My Story

The idea for starting my own company came out of a desire to work for myself and do something I enjoy.  

I remember seeing this quote, “Sometimes it takes the better part of a lifetime to find out what your passion is, but in my observation, if you do, it might be the best part of your life" (Jane Pauley).  So, I said goodbye to the corporate world and hello to the world of being a designer and maker of home decor products for fellow animal lovers.

Around that same time, my husband and I decided to try fostering kittens through our local animal rescue group where we had adopted our current cats.  We were so thankful for all this group had done in helping our babies, and what they continue to do every day that we thought fostering was the way to help.  Well, to make a long story short – we were “foster failures” and ended up keeping them.

We knew that we wanted to continue helping animals, but we couldn’t keep fostering or we would end up with ALL of them!  We decided that the best way for us to help was to raise money.  So, we made the decision to base our company’s business model on giving back.  We donate a portion of each sale to animal charities.

Our company name is Shen & Sam Co. after our beloved rescue kitties, Shenna (our sweet calico girl), and Sam (our sweet brown tiger stripe boy) who are in heaven now, but forever in our hearts. They taught us every day the meaning of unconditional love and we wanted to honor their memories by helping animals. Being able to combine my love of running my own business and my passion for animals is turning out to be fantastic!

One little tidbit that hopefully makes you smile.  When setting up the e-mail address for customers to contact us, I wanted it to be something more welcoming than “customer service”, or “contact us”.  I chose hello@shenandsam.com.  The funny thing is when I say it out loud; I hear Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire, saying “Hellllooooo”!!  It brings a smile to my face every time!

Peace, love & catnip!

Jamie