The Greater Springdale Loon Lake Chamber of Commerce presents its ”Member Business of the Month” for February: Primal Kitty, owned by Jessie Turney, Chamber President. If you are looking for an exciting gift that thrills cat owners as well as their pets, check out these woolies. Made of buffalo hide or sheepskin and leather, they turn on kitty’s wild instincts. Each toy and rodent look-alikes are custom made to your specifications, with many ear colors, wool color and even catnip options. There is a new colored leather and catnip toy special for valentine’s day. Also a sheepskin kicker that comes in colors with leather fringe.
Jessie got started in this business when her primary quality control officer , Griffith, got into the buffalo hide scraps she inherited from her mother. Kitty exploded with excitement, clawing the buffalo wool and throwing it around, so the toy idea was born in December of 2012. Jessie has a variety of leather sewing machines, industrial serger, as well several regular sewing machines. She inherited many of these from her mother, from the time they lived in Wisconsin. In Wisconsin they had a large buffalo herd, hosted tours and sold retail meats and buffalo hides. Today the herd is scaled down considerably but Jessie and Drew still host tours in the summer months so the public can enjoy these magnificent animals.
The buffalo mouse is the biggest seller, second is the sheepskin mouse. Her customers send her photos of their very pleased felines. The business tag line is “your kitty will go wild” and that is truly the case. Only a rare individual will refuse. Jessie does have a return policy if your kitty is the finicky one. She also makes a few dog toys that have generated many happy four legged fans.
At one time she was living in Boulder Colorado and sewing commercially, marketing a punk gothic clothing line, doing fashion shows as well as offering custom alterations. But she says, the kittys are way more fun. So she is no stranger to filling orders and getting the job done. She now has many repeat customers because these toys are incredibly sturdy and last for years. When they finally wear out, people come back for more because they really got their money’s worth.
This line of toys was recently featured in the magazine Modern Cat. Jessie markets primarily on line and word of mouth. There are a few that sell out of their on-farm gift shop. This Christmas season saw a 30% surge in business. She is planning this year to begin attending a few gift shows at holiday times but that will take some time to prepare, as there is quite a bit of labor that goes into these toys. For now she is busy with the custom orders she normally fills. Husband Drew Winter, does the bookkeeping and business management. Jessie is the sole workforce, marketing agent and webmaster. Kitty Griffith is toy inventor and head of quality control. Opie is passionate about feathers and still finds time for testing. Three-way team of toy testers are Sabrina, Aniston Grey and Maya. Preta also does testing and is the catnip quality control expert. Then Boo is a bester tester and supreme class clown.
So if this very durable and exciting kitty toy would find a place in your home, check out primalpetshop.com or primalkitty.etsy.com. You and your pets will be very excited!
Huckleberry Press, PO Box 141, Davenport, WA 99122. 844-344-8344
