At the 1876 Exhibition Baseball Game as a part of the Best Friends Festival, I caught up with my cousin Jo Ann – better known as Sissy. Sissy has long been an animal lover and very active in various groups training and adopting out dogs – throughout the region and beyond. We talked about the dog she had with her and how during Covid so many people found friendship through their pets. Many people got pets for the first time during Covid and they were a comfort during those troubling times.

Just a few days later, we had to put our dog to sleep. Her name was Lucky and she was an 18-year-old Australian Blue Heeler. She had been abandoned as a six-week-old pup when we lived in Emory and was found by some workers who were at our home for a project. Scared and frightened, she was taken in by our kids and then she took in our family. As she aged, we had to modify her diet and order special food. We ended up doing so with Chewy.com®.

Since the supplies came regularly, my wife had to go online and cancel the order after Lucky’s passing. The Chewy representative asked the reason why – was it the Price? Service? Quality of the product? “No those weren’t the reasons, it’s because our pet had passed”, my wife responded. Yesterday when I got home, I noticed my wife had flowers. Her birthday was recently, and I assumed that one of her friends had remembered and sent her some. She shared that the flowers were actually from Chewy and they wanted to thank us for the business and understood our loss.

Chewy was a start-up online company and in 2017 it was acquired by PetSmart for $3.7 billion. At the time this was the largest amount paid for an e-commerce business. Given Chewy’s approach to customer service, as I mentioned above, I can understand the value of the company.

Some may say the passing of a pet is not that big a deal. Perhaps they are right. Yet I found through time that my dogs embodied many things – loyalty, commitment, and disregard for bad hair days. And in my mind, that means something.

I may never have another dog or pet. They take a lot of time to train and care for. But if we do, I can assure you that the expression of kindness by Chewy will be remembered. It is just in my nature to be loyal that way.

Have a great week.
– Leton

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“Letters From Leton” is a blog series comprised of the weekly updates that Leton Harding – President, Chairman, and CEO of Powell Valley National Bank, shares with the Bank’s team members. These newsletters are full of uplifting anecdotes and intriguing insights that are applicable beyond the Bank, so we want to share them with you.