About Rina

Rina Meyers and Savannah LaDuke

After 37 years in the professional pet grooming industry, I have developed arthritis in both thumbs, making grooming more painful and difficult. If I continue and I plan to continue for at least 5 more years, I will need surgery at some point. It seems time to phase in the next generation! My daughter Savannah and I have worked together on and off for over 12 years, and I have also encouraged Savannah to work at other salons so she can get a scope of whats going on in the industry. Many of you have already welcomed her to the business with open arms and I know those new clients will love her care for their pets, as well as her wonderful customer service skills.

Rina Meyers

Prior to the beginning of her grooming career, as a high school senior, Rina was the school president of D.E.C.A. (Distributive Education Clubs of America) and also served as the city wide president. She was looked on as a leader by her peers and learned much from her time in office. As a youngster she showed her desire to become an entrepreneur by having lemonade stands and creating objects to sell to others in school and around the neighborhood. She began working the moment she turned 16, and worked 2 jobs and went to school before graduating from Oliver Wendell Holmes High School in San Antonio, Texas in 1981.

Rina has been grooming since she was 17 years old, and just out of high school. She had been raised with a cocker spaniel that her parents ended up finding a home for because, as a little girl she didn’t take good care of her. It was a difficult experience, but it was that incident that helped form Rina into who she is as a groomer today. After that experience Rina has been committed to caring for pets her whole adult life.

Rina began her grooming career at home, grooming out of a great grooming room her Dad built for her. Neighbors would bring their dogs for grooming and soon a salon called and wanted to finish her training. In less than a year, she bought that salon at the tender age of 19. That business turned out to be the first of many as Rina continued to develop her talent.

A life changing event caused Rina to sell that salon, and move to Key West, Florida. She used her time there to further experience in new grooming techniques, including custom dye jobs on pets. The people in the Keys are quite eccentric and loved their pets being bright, fun colors.

Rina and best friend, Pam, who also owns a pet salon in San Antonio, Texas.

Rina & her grandaughter, Ryanna Grace, at 4 days old.

A few years later Rina was grooming in the mountains of West Virginia where there was even more to learn! There are so many ways to groom pets and people in different parts of the country want different things. Rina is so glad that she has been able to groom all over the country and has learned much from each and every experience.

When Rina moved back to San Antonio, she opened a grooming location that had failed twice before, and many gave her less than a year to fail. Determined to be successful, Rina devoted 60 hours a week to “Paw Paw Patch”! When Paw Paw Patch was in its 9th year, Rina took on yet another challenge, she bought a failing pet salon 15 miles from Paw Paw Patch. Working it,”Happy Tails”, til noon everyday and then Paw Paw Patch in the afternoon, was a daunting task! The payoff was that in just 10 short months, “Happy Tails” was doing so well that it was evident it was ready to be sold, and it sold quickly! Just a year after that sale, Rina made the decision to relocate, and soon found a buyer for “Paw Paw Patch”.

Before she even moved, she was contacted by a franchise company who needed a talented groomer with a wealth of experience to develop their grooming department and write the operations manual. Rina was looking forward to this part of her career and being on the corporate yet still maintaining the practical side of the industry. Her commitment was reflected in her store being the most successful in the companies 12 year history. During this time of her career, she was contacted by a major pet shampoo company who was looking for a grooming sales rep to travel to grooming conventions all over the U.S. She was recommended for the position by an industry legend, her mentor, John Stazko. She had a series of interviews and was blessed with another open door into the pet industry. Now she juggled her time with the franchise, always exceeding the companies prior records and expectations, all the while, traveling and representing Bio-Groom. After several years the franchise company had many store closures and it became evident that, although that location was highly successful, Rina needed to move on and once again own her own salon.

In May of 2006, Rina took her next leap of faith with “A Paw Spa”, which she chose to make much more than a grooming facility. Never before had she ventured into retail, doggie daycare, and boarding, but after one short year, she has over 2700 happy grooming clients with over 3800 pets, doggie daycare is gaining popularity, and boarding is full, and the boutique has become her new passion!!!

Rina has since given up her job traveling, but stays in touch with that side of the grooming world through friends she made during that time in her career. She still gets to one or two conventions a year, but A Paw Spa clients are now her main focus. She is also recently married to the love of her life, Alan Meyers, and is happy being home every night and living in the most beautiful place the good Lord created, COLORADO!

Paper Crafting

Rina also has another passion and spends her mornings and evening creating handmade cards , albums, photo frames and crafty altered gifts. She usually keeps a small display in the shop whenever she has items not being sold on ebay.  She is a professional scrapbook artist, catering to childrens scrapbooks. Her bear creations are adorable and sought out by people all over the US and other countries.  Rina does custom orders and can accommodate most any theme you could need.

Please look at the in store display of Rina’s scrapbooking and crafting talents for sale.

Here are some samples of her work. You may also click the link to be taken to her current ebay listings.
scrapbookfashionista items – Get great deals on Crafts items on eBay.com!