With three dogs to walk and flowers to tend, Cheryl McCleary spends lots of time outside in her yard, chatting with fellow pet owners who stroll past her wrought iron fence at the busy Garden Oaks corner.
Inspired by that setting, McCleary and her next-door neighbor Jo Dunham sometime last year had an idea.
“We just got to talking one day and we’re like, ‘What about one of those little libraries — why don't we do something for dogs?’” Dunham said.
McCleary, Dunham and local dog blogger Rebecca Bridges in late October launched The Pup Stop in front of McCleary’s tall white stucco house at the corner of Wakefield Drive and Alba Road. Modeled after the Little Free Library concept, the colorful, raised box is crammed not with books, but with free bags of dog treats.
The community box has been a bright spot for the neighborhood during a year in which neighbors, friends and families have been forced to isolate in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The Pup Stop has given McCleary the chance to get to know more neighbors, she said, many of whom walk their dogs during the day while they work from home.
The spot attracts plenty of foot traffic from neighbors who live on the residential block, people who visit bars down the street and shoppers who attend the weekend farmers’ market.
“Especially now with everyone having to be socially distanced, it’s just a safe way for everyone to kind of connect and have something positive in common that we can interact on,” McCleary said.
Some regulars even ask specifically to see McCleary’s new rescue dog, Max, a Siberian Husky-mix puppy who has already charmed neighbors by being adorable.
McCleary ordered the box on Etsy, she said, and Dunham’s mother was recruited to paint it in bright colors to match the flower bed in which it stands. One yellow side is decorated with a heart and paw print; the glass door is framed in red; the slanted roof is trimmed with blue and the front of the box is green.
“It’s pretty when you drive up to that corner,” McCleary said. “It’s a lot of color.”
McCleary buys healthy dog treats at a grocery and stuffs them in bags printed with paws and tied with ribbon. She said she stocks The Pup Stop with about 36 treats per week, plus two rolls of potty bags for dog walkers to grab. One Saturday per month, the women make homemade treats to pass out in person.
In addition to treating the neighborhood dogs, The Pup Stop also serves to raise awareness and donations for organizations across Houston that serve the city’s stray and needy animal population. The women choose a different organization to highlight each month.
In November, the station featured This is Houston, where McCleary adopted Max. The group tackles animal welfare issues in Houston. December’s featured organization will be the Animal Justice League, a volunteer-run nonprofit animal rescue organization.
A sign at The Pup Stop includes the Venmo or Paypal information for the featured organization for treat-takers who may be inclined to give, but donations are optional, Bridges said.
The women who created The Pup Stop bonded over their love of dogs.
McCleary’s camera roll and Facebook page are filled with much of the same content — “It’s all about the dogs,” she said.
Dunham runs Joasis, a dog swimming and dock diving business, from her backyard pool. Puppies who come for swim classes, dock diving lessons or other trainings sometimes stop for a treat on their way to-and-from the pool, she said. One of her Golden Retrievers holds a record in the competitive sport of dog dock diving.
Bridges met Dunham when she took her dogs to Joasis for a birthday pool party. She grew up with cats and says she “made it to the dog side” after volunteering with the Harris County animal shelter. Her dogs are Doug, an 11-year-old Blue Heeler mix, and Tammy, a 6-year-old Black Mouth Cur.
“I call them my good dog and my bad dog — it varies which one is which,” Bridges said.
As far as the creators of The Pup Stop can tell, their box is one-of-a-kind. Free Little Libraries abound in the neighborhood, but Dunham said she is interested to see whether other people pick up on the dog-treat idea or come up with their own creative spin.
“I think we’re just the first one,” Dunham said. “People will start thinking what else can they do with those little libraries…it is a welcoming, trusting, neighborly-feeling thing to do.”
anna.bauman@chron.com
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