By Mary Katherine Stroup

Deep in the back of the Georgetown Pet Gallery, a one-room pet store on O and Wisconsin, a voluptuous Italian woman with pale blue eye shadow and a thick accent pulled me aside. “In Italy, we like dog but we don’t dress them up like dees!” she said, gesturing towards the store’s merchandise, a look of confusion on her face. “Here, they are too pre-ppy”.  

Although Pet Gallery doesn’t carry anything that has a Polo insignia and a collar to pop, a glance around the store and I knew what the woman was talking about.  

The floors were covered in an array of pet beds, some with fluffy pale pink plumes, others with bed frames fit for a miniature Marie Antoinette, or a dog of that name. There were pet parkas, pet leg warmers, pet nightlights, “Shhh puppy sleeping” door tags, dog umbrellas, and an array of organic dog treats. Prominently displayed on a shelf near the register were bottles of Barkundy and Meowlot, wine for dogs and cats made by Bark Vineyards. 

The woman, an employee of the store, continued to mumble and gesticulate as she stood next to me. 

“Did you say you carry Prada?” I asked, unable to decipher her charmingly mangled English. She looked to the sky, frustrated, eagerly searching her mental database, and replied “No, but we do have Burberry and Donald Pliner.” 

The Pet Gallery, indeed, is no Wal-Mart of a pet store. And that is owner Woody Nelson’s intention. “I wanted a place that wasn’t like PetCo and PetSmart. I wanted to have things that people needed for their pets everyday, but also things that are special”. 

In addition to carrying Burberry and Donald Pliner dog-carrying bags, Nelson is renowned for his specialized collars, which DC dog owners purchase for their dogs to wear to the Bark Ball, the see-and-be-seen yearly fundraiser of the Washington Humane Society.  

Nelson also carries an array of hand crafted mugs, picture frames, treat jars, and aprons—which he paints himself—among other objects, which he commissions from artist’s all over the United States and Europe. “A lot of these artist’s had never thought of doing pet art before. That’s how we keep the art unique,” he said. In addition to commissioning pet art, artists working specifically for the Pet Gallery can be commissioned to paint, take portraits of, or sculpt busts of your pets. 

Nelson, without his store, is an attraction in his own right. Often times he can be seen sitting outside his store, perfectly postured, his platinum blonde hair offset by his consistently all- black wardrobe, petting his sheep dog Jerry Lewis, a favorite among Georgetown passers-by. Artistic, quietly self-assured, with blonde hair and a collection of black turtlenecks—it wouldn’t be a stretch to call Woody the Andy Warhol of pet store owners. 

Though unlike Warhol, Lewis isn’t interested in courting young party-going celebrities.   

“I’ve had 15 year olds, dressed like Paris dresses, come in and ask me “Do you have a bag like the one Paris has? But people like Paris Hilton do not represent good pet owners. She’s always losing her pets. If someone is going to represent animals, it’s someone like Betty White [Golden Girls], or Mary Tyler Moore—she’s been in the store. She’s a great advocate for animal rights.”