Here is a little bit of info on Steve, me and all of our critters. First, a bit about US. I grew up in Mississippi, moved to Dallas after graduating from college and had a blast working in the fashion and then the pet industry. About 14-15  years ago, I took a position in St. Paul as an apprentice graphic designer.

Literally a week after I moved to St. Paul, I met Steve and that was that! I was smitten. I wanted to get married on the second date, he wanted to wait…and wait…and wait, so we finally got married in 2001 (five years after we met). Then Steve decided he wanted to buy a fishing resort and here we are at Dancing Bear Resort! For almost twenty years I bred and showed purebred dogs (Chinese Shar-Peis and then French Bulldogs). Over time I bred many Number One dogs, Top Ten French Bulldogs, Best in Show winners and more under the Jackpot! French Bulldog kennel name. Actually, BOTH of Martha Stewart’s French Bulldogs were bred, born and raised here at Jackpot!Francesca’s mom is Favor and dad is Keeper. But over the course of the last couple of years I have just lost the “fire in my belly” for competition, so the Frenchies are our pets now, with no job to do but entertain us all. We still have three Frenchie gremlins and we will never be without a French Bulldog…that is for sure!

We also have  Zoe, our Great Pyrenees and Gio, our English Toy Spaniel. And there is Nyker, the mini-horse who is our #1 apple eater. Of course, we cannot forget Kundun, my pet YAK, yes, a yak! He is two now and lots bigger than in the picture above. We still have three alpacas, just for fun. The chickens, guinea hens and our turkeys round out the bunch.

I have always had a bit of a spiritual, holistic, ok “different” way of looking at things. So, I have enjoyed using more holistic, natural products on us and our animals. I had rubbed some shea butter onto my dry, winter brutalized Minnesota winter legs one day and the Frenches kept trying to lick them…it was creepy (but also nice…hmmmm?). The idea popped into my head that they LIKED the shea butter, so why not make something healthy to moisturize their noses with! My EUREKA moment…not quite like discovering the Earth was round or whatever that was Archimedes did…but it worked for ME! Thus began the tale (tail?) of all the various Nose Butters.