Whitie's Pets

“Pet Store for Sale” was the ad in the Los Angeles Times that caught the attention of Don and Sue Shafer. John Shafer was nine at the time and remembers his mom and dad’s excitement when they announced the move to the family, Fresno was a long way from Palmdale. As the family truck loaded with all their belongings came up the street they could see the picture window featuring a perfectly coiffed poodle on one side and brightly colored parakeets on the other, over the the dancing dog were the words; “Poodle Grooming!”. This was the place,
all 1200 sq. ft. of it!

The Whiting family opened Whitie’s Pets in 1943 in a funny triangular building at Ventura and Hazelwood. It was a good location on a busy street through a tidy neighborhood, and they stayed there for 20 years before selling it to Don and Sue. The former barber shop owners and chicken ranchers could have just picked up where the Whitings left off, but Don and Sue had other plans. 1968 found Whitie’s Pets in a 7,000 foot building and a little ahead of the curve… at the time there weren’t enough products being manufactured for pets to fill that much space. The former Sprouse-Reitz store at Ventura and 5th was transformed with show tanks, wonderfully merchandised displays, and a central koi pond.
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