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By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian
The Stolte family, Caleb and Traci, runs a dog-watching service out of their home, located just off Highway 93 south of Whitefish.
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By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian
Some customers have started calling the Pet Stop a “Doggie Disneyland,” Traci Stolte says.
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TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian
Devotees of the Stoltes’ dog service are as fond of the sculpture-garden-esque ambiance as they are of the family’s keen attention to the needs of their pets.
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WHITEFISH - At first glance Stolte's Pet Stop looks a little like an overgrown charm bracelet, frilled and festooned as it is with gewgaws and trinkets and all manner of sparkling embellishments.
The effect of the décor is what one might expect if Peter Pan's Lost Boys were given unbridled access to a treasure chest buried by a band of bejeweled pirates. And even though much of the ornamentation has little to do with pets, it is downright alluring.
The Stolte family runs a dog-watching service out of their home, located just off Highway 93 south of Whitefish. "Kennel" seems too harsh a word to describe what the Stoltes do, but it is essentially that.
The perimeter of their property is beset with a tall birch cordwood fence that lends the compound a vaguely gothic appearance, but inside it is more like a medieval funhouse. Most visually striking are the hundreds of blue mica sake bottles and miniature disco balls that adorn the fence top and hang from trees, sending sunlight dappling across the yard in brilliant hues.
Meanwhile, a series of colossal sculptures strike poses beyond the fence line, eliciting awe from rubber-necking motorists who steal glances before zipping past. But the full effect of the ornamentation can only be grasped when one ventures inside and strolls past the pinwheels of teal bottles, the spheres of wood slats, the baskets and bells and bicycle tires piled high with intriguing disorder.
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"Some of our customers have started calling it ‘Doggie Disneyland,' " said Traci Stolte, who has been running the business for nine years along with her husband, Caleb Stolte. "Most of it's just junk, really."
Devotees of the Stoltes' dog service are as fond of the sculpture-garden-esque ambiance as they are of the family's keen attention to the needs of their pets, which receive the same love and affection as the Stoltes' own menagerie that includes three dogs, a cat, several goats, numerous chickens, and an untold population of rabbits.
"We're kind of a laidback, artistic family, and I think the animals that come here pick up on it," Traci Stolte said. "We never intended for it to become such an attraction, but it has kind of turned into that. It's fun."
Traci and Caleb grew up in Whitefish. They both run the business and create the art with occasional help (and hindrance) from their three children - Kiva, 4; Azure, 6; and Luna, 8.
Caleb in particular has an eye for the aesthetic beauty of discarded materials, the more lustrous the better.
"It's not that I'm a packrat, I just really like shiny things," he said.
Stolte's Pet Stop is busy year-round, and Caleb and Traci both say they are fortunate to be occupied with work while also having ample time together as a family.
"We're able to run our business while we stay home and play with our children," Traci said.
Maybe it's the extra playtime with their young children, or all the puppies running around, but something has bestowed a childlike quality in the couple.
On a recent weekday morning, while Traci ushered dogs in and out of the home, Caleb used a cylinder punch to pop illustrated fairies off the backs of playing cards. He then arranged the nickel-size portraits into the shape of one large fairy.
"I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing with these, but I'll do something," he said.
