 Photo by Mark Leffingwell
Ron Plucinski and his wife, Ann Eberlein, run Left Paw Pantry, a pet-food delivery service, from their Niwot home. |
Home delivery is going to the dogs ... and the cats, too.
Niwot-based pet-food delivery service Left Paw Pantry shuttles high-quality dog and cat food to customers' doors, and right now the company's business is barking up the right tree, say owners Ann Eberlein and Ron Plucinski. |
Left Paw Pantry — which delivers throughout Boulder and Broomfield counties, and elsewhere along the Front Range — saw its customer base double to 600 over the past year, Eberlein said, and requests for samples have increased since last month's massive pet food recall by Menu Foods and other companies.
"It's been primarily people thinking they were feeding a quality food and they're not," Plucinski said. The inclusion of brands such as Science Diet in the recall raised customer awareness about the possible dangers of mass-produced pet food, Plucinski said.
Similarly, the pet-food scare has benefited Boulder's Natural Pet Store, an online supplier that says its sales have soared 50 percent since the recall began.
When choosing a quality pet food, smaller companies might be better, Plucinksi said.
"There's plenty of companies out there with good ingredients, but you haven't heard of them," Plucinski said.
Healthier food makes for healthier pets, he said, and customers should look for pet foods with natural preservatives, good ingredients and no by-products. Left Paw Pantry uses products from companies such as Natural Balance and Evanger's, neither of which recalled foods, according to the companies' Web sites.
Health isn't the only advantage of using Left Paw Pantry, formerly called Pet Pantry. The company's free delivery takes the bite out of the additional trip to a pet food store that many pet owners make, the husband and wife team said.
Customers receive a food-grade bin when service begins, which they leave outside for refills. Left Paw Pantry provides a phone call reminder the night before a delivery, and the couple hopes their natural products and friendly service makes customers sit up and take notice.
"It sure is refreshing to work with people and their pets rather than people and their computers," Plucinski said of the couple's move from the tech industry to pet products four years ago. "Everybody wants to talk about their pets," he said, and people light up as soon as they begin speaking of them.
Left Paw Pantry's food works for Patricia Harper's four dogs.
"We use the dry and canned food, and a lot of the treats," said Harper, who lives in the foothills of Larimer County.
Harper appreciates the delivery service since she and her husband, both in their 70s, find it difficult to get out, especially in bad weather.
"Ron (Plucinski ) is so punctual and regular. We never have to worry, and he comes in all kinds of horrible weather," Harper said. She said she hopes other pet owners will switch away from popular brands with ingredients she said are inferior.
