Our Creation
Hello there- and welcome to the first edition of the Willow Animal Spa (WAS) blog! So straight off the back- who are we at WAS and why did we decide to open a salon? Lets start from the beginning! Way back in 2020, I had one of the worst years of my life. We lost four horses that year, including my absolute heart horse, Willow. I bred Willow myself, was there to bring her into this world and was there when she left tragically at not even 3 years old. This pony was my everything, and losing her was one of if not the most heartbreaking events I have ever gone through. Losing her led to my battle with depression to hit an all-time low, during which I ended up in hospital. During my slow recovery, one of the things that I found cheered me up was watching cute dog grooming videos on YouTube. This time of my life, whilst dark, also inspired something inside me, and I decided I would no longer settle for jobs that were mediocre or I didn’t enjoy. I was going to dive into the world of grooming and finally have a job I was truly passionate about.
So began my journey. Firstly, I had to enroll in Tafe and quit my current job. Thankfully, we happened to be shutting down during this time so I didn’t have to quit, but was made redundant with a nice little payout! (Which I would later use to open the salon!) So everything was falling into line for my dream. What I didn’t expect, was just how involved the Tafe course would be and how much information there was to learn outside of the practical learning of actually grooming! I struggled immensely with assignments due to my ADHD and my still continuing battles with mental illness, and what was meant to be a yearlong course took me a year and a half to finish. When I finally finished the course, I had already started working at a big name pet store, to learn on the job skills. Initially, I loved it. I enjoyed working with likeminded people who loved dogs just as much as me, and I loved being able to work with all different breeds and personalities. Slowly, I was improving my skills and becoming more confident at grooming, especially my de-sheds!
In 2024 was when I had yet another major setback. A bad accident on a horse (not her fault!) left me with a seriously messed up broken ankle, out of action for months. I ended up with a plate and multiple pins and screws to hold it together, and was essentially bed ridden for months whilst it healed. I desperately missed working during this time, but when I eventually did go back in late 2024, I had changed. I no longer enjoyed working at the pet store- I felt overworked and underappreciated, and was constantly burnt out and stressed out. Knowing the people I worked with also felt the same, I realized I would have to make a difficult decision soon. Before I could make that decision, my body made it for me, and I had to take a few months of unpaid due to another relapse in my mental illness battle. This was when we discovered Perth Brain Centre.
PBC helped us get me back on track using TDCS treatment, which involves gentle shocks to the brain in order to ‘reboot’ the system, so to speak. After my treatment, my struggles with depression had definitely lessened, but I knew I was not able to return to the pet store due to the burnout it was causing me, so I finally decided to resign. Now I had no job, and didn’t know what I was really going to do. No one local was hiring, and I didn’t feel I could go back to working for others and feel joy from it. So, my partner, Jack, and I decided it was time to finally make the leap into small business ownership, and begin my dream of running my own grooming salon. Thus, Willow Animal Spa was born- named in honour of my forever heart horse, Willow.
