Flora said. "All my pets are here. I don't want to go home and take care of them after I do this. I don't even have a dog anymore. I don't have time, and I don't believe you should buy a pet if you don't have time for it. I see people go to pet stores at the mall and pay $1,500 for a puppy that they can go in the paper and buy from a private breeder for half the price. It's an impulse buy. I saw one lady during Christmas buying a pretty white samoyed, and she was financing that $1,800 dog. You've got to be kidding me."
"Vickie (Phillipson, Downtown Development Authority and Chamber of Commerce program director) has been talking to me for about a year," said Flora, who lives in Cassopolis, but works at Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital and for 22 years at Pawating Hospital in Niles.
In between he started pet stores during 17 years in Georgia and Alabama – one large enough to need nine employees.
Muhammad Ali's photograph is part of his wall of customer pictures. Flora said he first met the prize fighter in Alabama, then again at his Cassopolis shop, where Ali posed with Flora's granddaughter.
Flora met reptile expert Mark O'Shea at a meeting in Orlando when he owned a 20,000-square-foot pet store in Columbus, Ga.
O'Shea autographed a glossy during a promotional tour for Midwest, a purveyor of snake supplies.
Flora also had an autographed photo of the late Steve Irwin, TV's "The Crocodile Hunter," but it was swiped and is now irreplaceable.
"I sold alligators, crocodile babies, cougar kittens and descented skunks" down South, Flora said.
"I lived here many years ago in Niles. I live here now because my daughter lives here," he said. "I was a medical technologist for 22 years at Pawating Hospital. I work at Lee Memorial every Friday and Saturday night, 6:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. I run the lab. I started out to become a veterinarian, but I've been a medical technologist for 35 years. I run your blood work if you're in an accident."
"I've started five pet stores," Flora said. "I had a small pet store in Niles (near The Firing Pin gun shop) 20 years ago. Then I had one in Phoenix City, Ala. I raised all my own reptiles. Phoenix City is across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus, Ga.
"I sold a lot more birds and reptiles" in the South, where the cost of living is lower, he said. "Down there I could buy and sell 55-gallon fish tanks with top and light for $99. I can't even buy them here for that. It's actually much cheaper down there, but I've been back here for 2 1/2 years."
A customer from Cassopolis wanders in to buy treats for his conures, which can fly but stay perched on his shoulder outdoors or when he pulls up at McDonald's drive-through. Indoors, they sleep inside his shirt. They accompanied him to Indianapolis last weekend.
"Birds especially bond with you like you're their parent," Flora observed.
"We're going to carry dog supplies, fish supplies, reptiles. I'm the only Michigan-licensed pet store in this area."
One Stop Pet Shop's hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday. The business is closed Sundays.