Featherer Pet - A Family Affair

Featherer Pet - A Family Affair

Like our small town, this decades-old Benicia business has an interesting history

Caitlin McCulloch

Featherer Pet has been a Benicia staple since 1983. Their current location with pet grooming and animal supplies is located on East 5th Street, but they didn’t start there—or even grooming dogs. Sisters and co-owners Karen Hubbard and Kim Duchene gave me the scoop.

“Our grandmother was showing miniature schnauzers at the time and saw an ad in a dog magazine for a sliding glass pet door,” Hubbard says. “She decided to drive out to this woman’s home and go see these pet doors. Our mom decided she wanted to go, too. She thought ‘if she can sell pet doors out of her house, so can I.’ So the business started out as selling these pet doors through mail orders out of our garage.”

As the business grew, they opened up a small showroom on First Street. They hopped around for a bit, including a space in the Raley’s shopping center, which held things like tropical fish in the front and grooming in the back.

Along the way, the family has listened to their market and the times to have the best possible experience for themselves and for their clients. The tropical fish tanks dropped when the 2008 bubble burst, but they realized that no matter what items weren’t selling or customers didn’t want to spend money on, people still prioritized grooming their pets. This became the focus of the business model and, over time, the family discovered they needed more groomers. Karen, who had been fascinated in watching the schnauzers being groomed at the dog shows since the age of 12 or 13 and had been trained by a mentor at the shows, volunteered to take the position.

“My mom asked me, ‘do you really want to do it? It’s dirty work!’ and I said ‘yes, I’ll do it,’” says Hubbard.

Down the line, Duchene and Hubbard’s mother Delores sadly became ill and a tough choice had to be made about Featherer Pet.

“Dad said, ’you can either take it on and continue it or we can close it,’” says Hubbard. “We wanted to make sure we had this to continue on for our mom. We wanted to continue her legacy.”

Duchene stepped up to help out, leaving behind her corporate accounting job to focus on things like Featherer Pet’s bookkeeping and ordering of supplies. The two sisters still own the business today, and what started with four employees has grown to about a dozen.

Within their grooming business model now, there’s still room to continue that growth and to add new things. Pet parents wanting fun colors for their fur babies became a fun trend, and they still offer this creative color service using non-toxic dye (staff members go to specialty classes to ensure they’re safely trained, too). Featherer Pet would eventually like to move to an online shopping experience for pet products so that customers don’t have to drive down to the store, but for now, a big opportunity has come in the form of their mobile van.

“We’ve had the van since November 2014, but mobile grooming took off during the pandemic,” Hubbard says. “It was helpful to have it; when people didn't want to come out to the store, the mobile van could still go out to groom their pets.”

No matter which new ventures the close-knit family business embarks on next, their love for their community will remain unwavering.

“What I love about Benicia is its beauty…being on the water and watching the sunsets. It’s just a beautiful place to live and to work,” says Duchene.

“I love the small town community and how we are a pet friendly city,” adds Hubbard. “Benicia is a beautiful waterfront town full of history, wonderful people and businesses. Who wouldn't want to be here?”

Featherer Pet is currently open Tuesday-Saturday from 9:00am-5:00pm. To book an appointment in their shop, please call 707.745.5016; for the mobile van, call 707.771.6091.