That Pet Blog That Pet Place Pet Blog

We’re back with another edition of our Lancaster, Pa-specific retail store blog. What’s going on? What’s new? What’s challenging? This blog is here to answer these questions about our little family-owned business.

Where Are You Guys At With Your Inventory Now As We Move Deeper into the Pandemic?

Like lots of other pet retailers, and as we’ve noted on previous editions of this blog – we’ve had some issues with various categories of pet items over the last few months. The largest shortages we’ve seen have been in glass aquariums and feeder insects, respectively. The good news here is that we’re starting to see a rebound in glass tanks – they’re starting to become available to us again. The bad news, feeder insects are still a challenge. If you’re coming from a distance to our store specifically on the lookout for crickets, superworms, etc., we’d advise that you give the store a call before you come. We are doing our best to keep these in stock – including but not limited to exploring additional vendors for these staples, but the shortages appear to be industry-wide. We are also exploring different feeder options to provide alternatives should you need them. Take a look at our live reptile feeders here.

Thank You Lancaster County

Despite the pandemic, our local community came through bigtime for pets and other worthwhile non-profits during our area’s biggest day of donation – The Extraordinary Give. Even if this difficult year, The Extra Give generated its highest total donations this year! Thank you specifically to everyone whom donated to our in-store rescue – Centerville Pet Rescue! Like all of the organizations participating – they depend exclusively on donations for their day to day operations, and their ability to help more and more animals! Thank you Lancaster!

Locals – Don’t Forget About Curbside!

No one is sure how long this pandemic is going to last. Like lots of stores, we’ve done many things to help adjust to these conditions and make it safer for everyone, but we wanted to drop a reminder: That Fish Place – That Pet Place offers curbside pickup now! There are a few ways to do this. One, is to call our call center at 1-888-THAT-PET. Tell them what you’d like, and mention that you’d like to pick it up curbside at our Lancaster store. That’s it. For those living in PA-only, our website will allow you to choose ‘In Store Pickup’ as an option on most items. You can’t do this with livestock, but if you’re looking to avoid a little contact, add your dry goods, place the order, and our team will give you a call when it’s ready for you.

Stay safe out there everyone and have a great holiday season!

The Team At That Fish Place – That Pet Place

Happy November everyone!

Back with an update with what’s going on with That Fish Place – That Pet Place. As always, these blogs discuss what’s happening in our retail store and with our web distribution operation over the last month!

IN STORE EVENTS ARE BACK – SORT OF…

Starting in October, we have begun having limited, in-store events again. So far, these have consisted of animal rescue meet and greets only. Over the last few months, we have adjusted our event policies to allow for better cleanliness and virus mitigation when visitors come to our store. We’ve carried over these procedures and expanded them to further allow for safe events for staff and customers alike. We are relieved and excited, albeit cautious, to be able to provide this visibility to rescues again and would encourage you to monitor our events page for what’s coming up. Unfortunately, we are still canceling large-scale events like Centerville Pet Rescue Santa Photos for the season.

OUR STORE IS GETTING A FACE LIFT!

That Fish Place – That Pet Place’s retail store has been here a long time, so it was high time we gave it a facelift! Working with Two Dudes Painting, the front of our store is getting our brand orange and blue added! Check out the new colors on the roof awning as well as the light poles around the store. In addition, we’re getting much needed external facility painting and patching as well. We love the results – what do you think?

A NEW REGISTER

If you’re a regular to our store, you probably noticed that we removed the register with the wall right as you enter our store. Well, it’s back, but on the other side! In an effort to further comply with social distancing guidelines, our team migrated our largest register to the other side of the register area. This allows us to accommodate busy days just as well as before, while still allowing us to keep the store more open and spread out. Win-win!

Please enjoy the next blog in our series to talk about our point of view on various items from the top. If you have any questions, you’d like us to answer in this column, please feel free to submit them in the comments section.

I noticed that you’re not shipping fish from your website right now. Why is this and when are they coming back?

Yes, for much of the last few months, we have not been shipping livestock from our website. For those who are not aware, thatpetplace.com ships aquarium livestock to most of the lower 48 states from our store in Lancaster, PA. Unfortunately, when COVID-19 hit, we could no longer rely on our shipping partners to meet their arrival stipulations, so we decided to suspend shipments. Rather than risk fish, coral, or other livestock reaching your doorstep days after it was supposed to, we opted to pause delivery. This then became coupled with the shortages we, and most businesses, are seeing on livestock and other goods during this time, and we decided to keep shipping closed through the month of June. HOWEVER, at this point, we are hoping to re-open shipping on July 8th, 2020, stay tuned! When we are up and rolling, you can see the details HERE, and check out our selection HERE.

Our Store Has a New Cart Corral – and Boy are We Excited About it!

So, it seems like a minor thing, but we’ve redone the front of the store to contain a new cart corral. Though a minor move, and not as cool as a new display tank or something, this move opens more for us to do. BECAUSE we moved the carts to the corral, we’ve freed up space to:

 1. Expand the Small Pet Corner.

2. Redo the register area to create more space both for safety and convenience

3. Make the entire store more visible – no big wooden wall – as soon as you enter the front doors. We always thought it was tough to see the fish room WAAYY over there, so we’re hoping this helps! Check back for updates on future posts.

Building YouTube Stars – One Video At a Time!

Over the last month, we’ve worked to develop a few basic, regular video series with a few of our in-store pet experts. One features Gabe from the Fish Room discussing things like his favorite fish, our procedures for acclimating and doing water changes. Another features one of our pet experts, Stacy, going over some of our store pets, housing Pacman frogs, ferret baths, and other interesting topics. We’re hoping to continue these series moving forward and to cover things our visitors would be interested in. If you have any topics, you’d like to see us cover, please don’t hesitate to mention them in the comments! You can check out our YouTube channel HERE.

Thank you all for reading and talk to you at the end of next month!

The Team at That Fish Place – That Pet Place

Welcome to That Pet Blog! As we work to help relaunch this blog – we wanted to start injecting more posts directly related to some of the things going on in our Lancaster, Pa retail store – both behind the scenes and in our day to day. We hope these posts help people who are interested in our business glean more insight into why we operate the way we do. Please feel free to ask any questions and we’ll try to be as transparent as possible. We may also answer your questions in a future installment of this column.

This Blog Hasn’t Been Updated in Years – Why Now?

We have found, particularly in the current health crisis, that it has become more and more necessary to communicate, in a longer form, to our customers. In addition, we have more team members now capable of providing interesting content. With those two items combined, That Pet Blog came back to life.

Your Store is Out of A lot of Stuff Now – What’s Going On?

Yes, you’re 100% right, we’re experiencing a lot of shortages right now. First of all, let us assure you, we are attempting to order as much as we can to fill the missing items. This being said, lots of things happening right now are impacting our (as well as other stores you frequent) inventory levels:

• COVID-19-related production and delivery delays. Namely, factories are impacted on the production side when individuals get sick. The same is true for delivery companies
• Still COVID-19 related, but shortages on goods from other countries due to their exposure to the pandemic
• Demand is really high. More people are home, and many are turning to their (or new) pets for support.
• A more recent phenomenon we’re seeing are businesses impacted by protests nationwide impacting their production and delivery capabilities

If you have any questions on this or are looking for alternatives to products you normally purchase, please, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team on social or via email at custservice@thatpetplace.com.

We Noticed the Touch Tank is Closed, and there are Restrictions on How Many People can Be in The Small Animal Room, Reptile Room, and Fish Rooms at this time. Do you have a Goal in Mind to Open these Back up Unrestricted?

The short answer is that – no, unfortunately, we do not. As an essential business through this pandemic, we have worked extremely hard from day one to make our store as safe as possible for our employees and our customers. Given the uncertainty about the COVID-19 virus, we will only adjust back when we feel the health of everyone is reasonably and sustainably, safe when visiting our store. As a destination for folks, in addition to being a retail store, we feel a very high responsibility to be cautious and careful to not encourage a large amount of visitors until the coast is clear.

Thanks for reading! Please check back for future Q&A posts as well as other excellent pet articles from our wonderful team here!

This past Sunday the Lancaster Barnstormer’s held their annual Bark in the Park event at the Clipper Magazine Stadium. That Pet Place mascots, Bernie the St. Bernard and Chompers the shark, were in attendance, and That Pet Place had several reps in the lawn area with all of the pets and other vendors.

The afternoon started with a yappy hour in the front of the stadium with $1 hot dogs. All proceeds from the sale of the food and the special lawn tickets went to the Lancaster SPCA and supports a great cause to our local community.

The Barnstormer’s also had several other events going on that day: a walk for kids with diabetes & it was their mascot, Cylo’s, birthday! There were tons of mascots in attendance, including the Turkey Hill Turkey and the Hershey Bear’s mascot! Bernie and Chompers were honored to be a part of the celebration.

Back in the lawn area, the reps from TPP (including myself) were swarmed with fans and their friendly dogs. Everyone had a great time mingling and socializing with each other. Tina from Furever Homes Adoption joined us as well (they’re a proud member of Lancaster CARES) to promote their upcoming craft and vendor fair on That Pet Place grounds on July 12th, 2014. TPP had a camouflage bandanas for the dogs in attendance. If you missed the event, stop by the store. We have a few left over and they’re for sale in the retail store in Lancaster, PA!

Did you go to the game? Snap any pictures? Please, share them with us on our Facebook page!

If you weren’t able to make the game, make sure you keep an eye out this fall; the Lancaster Barnstormer’s are planning another event for this fall! Watch our Facebook page in the coming months as we figure out the details!

Hi That Pet Place readers – If you’re local to the Lancaster, PA area I hope you had a chance on Saturday to stop out at the 2nd annual Pet Pantry Proud Pet Day for some fun and games!

I want to thank all of the organizations, volunteers, and customers for making this event such a huge success this year! We had beautiful (although a little bit chilly) weather and a great crowd to meet with.

Cylo from the Lancaster Barnstormers stopped by to promote their upcoming Bark in the Park event (a day where you can take your dog with you to the baseball game) and was a huge hit with the kids and the dogs!

Forgotten Friends was taking snake photos, The Feathered Sanctuary had lots of rescue birds out who were available for adoption, and all kinds of rescue organizations from around the area stopped by to promote pet welfare and adoption.

Thanks to all of our customers who donated to the Stuff the Truck event & helped feed pets in need; the 50/50 raised about $500 and Beau, last year’s winner of the Beneful Dream Dog Park chose the winning tennis ball towards the end of the day.

Local artist Neil was doing Pet Caricatures and Pet Psychic Cynthia was doing readings… all for this great cause for our local area! I can’t even begin to thank everyone enough for all the support they showed.

Another big thank you goes out to the vendors who took the time to set up a table or booth at the event and hand out samples to customers.

I was in attendance as a representative of the organization Tripawds, who is very near to my heart. My very own Tripawd, Barret, was there and of course was the star of the show. He was busy showing off his balance skills on the FitPaws Balance Disk to anyone who might give him a treat (which he got many of since we were stationed next to a treat station from Bradley Caldwell!). Pet Cancer and limb amputation isn’t something a lot of people want to talk about openly, but I had a lot of people who were surprised he was able to get along so well with 3 legs. I just kept repeating that he was “born with 3 legs and a spare”! I hope that I was able to dispel some common myths and rumors about canine cancer and provide a future resource to anyone who may face this tragic disease in their pets’ futures.

We were also stationed next to Chance, the Boxer who had an untreated leg injury as a pup which left him unable to walk (from Last Chance Animal Rescue). Chance recently had surgery to fix his injury and is now learning how to walk for the first time. I was able to talk with Dr. Bryan from The Pet Pantry and Chance was able to to try out the FitPaws Balance Disk which might help him recover if used for physical therapy and training to rebuild the muscles he hasn’t ever had a chance to use!

The question I had to answer most (other than explaining Barret wasn’t a lab puppy, but a 6 year old cocker spaniel mutt) was that he was most certainly NOT up for adoption! This little boy has a home, but anyone looking for a pet, whether they are “specially abled” or not, should check with their local rescues and PetFinder.com before going to a breeder or anywhere else.

Stay tuned, Pet Place friends and family, we’ve got even more adoption and pet welfare events planned throughout the year!

Check out The Pet Pantry of Lancaster’s Photo Album on Facebook – Part 1 and Part 2

Did you attend the festivities? What did you think? Did you have a favorite booth or activity? Let us know what you thought so we can improve the event for future years!

See you next time, Heather & Barret

Hi Pet Blog readers and bloggers!

If any of you attended BlogPaws in Las Vegas, you’ll know I’m not lying when I tell you we had a BLAST! It was a fun, pet-friendly event that was just perfect for That Fish Place – That Pet Place to attend.

I couldn’t have asked for more. I met with tons of passionate pet bloggers who have a ton of followers and they’re all looking for the best products for their pets. We’re only happy to oblige 🙂 Bonus! I finally got to meet the founders of Tripawds, who were my personal saviors when Barret was going through his cancer diagnosis and surgery. I don’t think it would have been possible for them to be cooler people to spend the week with! I am more passionate than ever about furthering their cause.

The seminars were fantastic resources for bloggers looking to gain an edge, a following and to perfect their art. The dinners and events were fun filled and fantastic opportunities to talk with everyone about their products, pets and passions. The expo hall was filled with great products to try at home and blog about (or even bring in to the store for our customers to try, too).

I was amazed by some of the pets that bloggers brought with them. There were dogs of all sizes, of course, cats, birds, ferrets, rats, even a Capybara! And everyone was dressed to the nines for the red carpet on Saturday night.

The absolute best part was seeing all the donations that the BlogPaws teams presented during the ceremonies; everything from cash donations to armor for Nevada police dog units.

If you’re a pet blogger or have a following on your social media page, I highly suggest you purchase tickets to next year’s event in Nashville. You won’t be sorry you did and hopefully you’ll see us there, too!

Did you go to BlogPaws? What did you think? Share with us in the comments!

As I type this, I’m currently en-route to BlogPaws – the biggest [and best, as far as I am aware] pet blogging and social media conference in the US. I could not be more excited to meet more pet bloggers and community members as dedicated to providing fellow pet owners with valuable information to keep their pets safe, healthy & happy!

I’ll be blogging from the event as often as time allows, so stay tuned. In the meantime, if there are any aspiring pet bloggers out there looking for  a chance to contribute – don’t forget that That Pet Blog accepts guest blog posts, check out our general guidelines here), and we’ve just introduced a partnership opportunity for more established bloggers who wish to write product reviews on their blogs (or guest post on ours). Take a minute to fill out our entry form  for consideration in this program.

So, how did I even hear about BlogPaws? Well, I heard of it a few years back and I remembered hearing about the conference just after last year’s event, but didn’t really dive into the community until a good friend of mine from Tripawds was looking for a sponsor to attend and suggested that it would be a good opportunity for That Pet Place to attend as well. And here we are! I’m attending Blog Paws for the first time and That Pet Place is proud to sponsor Tripawds trip and watch them present at the conference!

Speaking of Tripawds, At the retail store next weekend (May 17, 2014) we’re celebrating the 2^nd Annual Proud Pet Day! I’ll be back in time to attend the event as an official Tripawds representative, with Barret of course!

To thank the wonderful, supportive community there and commemorate some of the awful losses from canine cancer over the last year since I’ve been a member I decided to create a photo album to explain what Tripawds was all about and how dogs of all shapes, ages, sizes and shapes could live and love life on three legs. I think it was a pretty successful venture, but I’ll let you be the judges. Check out the full PDF version here 

Pages can be added at any time and it will travel with the Tribute leash and banner to events or wherever its requested.  I hope that everyone enjoys looking at the photos as much as I enjoyed creating it.

So, if you’re heading to Las Vegas for Blog Paws 2014 – keep an eye open for me, Heather Crotsley, from That Pet Place and introduce yourself!

If you’re going to be in the Lancaster, PA area on May 17, stop by Proud Pet Day and support local animal rescues and organizations (you’ll have a blast, too: live music, games, prizes, food, and more!)

 

**Update: I’ve already met 2 great bloggers and the event hasn’t started yet! Jamie from Thoughts Fur Paws  and Christine from Oh My Shih Tzu were so welcoming and had lots of great tips and got my brain working!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve seen those ads on Etsy or Pinterest where you can purchase a painting of your pet for hundreds of dollars. You may have even been tempted, like I have been, to buy one or check further into it, only to be deterred by the cost of the artist’s work. As an artist myself, I know that their time is valuable and their work is worth it if you have the money to spare. Many of us don’t have that kind of cash lying around for a treasured piece of art.

If you’re a little cash strapped and you’re looking for an inexpensive alternative for some custom pet artwork, either as a gift or for décor for your own home, look no further. This is the blog post you’re looking for! I have 3 low-cost options that every pet-enthusiast will love!

Waterlouge App

(Available on iTunes – $2.99)

This is my favorite app for watercolor dog paintings and cat paintings. It produces high quality watercolor-like images that you can save and email to yourself, then print at an enlarged size without losing the quality. I’ve used this app for framed pictures of my dog paintings, screensavers of my dogs, photo collages, and even custom greeting cards. At $2.99 you’ll be shocked at how much use you can get out of this app. It’s currently only available on iTunes for iPhone or iPad.
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This past weekend Barret and I visited the American Cancer Society’s Bark for Life in Hummelstown. He had such a great time meeting new people and other dogs! He was such a good boy!

Part of our visit was to see how he is going to do when he is an ambassador for Tripawds at The Pet Pantry’s Proud Pet Day on May 17th, 2014 at That Fish Place – That Pet Place. He’s going to be a delight! The only embarrassing thing he did was swim in the baby pool intended as a water dish for the other dogs. Oops!

One of the booths we stopped at had a local Pet Communicator or Psychic, Cynthia, doing readings. I thought, what the heck! Why not?

I thought I’d share my experience with you and I’d love to hear if any of you have ever spoken with a pet communicator. If you have, leave a comment and let me know what you took away from the experience.

The first thing she said to me when I sat down with Barret was that he had the youngest most innocent spirit she had ever met. He knows no pain, no anger, no sorrow. I have to say this is pretty spot on for my Barret. He is so trustful of almost everyone and just happy all the time. Even at five years old and down to only three legs, he bounces around like a twelve week old pup! He does not have an off-switch. She could tell that I was very attached to him and that his amputation had made us very close. This is totally true, and any other Tripawd mom will agree. There is no bond that can compare.

I didn’t have any specific questions for him, so I asked if she could sense anything about my pets at home. Amazingly, without me giving her any additional information she asked if I had a Brown dog only a little bit bigger than Barret. I said yes (Gatsby). She said that he’s vocal and appears aggressive towards other dogs sometimes. That’s kind-of true. It’s actually more true of Sara, who is also brown and white. I would be curious to know if she had Sara and Gatsby switched around. Everything she said about Gatsby seemed to fit Sara more than Gatsby.

She said that the brown dog was attacked when very young. He acts up to protect himself. It’s possible, He was 16 weeks when he came to our home. Sara could have been attacked in her previous home with all the other dogs in the home and the poor care she was receiving. She had some desensitization suggestions for this “Aggressive” dog (who I still think more fits Sara than Gatsby).
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