Meet Dennis!
Dennis’ path to FOLT was a long and winding one. There were stops along the way in far off lands (like Turkey thanks to service in the US Air Force) before he finally settled in the Bay Area with a career at a Menlo Park research organization. It was there that he met and married Anita, the founder of For Other Living Things. It was also then that he learned to care for animals.
Dennis got a quick lesson in being a crazy animal person as life with Anita has included chickens, ducks, rabbits, fish, cats, parrots, and dogs. At times multiples of a species, like 14 ducks and something like 50 gazillion cats. He helped Anita nurse an Afghan hound back to health (she came to them a measly 25 lbs) as well as witnessed the hand rearing of several litters of orphaned kittens. He really couldn’t have asked for a better teacher.
In spite of all this, he had no idea what the future held. It was the rabbits that pulled up in the front yard one day that reincarnated Anita's life dream of opening a pet store. For Other Living Things started to become a reality. Before the storefront came to life, this meant a back bedroom full of rabbit supplies and endless months at the DeAnza flea market with a 5:00am start.
Right about here, at the dawn of the internet, Dennis acquired the domain name www.forotherlivingthings.com and that started it all. Any time the difficulties of owning a small business pop up, Anita reminds Dennis it was all his doing by getting that domain name.
With his wide experiences in electronics, facilities, computers, and construction, he was able to bring For Other Living Things from its modest start as an on-line store to a real brick and mortar business. Dennis likes to say he’s “just the janitor”, but don’t let that fool you. He is a huge part of the reason we are here and we owe him a tremendous “thank you”.
Dennis got a quick lesson in being a crazy animal person as life with Anita has included chickens, ducks, rabbits, fish, cats, parrots, and dogs. At times multiples of a species, like 14 ducks and something like 50 gazillion cats. He helped Anita nurse an Afghan hound back to health (she came to them a measly 25 lbs) as well as witnessed the hand rearing of several litters of orphaned kittens. He really couldn’t have asked for a better teacher.
In spite of all this, he had no idea what the future held. It was the rabbits that pulled up in the front yard one day that reincarnated Anita's life dream of opening a pet store. For Other Living Things started to become a reality. Before the storefront came to life, this meant a back bedroom full of rabbit supplies and endless months at the DeAnza flea market with a 5:00am start.
Right about here, at the dawn of the internet, Dennis acquired the domain name www.forotherlivingthings.com and that started it all. Any time the difficulties of owning a small business pop up, Anita reminds Dennis it was all his doing by getting that domain name.
With his wide experiences in electronics, facilities, computers, and construction, he was able to bring For Other Living Things from its modest start as an on-line store to a real brick and mortar business. Dennis likes to say he’s “just the janitor”, but don’t let that fool you. He is a huge part of the reason we are here and we owe him a tremendous “thank you”.
