As we transition into the World Wide Web...

Did you know there was such a thing as National Dress Up Your Pet Day? Well, if you have always wanted to explore the world of pet fashion, then today is your day! And lucky for you, there is a LaDeDog! WebStore full of couture you would be proud to show off.

It was a somber day in our little shop today. Our goodbye's to our favorite customers of the two and four-legged kind, were endearing. I have appreciated getting to know you all, and have really enjoyed the cards and eMail messages that have been coming in the past week.

I sincerely hope that you will continue to keep in touch through the Blog & WebStore. We will continue serving you with special requests, contests & our most popular products on the web. If at all possible, LaDeDog! will set up their little "Dog and Pony Show" (pun intended) at the local Sunday Markets this coming Spring, and you will surely see us participating in whatever local Dog Shelter/Humane Society events may come our way.

So I will leave you with some quotes from one of my favorite movies, "You've Got Mail", which really express this closing door in my life... But I know in the very near future windows will be flying open.

"Closing the store is the brave thing to do... You are daring to imagine that you could have a different life. Oh, I know it doesn’t feel like that. You feel like a big fat failure. But you’re not. You’re marching into the unknown, armed with … nothing.” Says Birdie to the mourning Shop Around the Corner owner, Kathleen Kelly in the movie “You’ve Got Mail”

I feel this way today.

Kathleen Kelly: “My store is closing this week. I own a store. Did I ever tell you that? Probably not. It’s a lovely store – and in a week, it will be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. I am being amazingly brave”

I am not really brave… I am just following my gut.

Tomorrow will be the last day of my little dream come true. Though they say, “It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all”, I suppose the same rings true for those who try their hand at a small business. And to have thrived for the first year makes it all worth while. But to survive in retail during this eonomic mess is just too much to handle.

Thank you all for an amazing ride!