Jus a little dog with a musing blog

I Feel Like Ethel – Red Cap: $20

I Am Sayin’ She a Gold Digga – Turtleneck Sweater: $20

We On An Ultra Light Bean – Turtleneck Sweater: $20

Yes we Khan!!!!

Been in da studio with deez guys, they are da real deal.

In 2014, Corky, a little terrier from Boyd, Texas, left everything behind, his house, his humans and his yard. You see Corky had received word that his long lost friend and business partner Pete (“Captain”) had been spotted at a Dallas watering hole.

Corky and Captain grew up together on the streets of Dallas in the early 90’s and at one point ran the largest underground kibble operation in North America (Pete’s Kibble LLC) out of the back of a local bar called The Black Elephant (which at the time was owned by a Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Bruni). The two went legit in 1995 and grew the business into a food and pet supply powerhouse. Always one to understand the power of branding, in 1997, Captain convinced Corky that they should drop “Kibble” from the company’s name in recognition of their newly diversified business.  Captain went to the Delaware LLC office and gave very specific instructions to some cat to drop the Kibble and change the name to Pete’s. The cat and its motrif paws did drop the “Kibble” but also misspelled the name P-e-t-s and so Pets LLC was born.

As the company continued to expand they were approached by investment bankers (a couple of stern bears and twin lemurs) who argued that it was the right time to take advantage of the market. In early 1999, the two entrepreneurs decided it was time to monetize some of their stake in the company. They engaged the lemur brothers as financial advisers to the business, which due to Captain’s outlandish spending on marketing was 5 years away from profitability. The bankers valued the business at $50 million but pointed out that the company’s value could be significantly enhanced by diversifying into cat food (at this point they were covering almost all other animals that had their own humans). Although a no-brainer to the bankers, the guys made it clear that they had “ZERO desire to cater their offerings to the whims of motrif cats” no mater how lucrative. Corky was famously quoted as saying “let them eat kibble”. However, recognizing the power of seeming “internet-y” at the time, Captain cleverly suggested adding “.com” to the name without changing any of the fundamentals of the business. The bankers were amazed by this change and came back with a revised valuation of $300 million. The company went public in early 2000 as Pets.com and Corky and Captain liquidated 100 percent (more like bark-cent) of their positions over the following 2 months, each netting a reported $125 million.

Corky decided to shed the limelight and retire to the sleepy town of Boyd, Texas. He bought a nice house and hired a human family to take care of him. He also started a family office (BenchBark Ventures) to manage his wealth which has since funded start-ups such as DogVacay.

Mesmerized by the allure of Wall Street, Captain invested all of his proceeds in Lehmur Brothers (becoming by far the largest shareholder) and appointed himself CEO. In 2008, Captain’s firm suffered a major liquidity crisis but was days away from negotiating a government bailout. Unfortunately, as the result of a heated debate about moral hazard with then Fed. Chairman Ben Bark-nankey, Captain was unable to save his firm from the financial crisis and lost it all.

Corky never heard from Captain again.

Until that fateful night when Corky was spotted back at the Black Elephant in Dallas. Corky flew straight there and was reunited with his long lost best friend. Corky and Captain picked-up their friendship right where they left off and Corky even convinced Captain to come live with him and his humans in Boyd.

The two are in early talks with their friend Bruni (now a partner at Stripes Group in NY) about starting a competitor to PetCo (recognizing the need for a No-Cats-Allowed pet supply business).

This story was completely misreported in today’s Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/07/29/how-a-good-dog-from-texas-missing-for-years-finally-found-his-way-home/