Sue Callus never thought she would have developed a strong love for dogs as she does now.
When she was a child she only got to play with them when she visited relatives, but recently she became deeply attached to the furry wet-nosed animals due to an unfortunate event.
“Before my mum died in 1996 she had taken on a rescue dog named Percy. And in her will, she said whoever took Percy would receive a little inheritance for the dog.
“My mum’s neighbour and I shared the responsibility of caring for Percy. But taking care of him was more expensive than I thought. Although she left £200 I ended up spending £1 000 on Percy within a few months because he had a heart condition.”
Though caring for Percy was quite expensive, Callus explained that her mother’s final words were to love the dog as though he was part of the family. She recalled the sad moment.
“I would never forget what she said to me that day.
“She said, ‘How could I ever leave Percy?’ and she said that because he was the love of her life.
“If you are not a real animal person you would not understand.”
Percy died a year after Callus’ mother passed away and the Enterprise, Christ Church resident said she wanted Percy to be with her mother.
“After Percy was cremated, I went into the graveyard where my mum was buried and dug a hole in her grave and put Percy in.
“If anyone had seen me they would have probably thought I was a grave robber or something, but I was trying to fulfil my mother’s dying wish. She loved Percy so much I wanted to give her that closure.”
Shortly afterwards, Callus became the owner of a Beagle. She explained that that dog was a rescue dog and the previous owner used it for hunting foxes in England.
For the past three years Callus has been making a living in Barbados by providing supermarkets, farmers’ markets and other clientele with dog and cat treats under the name Munchy Munchiroonies.
She adopted the idea of making a business out of animal treats from her sister. During this time, she has also been rescuing more dogs and seeing that they are placed in good homes.
She rescued over 13 dogs during her stay on the island.
“People abuse animals and I don’t like the idea of it. They breed dogs just to make money and that is sad. I remember rescuing a Jack Russell on a puppy farm whose only purpose was to get pregnant so her owner could make money. She had six pups when I took her in, the mummy unfortunately died, also one of the pups. The K9 Charity took three and re-homed them and my friend took the other two.”
When it comes to business, Callus uses her love for dogs to come up with flavours for her fun treats. She said animals like protein and she uses the leanest parts of the chicken to make dried treats and biscuits for dogs.
She also makes chicken meals by order that dog owners can incorporate with their animal’s chow and serve them. She added that her treats could also be used during animal training.
Callus told EASY that it took her a while to develop her special animal recipes as most of them were created from a trial and error process.
She confessed that making cat treats and coming up with new flavours could be challenging at times because cats are picky animals. Nonetheless, she has been making cat meals by order for sick cats.
“There are no artificial additives in any of my meals or desserts.
“Just because I make animal food that doesn’t mean what I sell is of poor quality. In fact, I had one customer who told me she gives her dog a peanut butter and honey biscuit and she had one herself. And one day after I got home from selling at Brightons Farmers’ Market another customer told me my liver treats were really nice so she too was eating them with her dog,” she said laughingly. (SB)
