A Central Location for Pet Information
WoofCat Pet Magazine is coming to Arkansas
Nicole Winstead rescued her first dog in 2005, a little white Schnauzer.
Fifteen years later, she’s developing WoofCat Pet, a pet brand focused on art, design, and education that provides high-quality treats and a pet directory magazine.
With an art background and a career in graphic design, she’d moved to Little Rock with her two sons to be closer to her grandfather and her father. Both of her parents had been born and raised in Arkansas, and they’d raised her in California.
Since her first rescue, Nicole has rescued 22 dogs and 12 cats. “Because we started rescuing so many, the dog treats got expensive,” Nicole explained.
And then she started looking at the ingredients. “As a person who is more of a holistic person, I started looking at the ingredients and then started doing some reading and I didn’t like what was in them,” Nicole said. “So I thought, ‘I betcha I can find some recipes. This can’t be too hard.’ So I started making the treats and giving them to friends and people were like, ‘These are really good. You don’t have a whole lot of stuff in them. You should try to market them.’”
She started making her treats in 2009, entering festivals and bringing the treats to farmer markets. She decided to name the treat company WoofCat, after her youngest son. He was about three years old at the time, watching the cartoon CatDog all the time. “He came in one morning and announced his name was no longer Ransom, but WoofCat,” Nicole shared. “It’s got dog and it’s got cat in there. It’s an homage to my youngest.”
In the summer of 2019, she quit her job with the state after eight years, deciding to focus on her treats.
Then, she brought a sick cat home and she couldn’t find help. “I had a really hard time trying to find an after-hours clinic that I could get to promptly,” Nicole said. “I ended up waiting two hours for someone to call me back with a phone number and the address of an after-hours clinic. After that happened–which was extremely devasting, the cat had to be euthanized–I couldn’t believe that I couldn’t find any information. I started combing the internet. Do we have a listing? Do we have a magazine? Do we have anything that’s a central location for Little Rock businesses? … I couldn’t find anything.”
She decided to develop a directory and informational magazine that will assist pet owners in finding resources. As a result, WoofCat Pet grew from treats into what Nicole describes as a lifestyle brand. “It incorporates art and design, education and information or pet parents of Arkansas,” she shared.
The first issue of WoofCat Pet Magazine is heading to stands as a spring/summer issue in a few months. Since the focus is on information, and Nicole wants to avoid advertising in the magazine, Nicole is offering a membership model for pet businesses to be listed. For $275, businesses are listed on Facebook through Arkansas Pet Directory, the website at woofcat.pet, and in the magazine itself for the year.
The first year, WoofCat will be published in the spring/summer, with the theme focused around rescue, and then in the fall/winter, with the theme focused on the business of pets. Next year, the magazine may be published quarterly. To get involved, call Nicole at 501-707-2992 or email at nicole@woofcat.pet. She’s looking for pet-centric businesses, such as groomers, dog walkers, hospice care, and trainers. “If there are ideas that they have or things that they are not feeling heard about, I would love to hear about those stories,” Nicole said. “If there are unusual or great rescue stories, I would love to hear about it. If you are a new business and you’d like to get recognized, I would love to hear about it. Flood me with all sorts of stuff.”
Find WoofCat Pet on Facebook and Instagram. Email Nicole at nicole@woofcat.pet.
Telltail Dog Training will be assisting with training information and additional writing for the magazine. I’ve been a writer since 2005, long before I became a dog trainer, and I still offer writing through Hew and Weld Writing. Telltail Dog Training offers group classes and private in-home lessons in the Little Rock area, along with training walks for current clients. Find Telltail’s podcast here, or find additional information on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
