DOG’S MEOW

Pet Supplies

By Kyle Forbush | Photography by Dung Hoang

MANY KIDS DREAM OF PONIES WHEN THEY’RE YOUNG. Alexis Butler was a little different. Butler, who is founder and owner of the healthy pet food store, The Dog’s Meow, says she always dreamt of having her own lion. Eventually, she had to settle for the next-best thing: domestic housecats. 

Butler grew up in a northwestern suburb of Chicago, where she was raised among both cats and dogs. Her love of animals often brought her to one store in Long Grove, Illinois, called The Dog House. It sold unique items, treats, supplements and accessories for cats and dogs, along with some handcrafted artisan and breed-specific gifts. When she revisited Long Grove for a family reunion years later, she saw the store was still there, and inspiration hit.

Butler has always been a hard worker. For years she worked in retail and sales, but she always wanted to work for herself, if only because she knew she could. And when she came back to Utah after visiting her old stomping grounds, she couldn’t get the idea for a pet store specifically for dogs and cats out of her head.

“I came home and told my brother I wanted to start a business,” Butler remembers. “I gave him some ideas. I said, ‘How about the Cat’s Bark?’ And he said, ‘How about The Dog’s Meow?’”

The name stuck, but she was still thousands of dollars and several years away from turning her vision into a successful business. She took out a loan against her house and waited to find a space, open the doors and make money. Six months after opening a storefront on 3300 South in Millcreek, business wasn't where it needed to be. At the time, The Dog’s Meow carried just one brand of pet food alongside its gift merchandise. Butler realized she needed to shift gears, expanding her selection of pet food to give customers a reason to return on a regular basis instead of shopping only for occasional gifts.

The Dog’s Meow was originally a novelty boutique for pet owners, carrying breed-specific gift items like pit bull stickers, pawprint keychains and creative artwork depicting every manner of dog and cat, from Chihuahuas and Great Danes to tortoiseshells and calicos. Butler quickly realized that people who buy novelty items rarely need to come back for more. Pet food, on the other hand, is something every pet owner eventually runs out of. 

Simultaneously, Butler identified a need in Utah for healthy pet food stores. The number of independent shops catering to dog and cat owners seeking real ingredients for their animals’ food was effectively zero when she first opened in 1996.

“We were the only ones in the state of Utah for two years,” Butler says. “We were actually the first pet health food store in the state of Utah.”

Butler leaned into a nation-wide wave that hadn’t crested yet. She moved away from the store’s gift emporium theme, becoming a trusted, local purveyor of healthy food for dogs and cats — a community-centered alternative to mainstream places like Petco. Luckily, Butler’s personal shopping and eating habits primed her to understand what should go in a pet’s bowl. And her love for animals (she once tried to save an injured bat on her patio) lent her the inherent understanding that canines and felines are just as sensitive and worthy of a healthy meal as “hum-ines.”

“My family’s always been big about healthy foods,” Butler explains. “I used to shop at a natural grocery store here before Whole Foods was a thing. It wasn’t hard to figure out, looking at a label, what was better than something else.”

Healthy pet food has a lack of chemicals and harmful preservatives and focuses on nutrients and protein. Overall, Butler explains, you should be able to read the label of your pet’s food and understand everything that goes in it.

Butler’s daughter, Alyssa Butler, who became co-owner in April 2021, is now in charge of sourcing and purchasing. She started at the shop at age nine, doing her homework in the back. As she grew up, she came to understand, being a dog owner herself, the importance of what they could do for the community of pet owners in Salt Lake City.

“She basically grew up in the store and fully enjoyed helping customers,” Alexis says. “She helped out even when she was a young teenager. She grew into knowing a lot about our products and how they help animals be healthier. She was a natural at it, and still is.”

Alyssa’s own pit bull Pippa was the shop dog for 12 years, and Alexis says everyone loved her. Alyssa also had a golden retriever and a pit bull mix at home. Each of them lived long lives, all three reaching 12 years of age before they passed.

Alexis says Alyssa has, in the nearly 30 years she’s been at The Dog’s Meow, never expressed wanting to leave to do something else. She tried restaurant work once, but didn’t enjoy the environment compared to what she had “at home.”

“We have a fabulous mother/daughter and work relationship,” Alexis says with pride.

Today, Alyssa is as well-versed in healthy pets as anyone. She manages the shop’s staff, and in her purchasing duties, she says she always considers the mission and makeup of each new food brand they bring in. Alyssa’s guidelines for what she sells in the store are strict, but the attention to detail and rigid evaluation of pet food companies’ ethics and policies for sourcing their food material has paid dividends. In 2007, when several dog food brands were intentionally and illegally contaminated by melamine, not a single product on the shelves at The Dog’s Meow had to be recalled. 

“People were starting to look for different foods, and a lot of what we carried was on the list,” Alexis says.

Over the decades, The Dog’s Meow has grown into a gathering place for local pet owners. Along with DIY dog wash stations at its Millcreek and Draper stores, the staff helps customers navigate pet nutrition, connects them with local pet sitters, and offers practical support for everyday challenges. The Millcreek location also serves as a venue for adoption events, dog training classes, and even regular visits from pet psychics.