HER love of animals runs deep, but Cherylynn Mellor reckons it’s her customers she’ll miss the most.
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Ms Mellor closed the doors to her business, Catalina Pets, in Morisset, for the last time on Saturday night.
It was nine years to the day since she acquired the business, which has had a presence in the town for 30 years.
“We’ve been asked by the landlord to vacate because they have other plans for the building,” Ms Mellor said.
She has decided not to relocate, and instead will retire.
Customers had not taken the news well, she said.
“We’ve made a lot of friends here, and some of our customers have been in tears when they’ve heard we’re closing down,” she said.
“There are so many customers who we’re going to miss, and I think they’ll miss us, too.”
And it’s not just customers from Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast who had built a relationship with the store.
There’s the family from Queensland who regularly holidayed in the region and who considered Catalina Pets to be their pet shop, and the woman from Hobart who would phone to tell Ms Mellor of her impending annual visits to Lake Macquarie, and to inquire about what was in stock.
“She trusted us,” Ms Mellor said of the unlikely friendship.
“People have to trust you in a pet shop.”
Ms Mellor said that trust was earned through animal and product knowledge.
“I’ve always been good at identifying what people need, and what is most suitable for them. I’d never sell somebody a product that they didn’t need,” she said.
“I’ll miss helping people with their pets,” she said.
Dogs and rabbits are Ms Mellor’s favourite furry friends, and it was no surprise that the store never sold reptiles.
“I don’t like reptiles,” she said. “And I can’t stand snakes.”
All animals in the store were sold or rehomed prior to the closure on Saturday, and most of the pet products and shop fittings were sold.
Store mascots Toby (the dog) and Leevi (the rabbit) will also enjoy their retirement at Ms Mellor’s Chittaway Bay home.