Notes from Jocelyn and Mary Grace 🐾
I want to start by clearing a few things up, because this is a pivot, and I think it deserves an explanation.
Not long ago, my health was suffering. I was stressed, exhausted, always looking for something and not quite finding it. It made me stop and ask what I actually wanted my life to look like now, at this point, going forward. So many of us are asking that same question right now, no matter what we do or who we are.
Here's where I landed. For years, I worked with people and their animals on communication and behavior, and I always said the same thing: we draw this line in the sand. This is human, this is animal. This is us; this is them. I don't believe that line is real. Every dog I've ever had has taught me something about myself. Every dog I've ever worked with has taught its person something too. We're not as separate as we think. We learn from each other, human to animal, animal to human, dog to dog, all of it.
After years of shifting my business every way I could just to stay afloat, the way any small business owner knows, I decided it was time to have some fun with it. To take the message I'd been teaching for years and put it into something I could build with my hands again, from scratch, from the ground up. That's Future Dog The Store.
And then there's Mary Grace. She landed in my life almost two months old, rescued out of Alabama, right when I'd relocated to Tennessee. New state, new place, new puppy, and she gave me a run for my money. A coonhound shepherd mix, and the light of my life. As she grew up and tested me, and I tested her right back, I came to something I hadn't let myself sit with before: in all my years of having dogs, I was never really home. Never had the time to raise a pup all the way into the healthy, happy, confident dog I knew how to help her become. I wanted to change that. And I wanted to find a way to pivot without losing everything I believed in.
So, I started sketching. Wording, color, name placement, the things that hit the right chord in someone thinking about their dog and their life. Future Dog The Store became my vehicle, a fashionable one, for people and their dogs, but also a vehicle that gives back. Every year, we partner with a rescue that's done the real work for a long time. This year, it's Beagle Freedom Project, and I love them beyond words. They don't just work with dogs; they work with animals across the country, and they've been doing it right for a long time. Ten percent of every accessory and home good goes directly to them. And through November, 5% of every Emma Boxy Tee sale goes to them too. Every drop this year will carry that same commitment.
Because here's what I think. It's fun to say my dog and I both wear this brand. Sure, it's material. But have fun with the material, and have fun with the mission, because underneath it, I want us building something together. A place where you roll around on the same sweatshirt as your dog, and then think, you know what, let's go do something new together. Let's change how we eat.
— Jocelyn & Mary Grace 🐾