COMPANY’S BRIEF PROFILE
Pets Habitat was started in 2004 in Ajman as a small trading company solely to import pet food and products. Our first retail store opened in Barsha in Jan 2007. We opened a second store in Motor City in 2011. It is a family owned and managed business.

WHAT QUALIFIES US TO PROVIDE CONSULTATION ABOUT PETS TO YOU? HERE IS A BRIEF
My partner and I have owned pets for nearly throughout our lives. We have rescued hundreds of them, closely watched them while struggling to make it at the vets, nursed them to health, raised and sadly have experienced many of them die in our hands or passed on due to old age too. So we are familiar with the whole life cycle, the joy , the effort, the attachment, the discipline, the running around to the vets and the ultimate sadness of owning and then losing a pet . We, as owners, manage our stores’ activities daily. Our emphasis is on health and well being of our animals, and we pride ourselves in our experience with animals and our knowledge of the animals we have in our stores. In short, we are not out of answers when someone asks us a question on ANYTHING about ANY of our pets for sale or almost ANY breed of pet YOU may be considering.

SOMETHING ABOUT US
When I first came to UAE in 1995, I found my first kitten on the busy streets of Bur Dubai.., then another kitten was adopted, then another one was found meowing on the stairs of a building with no owners, then yet another one had to be rescued from being put to sleep... Slowly my partner Andy & I had started rescuing more & more unwanted, abandoned, injured animals, mostly cats, and I began working as a volunteer with Feline Friends in Sharjah, participating in rescue, neuter & release program & homing of stray animals. However, most rescued kittens and cats ended up staying with us. At one point in time we had reached record number of animals, feeding a colony of nearly 50 cats and suddenly we found it beyond our budget to buy enough food for them all. So we decided to import cat food directly from Thailand on our own effort & expense. This was the start of my business in 2004, out of sheer necessity to feed our own rescued cats. The business gradually grew, I often tend to believe due to the blessings of our animals, and here we are, running a pet store and pet products import business today. Our house in Sharjah is still home to 20+ rescued cats from the streets, those “unhomable” ones who are blind, old, sick & not at all cute, a colony of cats in and around the villa that we cannot not feed, 5 rescued dogs, some we are desperately trying to find new homes for, couple of dropped off on us tortoises, few snakes, mice and our old pet Cockatoo. All of these are fed and taken care of daily by my dedicated staff at home, which I am very proud of and thank them to the core for helping me out. I had almost a hundred of other animals, including large collection of snakes, sugar gliders, hedgehog & few lizards, but I’d been forced to part with many due to my lack of time to care for them properly as majority of my day went into looking after my pet shop business & pets for my customers. Our beloved Jacqueline (our only pedigree pet Rottie) and Foxy (Retriever Cross rescued from Sharjah streets in a bad shape and nursed back to health nearly 10 years ago ) have passed away in the last year at age of 12 and 13 years respectively. They had a strong bond with each other and lived in harmony in our big Sharjah villa. About two years ago, we moved to Arabian Ranches after 15 years in Sharjah. I was getting really tired of driving back and forth between Al Barsha in Dubai and Sharjah, and my allergies to some animals, mainly cats, have started to get worse. However, we still keep our villa in Sharjah for all our rescued cats and dogs, and have provided 3 responsible caretakers to look after their daily needs with our supervision. In addition, the villa became perfect boarding place for new imported pups, where we can monitor them for 10-15 days before offering them to our customers.

My partner Andy has helped me through the whole saga of animal rescue in UAE & business establishment, he patiently dealt with all my whims and stubbornness when it came to rescuing animals and whenever I’d put my foot down on certain policies to ensure animal welfare. He has a vast reserve of patience with people and animals in addition to knowledge & experience, he is the best source of honest and candid consultation on dog or cat breeds if you find him at the stores on weekends. We take turns to visit the villa and the store every alternate day.

OUR PERSONAL BELIEFS WHEN IT COMES TO ANIMALS

“But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . .", The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

So, first and foremost, we are passionate about all animals: cats, dogs, birds, rodents, reptiles and more. I equally value all life forms, I feel pet animals depend on us entirely, as we, humans, have tamed and domesticated them since centuries ago. Besides more common pet animals I have developed a fascination towards exotic reptiles, mostly snakes and imported many species of non-venomous snakes. I bred some Lampropeltis, Pantherophis and Antaresia species successfully purely as hobby, and consider myself somewhat knowledgeable in reptile husbandry based on my experience. Andy has patiently helped me along this hobby of mine as well and can confidently answer many reptile related questions...

Our business is an extension of our beliefs and I feel it has provided me a good platform to try & bring in some reforms into pet trade in Dubai.

WHY ARE WE SO FUSSY WHEN IT COMES TO OUR PETS AND WHO GETS TO TAKE THEM HOME?
As animal lovers and owners, who have seen it all when it comes to human-animal interaction, it is our policy to interview, consult and scrutinize our customers to ensure that each individual or family is willing and able to provide suitable environment, living space and the passion needed to own a pet. The aim is not to just turn around our pets for quick profits. At times we candidly discourage some customers from buying a pet and go for a plant (better yet, a CACTUS) because the motive to own a pet is often very shallow. This policy is passed on to my staffs, which is also trained to ask questions such as:

I guess this is our humble attempt to reduce abandoned animals in streets & we expect our customers to understand and cooperate with us.
In return of this scrutiny and assurance from our customers, we guarantee to provide strictly home bred and raise healthy pets, while ensuring that we do not encourage any form of cruelty to animals even inadvertently. As a result of our carefully selected associations, we are able to guarantee our puppies and kittens WILL NEVER be purchased from puppy/kitten mills. We have hired retired and active vets in EU to select our animals only from home based breeders to avoid fuelling any form of animal cruelty, direct or indirect.

All our pups & kittens will be backed by our 30 day warranty against any life threatening serious deceases or viruses. Read more about this in “Health Warranty” section and “Why buy a pet from Pets Habitat”.

In short, if you are looking for a pure bred puppy, a kitten, a hamster, a reptile or a bird in Dubai, you will appreciate our store. I assure you that I will offer my best advice on the type of pet to ensure that the decision will be in the best interest of all parties involved.

If you have certain type of pet in mind, let’s discuss and I promise we’ll suggest & find most suitable, healthy pet for you and your family.

If you live in springs, Meadows, Emirates Hills, Lakes, Greens, Dubai Marina, Safouh, Umm-Suqeim, Arabian Ranches, Victory Heights or Barsha areas, we are the closest pet store for you in Dubai. However, dare we say, we have customers coming to us from all over UAE and many of these pet enthusiasts chose to deal with us after having visited all other pet stores in Dubai.

This is my honest story as it happened... See you at the store and let’s discuss who is going to be your next family member...

Natalia Dolidze
Managing Director