If you’re looking to buy a puppy or kitten, look no farther than Hillcrest Pampered Pets, Gillette’s newest pet store.
Owner Patty Case grew up on a ranch, where she was surrounded by animals every day and came to love animals. This love is what drove her to open up a pet store.
Case said she’d been thinking about doing this for a while, but it was all just a dream until one morning when she woke up and decided she was going to do it.
She’s excited, but said she’s scared at the same time because “this is my first time ever owning a business, and everything’s new.”
Besides pet supplies, the store will carry pets such as gerbils, hamsters, ferrets, hedgehogs and sugar gliders, but the pets Case is most excited for are the locally raised puppies and kittens.
“No puppy mills,” she said. “These have been raised by people who love them.”
This store is the only one in Gillette that sells puppies and kittens, Case said, meaning people won’t have to drive out of town to get a furry friend.
And Case said her store will accept dogs and cats if people bring them in. The younger the animal, the better.
“It’s stressful for the older ones,” she said. “It’s like a kid, you can’t uproot them. They get attached the older they get.”
Case said she plans to carry reptiles in the future, including snakes and lizards.
“I don’t care for them, but a lot of people love them,” she said.
Hillcrest Pampered Pets is located at 610 Butler Spaeth Road and is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Case can be contacted at 307-686-5009.
Wyoming is ranked No. 1 for early retirees
If you’re looking for a place to retire early and settle down, you don’t need to go to Florida. SmartAsset, a personal finance technology company based in New York City, named Wyoming as the best state for early retirees.
Factors that went into the Cowboy State’s No. 1 spot for 2016 included an effective tax rate of 0 percent on retirement income, as well as relatively cheap cost of living.
Wyoming also has a ratio of 73 entertainment, recreation and arts facilities per 100,000 people, the fifth highest in the country. Wyoming’s only downside was its high average health care costs, with the average resident paying $11,705 per year, second highest in the country behind Alaska.
Wyoming was followed by Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota and Tennessee, while Connecticut, North Carolina, Minnesota, Massachusetts and New Jersey rounded out the bottom five.
