Grove shop abounds in decadent pet accessories
Posted on Sun, Apr. 13, 2008
By BELLA KELLY
Special to the Miami Herald
MARICE COHN BAND / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Pet Gallery shop owner Woody Neilsen stands by his scratching post piano ($1,400).
PET GALLERY
Where: 107 Commodore Plaza, Coconut Grove
Hours: noon-8 p.m. Sunday-Friday, noon-9 p.m. Saturday
Contact: 305-441-2445
Florida Find is a weekly feature about purveyors of home products in South Florida. To suggest stores, craftspersons or manufacturers to profile, e-mail
newhomes@miamiherald.com.
If you're an animal lover, Woody Neilsen's Pet Gallery is going to draw you in when you look in the window and spot a $1,400 fur piano that's a feline scratching post and plays Memories from the Broadway musical Cats.
The not-so-miniature baby grand, designed by the Baldwin piano company, is not so unusual, however, compared to some of the other merchandise in Neilsen's shop on Commodore Plaza in Coconut Grove.
Beginning with the cluster of topiary dogs at the entrance, the gallery is a pet owner's paradise of one-of-a-kind, custom and hand-made animal accessories and art.
But it's not for every animal lover's pocketbook. Cheapest thing in the place is a $7 package of gourmet dog cookies. And if you like the bronze dog sculpture, it will cost you $5,500.
For Neilsen, a Virginia native who raises prize-winning English sheepdogs, the shop and its expensive contents are sheer joy.
He delights in his haute inventory of designer beds; fur comforters; dog and cat carriages with protective netting; $4,000 diamond collars, $1,500 leather embossed pet carriers; $195 ceramic food bowls; $350 handmade aprons from England; $175 jewel-encrusted commode seats laminated with a picture of a person's pet; a Swarovski crystal chandelier in the shape of a rabbit, frog or other pet, $1,250, or a 4 x 6-foot original oil painting of a dog priced in the thousands.
''Many of our things are limited edition pieces made by artists, designers and craftsmen from Europe as well as the United States,'' Neilsen says. ``We customize for any breed of pet, from a Yorkie to a Great Dane. If someone can think of it, I can have it made.''
For fussy Fidos, Neilsen sells a wooden four-poster sleigh bed with box spring, mattress, bedspread and carved finial trimmed with jewels for $785. A velvet, tufted Faberge egg-shaped bed is $450.
Wine buffs who want their pet to join them at Happy Hour can buy some ''Meowlot'' made by Bark Vineyards for $25 a bottle. There is a ''Barkendy'' for dogs. Guiness drinkers can opt for bottles of ''doggie brew'' called ''Wet Snout Stout'' for $11.
While the shop has fashion neckwear for dogs, it doesn't feature clothes. However, there is an ample supply of other human-type offerings people feel their pets should have.
For instance a dog-edible ''puppy pizza'' comes in a box similar to that of people pizza and is designed and colored to look like the real thing. It sells for $12 a box.
For dogs with bad breath, ''Mellow Mutt Treat'' costs $9 while ''Grandma Lucy's Gourmet Treats'' sell from $7 to $16 depending on whether they're tuna, Philly-steak or other varieties.
Neilsen, who has a similar store in Georgetown in Washington, D.C., opened his store three months ago and thinks he has found the perfect ambience.
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