You Can’t Keep a Good Doodle Down

Last week we crashed a party where we knew no one, and never have we been made to feel more welcome.

The vibe: tongues lolling, tails thumping, paws offered, curiously cold noses scooting and booping everywhere in greeting (Oh, well, hello there!), and a slightly rotund gentleman named Basil promptly sat on my foot, anchoring me in the heart of the happening.

The spot: Pasadena Pet, located on Fair Oaks, a place where dogs are groomed, bathed, looked after in cage-free doggie daycare, and boarded.

It’s a full-on doggie dance-party, and it’s like this every day.

Manager Pamela Trevett says, “My partner Janice Wyatt and I have been in this business for 22 years, in this location for the past 15. Our clientele is family. In lots of cases, I’m on their third dog, you know? Now I do their kids’ dogs.” 

Trevett says that although the Eaton Fire burned within a half mile of her shop and home (she lives next door), her first concern was for the dogs in her care. And although two of her Millennial and Gen Z employees were evacuated and lost their homes in the blaze – one slept with her 10 guinea pigs in the shop’s lobby – “…they all showed up for work, in spite of it all, and that made me cry. People like to complain about the younger generation, but I gotta give them credit for being so fantastic.”

As if on cue, employee Maya Ramirez arrives for work and is swarmed by the free-form puppy party. “My grandparents came to Altadena from Sinaloa,” she says amidst cheerful yips and slurpy kisses. “Now it’s gone and it’s so hard. We got out, and I’m lucky, because I have everything I need. Now I’ve actually got to downsize my clothes, I’ve got too much from so many donations. And I had to get rid of all my makeup because of the smoke.”

Trevett’s business took a sudden turn last week when she received a call from Pasadena Fire Department’s Captain Vince Roldan and Resource Manager Kelley McCoy, representing the Department’s Peer Support group. This group provides sessions with specially trained dogs to firefighters and other first responders as a way of decompressing from the stress of their duties.

Trevett says “The Fire Department called and asked how much we’d charge to bathe their emotional support dogs. I told Captain Roldan that we’d be happy to provide the service, and that there was no way we’d take their money.”

She extends the same generosity to dogs actually used on-scene in the fires and its aftermath, and those superhero dogs are bathed by their own Department handlers, with whom they share a seemingly telepathic, tight bond. She’s also offering a 20 percent discount on grooming and boarding for any dog-persons displaced by the fires.

It’s impossible not to smile when you’ve got a beagle named Basil sitting on your foot.

Unsolicited, her regular clients have stepped up to pay for some of these baths, so that Pasadena Pet can keep the lights on. “On good days, we are a for-profit business,” chuckles Trevett as she guides electric clippers smoothly over the shaggy back end of a dog named Ziggy, who’s been a client for six years. Pasadena Pet specializes in breed-specific show-quality haircuts, and hand-stripping, the skilled process of removing excess dead topcoat fur to prevent matting and promote healthy hair growth.

“We are not a 501(c)3, and we don’t accept cash donations. I was just gonna eat the cost, but people really want to help, so now we have a list. When a firefighting dog comes in for a bath, we call the next person on the list to see if they’d like to foot the bill. They always do.”

Anyone interested is welcome to add their name to this “angel” list. Trevett also says she welcomes in-kind gifts of dog beds, blankets and towels, which she often re-gifts to clients who are displaced.

 Many of the dogs in boarding right now are here because they are technically homeless. Phoebe, an elegant female German Shepherd, has been a grooming and daycare regular here for a few years. Her humans were in tears when they brought her in last week to be boarded while they secure a new temporary home.

Lil B, short for “Little Brother,” because the staff insists that this Doodle is a “little white rapper.” Snoop may be the forever OG, but Pam promises to buy Lil B some gold chains and a diamond grill as the canine MGK. The worst part of this canine’s story is that, in an especially cruel irony, his human lost her husband’s ashes when her house burned.

Moonlight, ebony-glossy and slender as a new lunar crescent, was rescued from the mean streets of South Los Angeles by a Black family that for generations has called their Altadena community their pride and joy. Pam has groomed multiple dogs for this family for nearly as long.

But you can’t keep a good dog down. Moonlight wiggles off to greet Francisco, a sweet-faced Chihuahua mix who lost his way during the fires and turned up on the Pasadena Humane Web site where he was spotted by one of Trevett’s employees and reunited with his humans.

“We watch out for each other,” says Trevett. “It has to do with trust, starting with the quality of the actual service. I’m very strict about which dogs we can board. I require current vaccinations against bordetella, rabies, distemper / PARVO, leptospirosis, and canine influenza. I also am super-picky about how we bathe our dogs. I only use Spina Organics, which are free of parabens and sulfates, so our dogs never go home itchy.”

Dogs must also be neutered or spayed in order to board at Pasadena Pet.

Dogs of every size and shape prance and gambol around the sparkling-clean space with its powder-pink walls, seemingly without a care in the world. “Every pet is an emotional support animal, really, especially right now. This crisis is emotionally draining for everyone,” says Trevett, while her own dog, Zuzu, a stately black Standard Poodle, rests at her feet.

“I just want kindness to prevail,” says Trevett.

Deets

• Pasadena Pet
• 815 N. Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena, 91103
• (626) 796-3647