Celebrating 10 Years of 4-Legger! Reflections on the Journey and Hope for the Future!
August is a very special month for 4-Legger every year, but in this year of 2025 it is even more special since it marks the milestone of our 10th anniversary from the month in 2015 when we finally launched our first product which was our Lemongrass and Aloe shampoo formulation.
Many of you know the personal story behind 4-Legger and how it was inspired by a very special little white, toy poodle named Henry Clay.
He was the first dog of my very own and I loved that little dog in a way that I never would have thought possible.
He was with me during some of the most traumatic times of my life, so when at the age of only 8 years old he was diagnosed with cancer - believed by his vet to be from exposure to environmental toxins, it was truly a gut-punch I was not prepared in any way to handle.
His cancer was treatable initially and through a couple of surgeries and medications, he did fairly well for over 2 years - right up until the day that his symptoms changed and it became clear that his cancer had metastasized to his brain stem.
However, the true miracle of Henry Clay followed in the coming days. Though his life expectancy was dramatically shortened to only 4-5 weeks because of the aggressiveness and spread of his cancer, that little boy had another idea.
You see, I believe in my heart that Henry Clay absolutely knew something that I did not yet know, but needed to learn. The days and weeks piled up until he had actually outlived his prognosis by over 13 months and ended on the day that he had been waiting for. That day was November 22, 2013 and it was the day that I got the call with pathology results indicating that I also had been diagnosed with cancer. He waited to make sure I found out - I believe that became his job - my protector, and the sole reason he fought through every day of his own cancer experience.
Henry Clay took his last breath on that morning, and I got the phone call a little later on the same day that marked the beginning of my own cancer journey. He stayed as long as he could and ultimately became the inspiration behind 4-Legger.
My own cancer was very aggressive and complicated making my treatment last 22 long months and during much of that time, my cell counts were so low that I was medically classified as "infection fatal", meaning anything - any common bug or virus could potentially end my life.
Because of that, I had to minimize my own exposure to germs and bacteria everywhere possible and that included my other dogs. Trying to choose a safe and healthy shampoo to increase their bathing frequency was the catalyst behind choosing grooming products to focus on since it became obvious very quickly that terrible ingredients were commonly used to make the vast majority of them - even the "green and natural" ones. 4-Legger didn't just happen overnight.
The idea slowly emerged over time as it became clear that the products we thought were good, were in fact harmful and created many skin problems (at least) for our other dogs. The mission to clean up the grooming products part of the pet industry which has ZERO regulatory control on ingredient usage came clearly into focus and 4-Legger was born. It actually became one of the primary reasons that drove me to fight through all the difficulties and setbacks of my cancer treatment in order to make the industry do better. Henry Clay deserved it. Our other dogs deserved it. And every pet parent's dog deserved it too!
We deliberately chose the long road and formulated our products in order to meet the strict standards required for USDA certification through the National Organic Program. Nobody else was doing that and we quickly realized that not only was it the ONLY way to achieve legitimate 3rd party validation, it was also THE gold standard for 3rd party validation worldwide. 4-Legger has always been distinguished from every other pet product manufacturing brand by this one criteria of achieving true, legitimate organic certification for our products. Ingredients matter!
So, here we are 10 years later!
This August we celebrate not only the 10 year anniversary of 4-Legger, but also the 10 year cancer-free anniversary for me!
I believe there is cause to celebrate! Our one product has turned into a full grooming product lineup of 17 different products covering everything needed to address every aspect of grooming in a safe and healthy routine. More products are in current development and we will be excited to share that news in the near future!
In the meantime, we are so thankful for this community that has been inspired by Henry Clay.
We are so honored to be trusted with your beloved fur kids and we so appreciate the amazing support you give us through your emails, testimonials and sending pictures of your pups!
We have been blessed with meeting, interacting and collaborating with so many awesome holistic veterinarians and other pet professionals in the broader community. And, we renew our commitment to never cut corners, never take shortcuts, never compromise the integrity of our products or the purity of our ingredients by settling for less than what 4-Legger represents and has always stood for. We are happy to continue setting the pace for the rest of the industry and know that with you all, we are in excellent company to make a lasting difference in the long-term health of all of our dogs!
Fun Fact: This took a little while to calculate but in the last 10 years, 4-Legger shampoo has been the preferred choice in over 5,604,616 baths!
Over FIVE MILLION baths! I had to sit down after realizing that - 😂
