At Ryan?s Pet Supplies, our core mission is to take care of people that take care of pets. In order to promote this mission, we decided to give back to our community during COVID-19. We are giving $150 gift certificate to a groomer in need each month until the crisis is over. This month?s story comes to us from Neil and Azure Hensley from WoofworX Pet Grooming. We are excited to share the next story of triumph from our groomer community. See below for how Neil and Azure made it through their crisis.

This is our story.

My husband and I own and operate WoofworX Pet Grooming of Thomasville, NC. We are a small family owned and operated grooming salon. The COVID pandemic hit us like many others in our area forcing us to shut down. We were shut down about 3 weeks when we received a letter from the state deeming our business as essential. Then on our planned re opening date (April 13) tragedy struck. A line of severe storms blew across our area and ripped the roof off of our salon. 

The damage was severe, and we lost so much equipment and furniture. There was significant water damage and a lot of the interior walls and floors were destroyed. Thankfully, we do have insurance, but it turns out our landlord did not. (Long story and a typo, they had no idea that they were not insured as the policy was supposed to cover multiple units) Anyway, our insurance decided they would cover contents but not interior damage because it was storm damage. 

So, we posted our closure again on Facebook explaining that we did not know when we would be able to reopen. A local news station caught wind of all the community support and did a story about it on the local news. 

At first, it was pure devastation. We did not think we could overcome it. A stranger popped in one day as we were trying to salvage items and handed us cash. After that others in the community started coming in offering help and prayers. We started to see that there was a way. Yes, it would be hard, but we could do it. A dear friend and client started tagging her commen ts with #WoofworxStrong we were contacted by a t shirt company and given a discount on having shirts made to sell to try to generate some funds. Another client started a GoFund me campaign. Their love and support gave us what we needed most... Hope. 

So, for the last month my husband and I became carpenters and began rebuilding our salon. We still have a couple of weeks to go before we are ready to reopen but we are much closer now than we were. The community has assisted by helping with supplies, monetary donations, and simply by buying us lunch on days that we are here working every day. Today we are ready to paint! It's been a long month for sure but in the end, we know we have our community behind us, and we will make it through this. We did have to downsize on our equipment and furniture to use some of the contents and income coverage from insurance to help with building supplies, but this too shall pass. We have a goal to be able to reopen in about 2 more weeks. 

We have posted daily with pictures and updates of our progress on our Facebook page @woofworkpetgrooming. That's our story!

Sincerely,

Neil & Azure Hensley

WoofworX 

As of June 1, WoofworX is back in business! You can read even more about their journey through COVID-19 on their Facebook. Here is a post from their Grand Re-opening:

Check out what WoofWorx looks like now:

Not only did they turn lemons into lemonade when the roof collapsed, but they also took this as an opportunity to upgrade their shop. Great job! We are so proud to be part of this community that is full of strong, determined people. Groomers can tackle anything that comes their way. We aren?t afraid to get a little dirty sometimes or put in some elbow grease. Neil and Azure are surely examples of that, and we thank them for sharing their story with us!

Please continue to share your stories with us. You can send them to [email protected]. Reading your stories reminds us how strong this industry and all of you are. You're very inspiring.

As long as this crisis continues, we are offering 10% off our family of brands: Paw Brothers, Nature?s Specialties, ComfortGroom, Desert Sudz, ComfortSharp, Dawgee Toys, ValueGroom, Fancy Finishes and Perfect Groom. Use promo code COMMUNITY at checkout.

Stay tuned for blogs on community outreach, tips & tricks, interviews, and more. Reach out to us on Facebook or Instagram and tell us what blogs you?d like to see in the future. We want to hear from you and how we can continue to be a resource for groomers and pet lovers. Thanks again and stay safe!