MASSENA - Since opening for business on April 4, Karl and Brenda Antwine said business at K&B Pets & Supplies has been pretty good, with people coming from all over St. Lawrence County to visit the only pet store in the county.

“A lot of people are happy there’s a pet store in Massena,” Mrs. Antwine said. “Now they don’t have to go to Plattsburgh or Watertown.”

Mrs. Antwine said people who own snakes and bearded dragons have to make those trips frequently to purchase mice or crickets to feed their pets.

“A guy just left here from Canton and this weekend we’ve got a guy coming in from Star Lake,” she said, adding word of the business is starting to spread around the county.

“We have a website,” Mr. Antwine said.

“And we’ve been handing out our business cards,” Mrs. Antwine said. “We’ve already had people from Canton, Potsdam and Malone.”

The store sells a wide variety of animals including fish, hamsters, gerbils, mice, turtles, guinea pigs, bearded dragons, cockatiels, parakeets and finches. They also currently have hermit crabs and a ball python in their inventory.

“I love animals of all kinds,” Mr. Antwine said, adding that even though he knows the animals in his shop are for sale, he’s grown attached to some of them.

He explained when the store got a shipment of guinea pigs there was something a little extra special about one of them.

“One of them had a Mohawk,” he said. “I called him Mo.”

So naturally when a customer arrived to look at the guinea pigs Mo was the one she wanted.

“We had a little girl come in, and she wanted him so bad, so I had to sell Mo,” he said.

There are a few animals though at the store not for sale, including two bearded dragons - a male and a female used for breeding - and a rabbit named Roger, a family pet.

“A lot of people have asked for him, but I can’t sell him,” he said. ”It would be like selling your best friend.”

K&B Pets & Supplies is open from noon to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. They may be reached at 705-4751 or k_bpetshop@yahoo.com.

And if there’s something you’re looking for that they don’t have in stock, Mrs. Antwine said don’t hesitate to ask and they’ll be more than happy to see if they can order it.

“We had a lady come in and ask for a green puffer fish, so we ordered six of them,” she said.

On the web:

www.kbpetsupplies.biz

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