‘Where happiness happens’

Granbury resident Kathryn Lospinoso is ready to give the dogs and cats of Hood County a trans-fur-mation they won’t ever forget.

Lospinoso — who moved to Granbury from Florida two years ago — just opened her new dog grooming business, Dainty Paws Salon, at 816 N. Houston St.

“It's a small salon, but it's an old cottage home, I think, from the 1940s, and we gutted it and just rebuilt it into a shop instead of a home," Lospinoso told the HCN. “I just love animals so much, so it's a lifetime dream come true basically.”

Although Dainty Paws Salon officially opened No. 21, right before Thanksgiving, Lospinoso explained she originally started the process of opening her own pet grooming business when she still lived in Florida.

“Financially is really the reason I ended up having to wait so long and just working toward this goal,” she said. “But I was about to do it in Florida, and that’s when my mom called me. She lives in North Carolina, and she called me, and she was like, ‘Let's move to Texas.’ I was like, ‘Is this a joke?,’ and she's like, ‘No, let's move to Texas,’ so we put everything back on hold and came here.”

Lospinoso’s mom, Laurel Neth, was not only the driving force behind her decision to move to Texas, but she was also the biggest inspiration for her career path.

“I grew up in a groom shop, because my mom was a groomer,” she said. “It’s just something that I’ve had a passion for pretty much all my life.”

Services provided by Dainty Paws Salon include full haircuts, coloring, mini grooms, line cuts, spot shavings, baths and nail trims.

“I do a tidy service that is basically for people who enjoy bathing their own dog and just want to come and get like a little face or feet clean up,” Lospinoso said. “I do cats. Really, whatever somebody asks for, basically, we just try to accommodate.”

An aspect that makes Dainty Paws Salon unique, she said, is the fact that it’s more of an “upscale-type setting” compared to other dog grooming businesses.

"It's probably more affordable than most places as well,” Lospinoso said. “All my prices include tax already, so they seem similar to everyone else’s (pricing), but they already include the tax so there's no up-charging.”

With the tagline “Where happiness happens,” Lospinoso also aims to turn Dainty Paws Salon into a comfortable space for both customers and their pets.

“We have high transparency where you see everything,” she explained.” A lot of places I know, you can't go past the front desk, so you don't really know what's happening to your animal at all, so I try to give people that welcoming feel, like come on in, look at my tubs, look at my equipment and the things I'm doing, so that they really feel confident and comfortable.”

Additionally, for customers whose pets don’t get along with other animals, Lospinoso will book private and “special” appointments.

"If somebody has a cat, I will do them on Monday or a time even in the evenings when no dogs are here,” she said. “I even do a special appointment where people can actually stay with their pet during the groom if they would like to.”

Lospinoso also prides herself on having a facility that’s clean and “super safe,” as she used ideas and elements that were missing from other grooming shops to perfect her own business model.

“Since I was able to do the floor plan myself, I was able to put in a double gate — that way when you open the door, there’s no chance of a dog escaping out the front door,” she explained. “I just made sure to really try to ‘wow’ people, so when they come in, it's super clean and super pretty ‘cause everybody's starting to get concerned about the new respiratory disease that's going on with dogs, even though from what I know there's no cases in Texas yet, but I've still had lots of people ask me. So, we just do a lot of safety measures like disinfecting in between every client — just normal stuff that sometimes you just don't see at other shops.”

Even though Lospinoso has only lived in Granbury for two years, she said she already loves it here, and hopes to make her name known with her new business.

“Everyone has been so welcoming, and I just really love everybody in the community that I've had interactions with,” she said. “I couldn’t have moved to a better place.”

Dainty Paws Salon is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lospinoso recommends clients call first and schedule an appointment to ensure availability.

"I'm super passionate, I love animals, and when (customers) bring their animals to me, it's like my own dogs for the time that I have them,” Lospinoso added. “I just love them so much and (I want to make sure that) they're safe and they're comfortable.”

For more information, follow the Dainty Paws Salon Facebook page, or call (682) 205-1201.