The pitter-patter of claws filled Local Paws as customers packed the colorful aisles for the store’s grand opening event on Oct. 15 featuring local and national suppliers and raffles, prizes and samples.

After moving into the location six months ago, the store finally flung its doors wide open for an excited public that showed up in droves.

The first local pet supply store in the city, Local Paws is the brainchild of Mark and Jessica Tiersma who decided to start their own business after 25 combined years in the industry.

“We thought we really needed a neighbor pet supply,” Jessica Tiersma said. “If someone’s going to open a pet store in Redmond, why not us?”

It began when they decided to start selling pet supplies out of a mobile trailer in October 2020 during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. They traveled through Central Oregon selling treats and toys to customers in need.

When they began selling more pet food and raw ingredients, they realized they would need to find a more permanent location and wound up in a cart at General Duffy’s Waterhole for 18 months.

Amber Fiock, who brought her Oreo-colored Australian Shepherd named Clif to the opening event, said she’d drive to Mud Bay in Bend for supplies until she started shopping at Local Paws when it was just a cart. She loved how knowledgeable and kind the Tiersmas were and how they remembered Clif’s name when she came back to visit.

“They have a really good selection of stuff,” Fiock said. “They don’t just pick up anything.”

Fiock said she visits them two to three times a month for supplies and said it’s nice that the store is within walking distance to everything else downtown and close to a bunch of other local businesses.

“It’s better than big corporations,” she said. “This is our store. (Clif) loves coming here.”

For the Tiersmas, it boils down to the local community and natural products. When a customer came in asking for help with itching, they recommended a functional mushroom for his dog. He came back after two weeks in tears because he felt like he’d gotten his dog back.

“That’s why we’re here,” Jessica said. “That is our goal — is just to help the community and keep the money in the community too.”

According to Jessica, Local Paws is also unique from bigger box stores because they focus more on natural approaches. They take this approach, she said, because their dog Otis.

Otis, Jessica said, had a lot of allergies. They tried all sorts of different topicals and foods and eventually put him on medication to help. He soon after developed cancer. To counteract his health issues, they began giving him natural remedies and his itching stopped.

Because of this, Local Paws is much more focused on natural solutions and offers people an option for their pets without going the prescription route. She said this makes them different from a lot of other pet supply stores.

She said they’re mostly focused on dogs and cats. Although they carry some chicken supplies, they’re not aiming to compete with local farm stores.

“We want to help support the local economy,” Jessica said.

Tosha Asker, a sales manager for Instinct Pet Food, said her company only sells it’s raw pet food at local neighborhood stores like Local Paws. She added that a lot of companies start selling their products at bigger stores like PetCo and PetSmart as they get larger, but said that it’s important to support community pet suppliers.

“If it wasn’t for the small neighborhood pet stores,” Asker said, “we wouldn’t have the support and the notoriety and people wouldn’t recognize food if it wasn’t for them.”

Camille Uda, another sales manager who attended the event for Pets Global, said she could barely keep up with the customers as they flocked to the store — buying up bags of their food and treats.

Jessica said they had set aside tote bags with treats and freebies for the first 100 customers and expected it to last the majority of the day. Instead, the bags disappeared quickly with a line wrapping around the store before they opened.

“Our customers love that we’re here and we’re a resource for them,” Jessica said. “Makes it a very rewarding job for us”