Pet Set, Part I: Purr Tosa Is All Cats, All the Time

In a small retail center on the west edge of Wauwatosa, two businesses opened within a couple of weeks of one another. Neither knew the other was coming.

One, Purr Tosa, is a boutique for feline fanciers. The other, Bone Appetit, caters to keepers of canines. It's the perfect pet corner.

Today, it's all about the cats. Tomorrow, we go to the dogs.

Amy Dedow loves cats and always has. She has dogs, too. She's an equal opportunity animal lover.

But when the energetic and emotional pull and drain of a career in gerontology began to get to her, she began to ask herself what she really wanted to do with the heart of her life.

And so did her daughter.

"She asked me, 'Mom, what would you really want to do?'" Dedow said. "And I thought about that, and I remembered this cat boutique in Door County, and how much I liked it.

"Well, she started keeping this box of cat things, and keeping a journal full of ideas, and she kept showing it to me. When my father died – and he had owned his own business – I decided to use my inheritance to start my own business, and this is what I wanted it to be."

Purr Tosa, at 12201 W. North Ave., is that dream come true.

A small shop filled with cat carriers, cat toys, cat climbing towers, cat art, cat clothing, cat jewelry – it's pretty much all cats, everything you could think of and more, if you're thinking about cats.

And even if you happened in and weren't thinking about cats, there would be one to wake you up.

Willow, in this case, is a 2-year-old brought in out of the wild and delivered, first, to the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission. She is already "98 percent adopted," Dedow said. "And I'm really proud that she's my third adoption cat already."

Open just seven weeks, Purr Tosa has placed two MADACC adoption cats right out of the store, through a warm partnership.

"I have the application papers right here," Dedow said. "All I have to do is fax them to MADACC, and when if they approve the adoption, I send in the card number for the fee. I don't profit off it. The full fee goes to MADACC."

Dedow is also proud that most of her products are handmade by local artists, or at least American artisans. Some of her cat climbers and collars are made right here in Milwaukee; many more come from elsewhere in Wisconsin; some come from as far afield as California.

But besides being domestic – like her beloved cats – selling those products, Dedow said, "Supports a lot of others who are like-minded, not just because they love cats, but because they love being independent."

A lot like cats.