We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Sharkey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Anyone who knows me, knows my passion and love for animals, especially cats! I fell in love with cats from the age of three, when my family rescued a litter of kittens and their mom from our cabin. We got to keep two of the kittens, and found homes for the rest of them. Since then, I’ve always loved cats, and they’ve always been a part of my life.

Several years, and cats later, I found out about a cat that was thrown out onto the streets and abandoned, when the family moved away. I was going to surrender him to the Animal Humane Society, but he was so handsome and charming. I already had two cats, and didn’t think I could take on a third, but I fell in love with him!

I was already growing catnip outside, and Moo would get all excited every time I brought in some fresh leaves. Like many people, I would get a bag of catnip from the store, or with a new toy, and always thought it wasn’t as good looking as the catnip I grew myself. Because of Moo’s personality and love for catnip, I decided to start my own small business growing and selling premium organic catnip. Catnip that’s mass produced and sold is always brown, full of stems, and who knows what else. Plus, you don’t know where it was grown, what kind of chemicals or pesticides they use, or the way it’s processed.

I knew there was room in the catnip business to offer a high quality, organic, fresh, natural, and GREEN alternative to the catnip at pet stores. I also have whole leaves, buds, catnip powder, which is what sets me apart from all the rest.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Big Moo’s Catnip is a small business that specializes in natural, organic catnip and catnip products. Since I run the business, I can focus on the quality of my products. It’s all small-batch, manually processed, grown and dried naturally. It’s not just all catnip, I also have toys, stickers, Moo merch, holiday items, special occasion boxes, and more.

A large part of why I wanted to start this business is to share Moo’s story and bring awareness to many other cats who have similar stories, help give back to shelters in need, and spread the word about stray, feral, and abandoned cats in our communities. I’m most proud to be able to give a percentage of proceeds from sales back to a shelter, foster, or rescue at the end of the year. I also have products on my website that can be purchased specifically for donation to a shelter. I’ve made a lot of connections with shelters, rescues, stores, and people who are in the business of helping animals. I am fortunate to be partnered with The Café Meow, I donate toys to them so every cat who gets adopted, gets to pick out a toy to bring to their forever home.

Moo, or Big Moo, is the face of the business, and does all the talking on his Instagram and Facebook pages. The online cat community is very special, and I’m so happy to be a part of it. Moo has “furriends” and followers from all over the world, and has shipped products to over 10 different countries and 30 states.

Moo’s brand is all about fun, and giving back. He also has 3 feline roommates, who all make appearances on his personal social media (@Big_Moo_and_Friends). If you follow Moo, you will go on adventures, have box pawties, celebrate furriends birthdays, see him open “Moo Mail”, and all kinds of other fun! On his business accounts (@bigmooscatnip), he gives helpful cat/animal reminders like; spay/neuter, chip your pet, winter and summer tips, ways you can get involved to help stray/feral cats, celebrate cat holidays, and also new product updates, fundraisers, and giving back.

I also have received wonderful reviews on my website. A little bit of a brag, but I have all 5-star reviews!

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Being in the Midwest, Minnesota specifically, summers are short, so I can’t grow large amounts of catnip year-round. This year, I actually ran out of catnip in early spring. If you’re in the area, you’ll know, you can never count on the weather being nice in April or May. This year, we got 15″ of snow in April, then cold temps all the way until mid-May, so I wasn’t able to start growing catnip as early as usual or offer catnip to my customers for several months, and that’s the core of the business. I have other products that were selling, but it was pretty slow for most of the spring due to the lack of catnip. I’ve expanded my catnip garden to be twice as big this year, so I’m hoping that won’t happen again.

Also, I started the business during Covid. Not only was no one buying anything, but it was also near impossible to get the supplies I needed because of supply chain issues. Packaging was hard to get, I couldn’t go anywhere to get materials I needed, shipping costs went way up. It was a very difficult time to start a business. Then inflation. Not only did the price of all my supplies and materials go up, once again shipping went up, making it harder for people to spend money on catnip and cat toys.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

From the start, I’ve always wanted to get Moo’s story out there, in the form of a book. I wanted people to know about the struggles of stray, feral, and abandoned cats, and at the end of the book are some resources and information about TNR, and ways you can get involved.

Since I knew Moo’s backstory, it was easy to put on paper, but then working with an illustrator, editor, and printing company, took almost 2 years. I wanted the books to be available for the holiday season, and I was cutting it really close. A couple weeks later, the books were delivered, I was so excited to open them up…just to see they were misprinted! I was devastated! I called the printing company right away, they said they would redo the print and send them overnight. I got the re-printed books just in time for Christmas, and most pre-orders received it in time! Even though the cost of the book went well above expected, I did not put the extra costs on my customers.

I’m so happy to be able to have Moo’s story available for people to read. I also have an option on my website to buy a book that can be donated to a shelter, school, daycare, person, or where ever they would like. My book is currently at The Cafe Meow in New Hope, MN, New Horizons Academy (daycare) in Plymouth, MN, the reading program at Whiskers Cat Café in Kansas City, MO, and the Rescue Readers program at the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, MN. Rescue Readers is a program where kids can go into the Humane Society and pick a book to read to the animals while they’re waiting to be adopted. Both are wonderful programs, giving kids, or adults, the opportunity to read my book, spend some time with cats, and hopefully adopt one, or two!

I have received so many adorable drawings of Moo, with messages or questions, from classrooms in Georgia, and from Germany, showing their love for Moo. I try to respond to their messages, and answer their questions in posts on my social media. It brings me so much joy to know that teachers are presenting my book to students, and having cats involved in their classrooms, teaching them love and respect for all animals!

I’m not all the way there yet, I’m still going through some growing pains, but I’m grateful for all the ameowzing connections, furriends, and pawtnerships I’ve made along the way. I hope I can continue to grow, bring more ideas to life, give back, raise awareness about the overwhelming cat population, and make Big Moo a household name, with less cats on the streets and more into loving homes!

Contact Info:

• Website: bigmooscatnip.com
• Instagram: @bigmooscatnip
• Facebook: @bigmooscatnip
• Other: @big_moo_and_friends