Welcome to Pawlik Products LLC
"Comfy Cozy Pet Furniture"
How we got to where we are!
We believe that all the things that happen in your life lead you to that point in time where fate brings you to your soulmate. Carl spent 25+ years working maximum security for the state of Wisconsin. He was injured in late 2003 and never returned to his job. With time on his hands, he posted an ad on an internet dating sight (date.com). My kids had been home for Christmas, 2003 (from OR and FL). When they left I realized I did not want to spend the rest of my life alone (I’d been divorced for 23 years). I posted an ad on an internet dating sight (date.com). Carl had just changed his search area to 75 miles.
Fate intervened and we met in June 2004. My Milwaukee, WI, home was 73 miles from his Madison, WI, home! We spent the next 3 years driving those 73 miles east and west across Wisconsin’s Hwy. 94. I retired in February of 2007, moved to Madison and we were married (at a winery in Napa Valley) in June.
By fall I was already bored with retirement and looking for something to take up my time. We attended a ‘make money on the internet’ seminar in October. We did our research, found an area we were experienced and interested in (having totally spoiled pets all our lives) and we launched www.ComfyCozyPetFurniture.com in February, 2008.
In May of 2008 we took a driving trip to visit my son in south Florida. Along the way we stopped to see a high school girlfriend of mine in The Villages, FL. Jenny and Steve Robinson have been engraving and teaching glass engraving for over 30 years. I’d seen her work before and even taken a class once, but was never interested in learning how to engrave. Carl watched closely as Jenny taught a class while we were there, never saying a word, just observing.
While we were driving home a few weeks later, he turned to me and said, “I think I can do that.” I said, “Do what?” He told me he thought he could engrave. He’d been mulling it around in his head for a couple of weeks and never said a word! We kept talking about it and a few weeks later, over the 4th of July, he returned to Florida to take 5 days of lessons from Jenny & Steve.
The rest, as they say, is history. Carl has continued to engrave, finding a real niche in pets. There are artists in his family; an aunt started painting beautiful oils after age 50. She passed away early in 2007 after spending 5 weeks at a hospice center, in a coma following a stroke. Carl visited her twice daily, driving across town in one of Madison’s nastiest winters. I think Aunt Rose must have transferred some of her talent to him during those long days of hand holding. As he likes to say, “I can’t draw a stick figure, but just give me a picture of your pet and away I go!”
What is it they say about the baby boomers, ‘we’re retired but we’re not tired’? It’s certainly fits us! While Carl engraves, I work on sales and marketing and website development. We’re both working as many hours now as when we had our real jobs! Retired? I don’t think so!
They say it takes a new business 2 years to turn the corner. While we’re not there yet, I am grateful that we made it through 2009 for more than one reason. The economy tanked and we wondered who, if anyone; would be buying fairly expensive items for their pets. We were fortunate and saw a small increase over 2008. Adding to the economic stress, I spent nearly 4 weeks in the hospital after doctors discovered a tumor (benign) on my spinal cord. I spent the entire summer learning how to walk again! We even sold an engraving to one of my nurses! Carl never missed a beat during it all; he was (and is) my pillar of support, again making twice daily trips to the hospital, caring for our garden and pets and even working an art fair alone. Through it all, my website gave me something to focus on that was totally removed from doctors, hospitals and rehab!
Which brings me back to my opening statement: “We believe that all the things that happen in your life lead you to that point in time where fate brings you to your soulmate.” And for us, it also led to discovering artistic ability and a growing business which will keep us “working” well into retirement!
As of March 11, 2009 Comfy Cozy is carrying ONLY products made in the USA. I've always thought it was important to try to use only products produced in America in both my personal and business life. I'm happy to say I've now found several manufacturers who not only make their own products right here on U.S. soil, they do it in an earth-friendly manner. Yes, you can buy less expensive beds, gates, toys & more elsewhere. But I hope you won't! This is my small effort to support USA workers and the products they make. If we all make some contribution to this effort maybe we can turn the economy around. It's become my mantra, "Is it made in the US? Ok, let's talk. If not, thanks but no thanks."
If you've read this far, I'd like to thank you for visiting my site. Please feel free to ‘contact us' about any of our items or suggestions for new items. Now, let's get busy spoiling our best friends!
Barb Pawlik
"Chief Human"
Pawlik Products LLC
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