Most good ideas in this family start at the kitchen counter. This one took a few years to leave it.
Julianna and Willow have been talking about a pet treat business since Willow was six. They’d float ideas, sketch out names, go through efforts to craft logos, get a little serious about it, and then dinner would happen — or homework, or a laptop battery would die, or it would be bedtime, or someone would need a snack, or life would just keep lifeing. The conversation would get shelved until the next round.
Well, life be darned, it’s time! We’re doing this now. Largely because at eleven, Willow is pretty darn awesome and self-sufficient and I can confidently trust she won’t lose a finger to the mixer without me in the room. Just don’t give the kid a grapefruit knife. But that’s a story for another day.
Willow’s team.
Fin & Oak Bark Bakery is officially Willow’s gig. Mom is her partner on the build — on oven timers, on anything that requires a credit card, and on the parts that require grown-up expertise (just don’t tell her that, she’ll say otherwise). Her siblings are the rest of the team: assembly line, taste-testers, official second opinions, and frequent dissenters. Dad has, on more than one occasion, taste-tested the inventory before remembering what it’s for. The animals supervise.
About the name.
Fin was Mom and Dad’s first baby — the dog they brought every one of the kids home to. By the time Willow arrived he’d already taken on the role of canine household manager. She loved him fiercely her whole life, the very same way he loved her — patiently, steadily, and always nearby. He passed peacefully this past spring, just shy of thirteen years old. While our hearts will always be a bit emptier without him here in person to fill the gap, he epitomized what a great dog life looked like. And what a great dog looked like, while he was at it. He set a high standard here, I tell you.
Oak came along a few years after Fin and learned the job from him. He’s the easiest-going creature in the house — the dog who lives to sunbathe on the deck, who lets the chaos happen around him, who has never had a complicated day in his life. He’s still on duty, mostly by being present. Just don’t make him use his brain cell as he’d rather not. Jokes aside, he’s an amazing pup as well and we’ve been very blessed. We named the bakery for both of them because they’re the dogs who taught this family what a dog could be and how dog breath, pup pillows, and just their presence is like glue in this family.
About Piper.
Piper came after the name was settled. She’s the youngest, and a study in contradictions. She’s afraid of her own shadow most of the time, but ready to take on the world the moment somebody looks sideways at one of the kids. The whole farm loves her. The chickens, the cats, every creature here has, at some point, curled up next to Piper. (Except the geese. The geese don’t like anyone.) She is Willow’s girl, through and through. Most of her best habits are Willow’s... and so are all of her worst. This will be immediately evident when she jumps up on you for a hug, just the way Willow likes!
