Nine months following a tragic fire that destroyed their business and two others, the owners of Adorable Beast have made a return, setting up shop in a new location that has them howling with joy.

Last Friday, Justine Heinrich and Kelsie Felix held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for their new Adorable Beast storefront, now located at 203 W. Mill Street in Waterloo, with Monday marking its first day of operation.

The duo sat down with the Republic-Times to discuss how the business began, what the past year has been like and what’s in store for the dog grooming business in their new home.

Heinrich and Felix first met in 2013 when they were both working together at a different groomer. There, they became fast friends and quickly decided they wanted to do their own thing when it came to dog grooming.

A few years later, in February 2019, Adorable Beast was born.

“Adorable Beast was just created out of our friendship and love for what we do,” Heinrich said. “We wanted to be better. We knew it could be better. Grooming is sometimes just an in-and-out thing where sometimes I feel like people just see them as a number where we see them as individuals and we want to spoil them.”

Both women have a clear passion for dogs, both their own and other people’s pets. Even their logo features a previous pet of both of them, now-deceased animals who had a profound impact on Heinrich and Felix.

While both are passionate about dog care – they emphasized the need to make sure the clients are comfortable, even if that means some lighter grooming on fidgety days – Felix offered Heinrich high praise as the duo’s resident dog whisperer.

“You gotta have a different kind of love for dogs to do this,” Heinrich said. “For me, there’s nothing a dog can do that is wrong or anything. I just think they’re perfect.”

Reflecting on the difficult year they’ve been through, Heinrich and Felix recalled the fire that took their business back in October.

They spoke about the 2 a.m. phone call that brought them to their previous location at 411 Park Street, from the panic of seeing the flames to the slight amount of relief knowing they never boarded any of their clients’ dogs.

They particularly emphasized the awful bonfire-like smell that assaulted them as they went through the building after the fire.

While they were somewhat hopeful about being able to salvage a good amount of furniture and equipment, those hopes were eventually dashed, especially as they insisted on keeping the smell out of their own and their clients’ noses.

The following months were difficult, to say the least. 

As they recalled, finding the original location had been difficult enough as it takes a very particular space to cater to the baths and other dog grooming necessities.

Heinrich and Felix noted with some humor that, though the original space wasn’t the most ideal setup, they had practically just gotten it renovated and organized how they wanted in September.

Things shut down entirely for the two through the winter given the impracticality of doing work in their own homes.

Additionally, they described the pain of negotiating with their insurance as well as the personal impact of not being able to work with dogs and, quite sadly, having a number of their longtime animal clients pass away without getting to see them one last time.

“In the beginning it was really hard especially when we were looking for places,” Felix said. “We definitely thought there for a second that this is just the end of that, of us doing our thing together.”

Things began to turn around when they heard about the vacant lot along Mill Street. After a rather nervous meeting about purchasing the spot, they began working closely with JP Fitzgibbons Contracting.

They spoke about Fizgibbons with praise, noting how encouraging and good to work with he was throughout the experience.

As they worked with him, they decided to approach the design process with great enthusiasm, eager to get things put together exactly as they want this time around.

Now, several months since construction on the building started, they have their dream salon.

“It’s definitely our blessing in disguise,” Heinrich said. “When it was happening, did I want it to be happening? No. But if I had to do all that again to get to here again, would we do it? Yes. A hundred times over.”

The response from the community and their former clients has been impressive. Though they were afraid of losing clientele given the extended break, they’ll instead be working like dogs as they are booked full through August.

“Our clients during this whole time have been checking in here and there,” Heinrich said. “Being out that long, Kelsie and I were like, ‘Well maybe they found other groomers, and they don’t want to have to switch around.’ We were just kinda expecting maybe we would be slow. And then we launched our booking website, and that was not the case. Everyone was thrilled.”

With the new, ideal building comes new possibilities. 

Heinrich and Felix made specific mention of the bathtubs they have installed, noting that – rather than grooming on weekends – they’ll be opening the space up to provide folks the opportunity to wash their dogs somewhere a bit more manageable than their own home baths.

They’re also quite pleased with their retail space, which is a much more central area in the shop where customers can purchase treats or the shampoos Heinrich and Felix use.

Additionally, they mentioned the possibility of adding more members to the team beyond themselves. They currently have a job opening on indeed.com, though with a shortage of dog groomers and their own high standards for animal care, it might be a while before someone new joins the team.

For now, the duo are just happy to have their new dream building to pamper all the pets they can.

“Our future plans are just to make this the best we can make it,” Felix said. “Whether it be just me and Justine or it be adding people to it, just making it the best dog grooming business we can make it.”

Adorable Beast is currently open, though they’re currently focusing on taking care of existing clients.

For more information, call or email the shop at 618-710-6004 and adorablebeastgrooming@gmail.com, or visit the Adorable Beast Facebook page.