Melissa Grosjean
Melissa is a perpetual student of natural health care and nutrition for people and pets. She has been fervently researching and studying natural animal care for over 17 years, and spent several years studying with a holistic veterinarian. She has a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science and a Masters degree in Psychophysiology. Melissa has been providing diet and nutritional supplement consultations for pet guardians for the past 8 years.
Melissa co-founded a natural pet supply website in 2004 that quickly became the most visited natural pet site on the web. She has written extensively for several websites and blogs about nutrition, lifestyle, training and supplements for dogs and cats. In addition, she was involved in the formulation of many supplements and herbal remedies for pets. Her passion for promoting natural pet care has inspired her to help create a place for pet guardians that they can trust to provide up-to-date educational information about natural pet care along with products that are thoroughly researched so that only the best of the truly natural pet products are represented.
Deb D’Andrea, CCMT
Deb has found her passion working with dogs and their companions. She attended the Boulder College of Massage Therapy to become a Certified Canine Massage Therapist. Leaving a very successful career in high tech to complete her Canine Massage Certification hands-on work, she founded 4TheLuvOfDogz, a mobile canine massage service in 2007.
“The Boulder College of Massage provided me with a solid knowledge in Canine Massage, and is the perfect complement to my Qigong studies with Grandmaster Yang, Jwing-Ming who has provided me an understanding of the power of Qi. The combination of this knowledge enables me to share my Qi with your canine companion to improve their mind and body wellness.”
Now celebrating over two years in business, Deb has her own practice offering canine massage to her clients and several veterinarians’ clients in the Boulder area, and has broadened the scope of 4TheLuvOfDogz to include Agility Training, Petz Nanny services and is a Petz Treat Chef, selling her treats at local stores and to clients.
Deb and her beloved dog, Tiki, trained for agility in Boston while Deb was at Adobe. Tiki was brilliant as a mere four month old puppy. The love of agility and bond created between Deb and Tiki was inseparable, they were hooked. Now Deb is an Agility instructor and loves teaching. “Experiencing the ‘ahh-ha’ moments my students share as they and their pups work through obstacles and exercises together is priceless. Canine agility is one of the best bonding experiences you can share with your pup and is a blast.”
Through building 4TheLuvOfDogz, Deb’s closest companion was Tiki, a Blue heeler/Husky mix. She was a motivational force in Deb’s decision to return to school and follow her heart and her passion; leaving high tech and starting her own business. Tiki always had an open paw for all, a kiss and a smile.
May all have an open paw, a kiss and a smile. Enjoy life’s journey.
Lisa Herickhoff
Lisa Herickhoff has been an animal lover from day one, in fact she befriended dogs before she was old enough to befriend other little kids! Lisa currently has two dogs and two horses, along with a very cute donkey. Of course, the barn is replete with a few barn kitties!
Lisa studied molecular biology focusing on antioxidants when earning her Ph.D. at Arizona State University. Her undergraduate work was concentrated in biological-agricultural sciences and her M.S. is in cytogenetics; both degrees were earned at Colorado State University.
Both her current endeavors focus on animals. The first, a web service www.PETZcheckIN.com provides the missing link for people who use pet sitters, dog walkers, horse care providers and the like. The service reminds the care giver when to care for the pets, notifies the pet owner the care giver has arrived (alleviating that little back of the mind worry), and executes a personalized backup plan if the pet care giver does not arrive within a specified window of time.
Her other business, Membrane Protective Technologies, inc. researches natural methods for protecting bovine and equine sperm from the damage inflicted during cooling and/or freezing. Many of these methods include naturally derived plant extracts containing antioxidants.
Erin Fenstermaker
Like many of you, I light up like a Christmas tree whenever the topic turns to animals. I love talking about them, and I always want to learn more about them.
Since I was about 20 years old, I realized I had an insatiable desire to learn about animals; their behavior, their quirks, their social rituals. Maybe that’s why I gravitated to Sociology as one of my majors when I was in college? People’s actions/reactions/interactions with other people fascinated me–why we did what we did in group or social settings, and why society’s mores have evolved as they have was always the type of reading that I couldn’t put down. I loved to people-watch too (still do). And this interest naturally flowed over to animals for me as well. I didn’t care if the animal was a dog, cat, bird, ferret, llama, cheetah or mountain goat. If there was an animal in my midst, I wanted to befriend it and know what its life was like. This profound interest later infiltrated other areas of my life as well. It inspired me to travel to all corners of the earth so that I could view the most unique animals in their natural habitats. I went to see piranhas and caimans in the Amazon, I observed upper highland mountain gorillas in Uganda, I volunteered on a wild animal refuge in Namibia, caring for lions, cheetahs, baboons and warthogs. I safari’d all over Africa. And I never felt more alive than when I was participating in these animal adventures. The more I saw and learned, the more things I wanted to see.
I used to think that my pursuit of “all things animal” was always going to be my “hobby”, but couldn’t be my career. Fortunately I have found a number of ways to turn my passion for animals into one that can sustain me financially. I have been a pet sitter for the last 5+ years. I have worked for a company that manufactured products for pet parrots. And a little over a year ago I completed my dog training certification through Animal Behavior College so that I could train dogs with behavior problems. I have thoroughly enjoyed the business side of the animal world, and taken even more pleasure in being able to interact with them on an almost daily basis.
So that’s why I am here. I want to talk animals. Dogs, cats, parrots, hyenas, whatever. I would love to learn from your life experiences with animals, and maybe I can share with you some of the tales (pun intended) and knowledge I have gained through my own life filled with animal adventures.
Carol Frank
Carol brings 23 years as a pet industry entrepreneur to Whole Life Pets. She began with a retail pet store, then expanded her business ventures in the pet industry to distribution, manufacturing, and e-commerce companies. She is the author of the highly-acclaimed book, “Do As I Say, Not As I Did! Gaining Wisdom in Business Through The Mistakes of Highly Successful People”, (translated into four languages). Her professional blog “Business Savvy” appears every other week on www.petstylenews.com and www.petproductnews.com.
Carol resides in Boulder, Colorado, the center of the natural, organic, and sustainable lifestyle movements. She is the proud Mom of Murphy, an Eclectus parrot and Lola, an African grey parrot.
