Gripping a sharp, new hair trimmer, Sue Picchioni is bittersweet by how it became hers.
Over the past two months, longtime customers and do-gooders raised a combined $16,000 to help Picchioni restart her business, which burned to the ground on Jan. 15.
Her business, Best Friends Dog Grooming, was one of four that went up in flames that night. Police say a robbery next door at Sifton Market retail center, 13412 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., led to the death of a store manager and an intentionally set fire.
“I wish it hadn’t taken such a tragedy,” said Picchioni, who also lost three cats and seven birds who lived at the store. “That guy didn’t realize how many lives he impacted by his actions.”
Best Friends Dog Grooming reopened this week at a new location, Orchards Market retail center, almost 2 miles west of the old location.
The new location is nearly twice the size of the original. Its grooming area has several new animal crates and it is equipped with new scissors, trimmers and hair dryers. A hydraulic lift that holds up dogs of all sizes was the nicest piece of equipment Picchioni had ever worked with, she said.
They were able to recover two animal crates and a pair of stainless steel tubs.
“I’m sad she had to go through that, but this looks like a really nice place,” Battle Ground resident Diane Schander said.
Picchioni, who operated at the Sifton Market location for 14 years, was not sure she would be able to run her own shop after the fire. She did not have insurance to cover the losses from the fire and said she felt like she lost her second home.
The experience has made her more cautious about planning for the future.
“Nothing is promised,” she said. “Little did I know when I left that Saturday it would be my last time in that building.”
The funds to get Best Friends Pet Grooming back on its feet came largely from two events and a GoFundMe page, she said. Hooligan’s Sports Bar & Grill hosted a breakfast feed shortly after the blaze, followed by a comedy show benefit at Charlie’s Sports Bar & Grill. The GoFundMe page raised $8,000 on its own.
“When it happened, I thought I would have to go out of business and go work for somebody else,” she said. “But my customers have all said, ‘Nope, we’re going to help you out.’”
They officially moved into the new shop March 1, but spent the first two weeks putting in new tile and getting it properly wired for their uses. It is still getting fixed-up — one wall remains unfinished and the phones faltered intermittently Thursday morning.
But Picchioni and her son, Jason Hassler, were back to work and booked two weeks out, she said. Hassler, 36, said he was happy to get back to work.
“It’s good to be back to work,” he said. “I thought it would be nice to have time off but it wasn’t.”
They said they are planning to throw a barbecue as thanks to the community in the near future.
Tails With Taylor’s
Not everyone is quite back on their feet. Tails With Taylor’s, a pet food store at Sifton Market, flirted with turning a profit right before the fire came.
“I was just getting to a place where I would have repeat customers. January was going to be the month where I would have made a profit,” owner Katrina Taylor, 41, said.
Now, she and her family are in “emotional survival mode,” she said. Her husband recently became unemployed and they are considering moving the family of six to stay with his parents, who are sick, in Michigan.
“It’s a weird kind of numbness when I drive by the building, like it happened to somebody else,” she said. “It’s probably going to hit me later.”
Taylor said she was optimistic about the future. She also said she was happy for Best Friends Dog Grooming.
“I wish it could have worked out that we’d reopen right next door to them,” she said.
