A labor of love

Judy Hill said she doesn’t have too many animals at home — just three dogs, a saltwater aquarium and a barn with doves and bantam hens.

And the sparrow she hand raised from a chick, there’s that.

But she also looks after a fair number of potential pets at The Pet Store, the Main Street shop she’s owned and operated for more than 22 years.

The store started up after her late husband, Jim Hill, retired from working in Kansas City.

“He asked me what I wanted to do, because I got bored,” Judy Hill said. And so The Pet Shop began.

It started in Warsaw and soon moved to Sedalia’s Broadway Boulevard, then 14 years later set up house on Ohio Avenue. She moved the store into its new, more spacious Main Street digs earlier this year.

“I like animals — all kinds. I don’t care what it is, I like them all,” Hill said.

The store runs the gamut of pet supplies, from ferret food to hamster potties to how-to guides for your ragdoll cats.

She also carries a fair share of the animal kingdom. In the shop, animal lovers can find pets ranging from exotic fish to Emperor scorpions, alongside tamer fare such as hamsters and goldfish.

The store kept puppies and kittens for a while, but Hill said she found it difficult to get good animals and ceased to carry them.

Running the store is a labor of love, Hill said.

“I work for every penny I take out of here,” she said. “I have sore feet, bad hands and no fingernails.”

The customers appreciate the care Hill puts into her work.

“They’re really, really great,” said Ann Graham.

Hill went through three kinds of bulbs for Graham, who was working from a vague description while shopping for her son’s aquarium needs.

And if the final selection doesn’t work? “Bring everything back,” Hill said.

Most people who come in now are more friends than customers, she said.

Doreen Pace works in the shop between shifts at K-Mart.

“I’ve known Judy for 20 years, and there’s probably not a pet out there I haven’t had,” Pace said. “It’s a fun place to be.”

Hill said she considered herself a “lucky person.”

“Not everybody gets to do what they want to in this life,” she said.