Sponsored: Busch Pet Products is transforming pet care with passion and expertise

I was born with a deep love for animals. My parents were professional dog handlers and bred show beagles for more than 40 years. I was with every litter of puppies they raised and on every trip to every dog show they participated in.

I drifted away from pets while in college, but slowly found my way back by pet sitting, which led to a very part-time sales job with a local dog food manufacturer. Next thing you know I was getting a loan to build a website to sell pet products online. After my husband and I married and we got pregnant, I signed a lease on our first location, a 750-square-foot store, which became Busch Pet Products.

It all sounds like a whirlwind and looking back on it, it really was. After less than one year in our first location, we signed a lease for our second location, which wasn’t even built yet. That location was the step we needed to take to offer the community what I felt so passionately about: pet health and care.

While Busch Pet Products may have begun as a pet supply store, it quickly morphed into a pet health food store, complete with a full line of dog and cat food, treats, supplements, and, of course, all the other supplies you needed to be the best dog or cat parent.

With all that food came training. I have certifications in both dog nutrition and cat nutrition from the Academy of Natural Health Sciences, as well as CEUs from Royal Animal Health University and Dogs Naturally Magazine. I am still learning and expanding my knowledge base even today, and my team is too. They have pet nutrition specialist, raw dog food nutrition specialist, and canine essential oil specialist certifications, and I am proud that they are taking the time to work through those courses to better help our customers.

Our furry customers’ health and happiness is why I do what I do. For me, there is nothing more rewarding than helping a pet overcome a medical or behavioral issue. Our pets are family, and when they are unwell, it’s our responsibility to do anything we can to help them. My team and I are here to help owners look past the symptoms and address the root cause, which can lead to real healing.

Now that the retail store is in our own space next door to our sister business, Deer Creek Doggie Day Camp, we can offer even more options to help your pet live his or her best life. Our doggie day care is an interactive experience, offering dogs not just a place to sit in a crate, but to be played with, interacted with, and loved. Our goal is to send our campers home tired and happy, not tired and stressed.

And the boarding kennel my parents opened more than 50 years ago is slowly but surely getting an overhaul. We still have the only boarding facility with individual runs for dogs, and we are in the process of adding suites for families with multiple dogs. And our cat customers are loving our four-story cat condos so much that we added an additional cat room and will soon have a total of nine condos!

I do what I do because I love animals, and I want what’s best for every single one of them.

Stacy Busch-Heisserer and her husband Chris own several pet-related businesses in Cape Girardeau, including Busch Pet Products, Deer Creek Doggie Day Camp, and Busch’s Kennel.