My name is Nicole and I opened The Purple Poodle Co. in 2019. My husband and I have been together for 15 years and we have three homegrown poodles of our own. No current plans to add any more, but you never know. Although I, too, am pushing 40. 

I love words. What they mean, how they sound, the way one word can change a sentence or a thought. I can’t do manual math. I need and love my adding machine. I wash clothes every day but I never fold them. I’m a scab picker. My hobbies include buying journals, handwriting letters, and procrastinating. I love office supplies, stationary, and pencils, the smell of a book and how it feels in your hands. I don’t like to shave. I love my people hard, even though I’m very socially awkward. If there’s something discarded on the side of the road, chances are I’m going to pick it up. In the early 2000s, I picked up hitchhikers until my mom had a coronary about it and I stopped. I don’t like the smell of coffee and I hate peas. At one point along the curvy line of time, I wanted to be a psychiatrist. I hoard paperwork. I’m always freezing but I love winter and the smell of cold and the sound of silence with the snow. Several people talking at once makes me nervous. I sew but I’m really bad at it. But I have digressed. Again. What I mean to get across is the reason I love The Poodle. It’s a fun haven, a place where any and all can shop, visit, and chitchat without judgment. We don’t care about background, social status, race, sexual orientation, size, religion, presentation, skin conditions, or any other frivolous label that has no bearing on a person’s character. At The Poodle, we care about our people. Our staff, our customers, our community. We will continue to do so. I love talking with you all, sharing stories and laughs. You guys are my people, which is funny, because I get nervous in a crowd, but never in this crowd of Poodles.