Sonora pet store owners retiring after 25 years | News

Now, the couple says they’re ready for real retirement and have sold the shop to Jane Pastorini, a resident of Mother Wood whose grandparents used to owned Longhorn Pastorini on Highway 49 and Long Barn Lodge over Highway 108.

Last week, Al Hart thought about how they got to open Dusty’s Den back in October 1997.

“We’ve run a school for highly emotionally troubled teens in the Bay Area,” Deborah Hart said Friday at Dusty’s Den at 14755 Mono Way in East Sonora. “We decided to close the school. We knew we were going to retire here.”

The George Hart family has had a place in Sugarpine since the 1960s. They used to backpack and camp in the Stanislaus National Forest every spring and summer. The Harts already knew they loved the Central Sierra and Tulum County.

“We were too young to retire at the time, so we decided to do something we love, which is working with dogs and cats,” said Deborah Hart.

“At that time there were no self-care businesses in Tulum County,” said George Hart. “We’ve already had a sheep here before. We appreciate the support of our customers and the community for 25 years.”

Hearts said they are grateful to local vets, nonprofit Pet Friends from the Animal Society, Humane Society, and Animal Control in Tulum County. They are also proud of the relationships they have built with the Tulum County Sheriff’s Office’s K-9 unit and Angels Camp Police Department’s K-9 unit over the past decade. Today, Dusty’s Den has more than 450 followers on Facebook.

A print from The Union Democrat dated October 17, 1997, has a story about Hearts and Dusty Dean titled “Take Care of Your Pet Yourself.” There is a photo of the Hart family posing with a golden retriever, Dusty, at one of the escalation basins in the back of their business.

On Friday, the Hart family recreated the photo with their golden retriever, Blake, and they included Pastorini in the photo.

“What we were looking for when we decided to sell is a continuation of what we have been doing here for 25 years,” said Deborah Hart. “Jane came in and said she didn’t want to change anything.”

In the front division of Dusty’s Den, Pastorini will continue to sell Buddy Wash, grooming and pet grooming supplies, pet collars, leashes, pet toys, pet gifts, healthy foods, and premium pet foods. Pastorini dogs, Granites, Malamutha, and Hazel, their golden retriever, have already made themselves at home at Dusty’s Den. Granite already has a new favorite on one of the lower shelves of the unopened but scented bags of Fromm Dog Food.

Deborah Hart has half a dozen multi-colored pictures of dogs she painted in a private spot behind a customer service desk, top of her 2021 Democratic Union Readers’ Choice Award for “Best Pet Supplies.”

Pastorini, who lives in Long Barn, said her grandparents on her father’s side of the family used to owned Pastorini Longhorns on Highway 49 between Sonora and Columbia, and her grandparents on her mother’s side of the family owned Long Barn Lodge. Dan Pastorini, a former Houston Oilers quarterback and promoter of his namesake touch and seasoning, is her uncle.