Our Staff
Cecile Moore
Do you remember when you were a kid and you showed your mom a picture you drew, and she not only praised you (of course) but for the first time she knew what it was and you didn't have to tell her it was the dog, or your house, or her? I remember that so well I never got over it. I make pictures of pets and now I get to put them on everybody's fridge, not just Mom's.
If you've looked at our catalog or this site, you've seen a lot of my cats and my only dog (Moffat.) I paint my designs from photographs of friends and family, and the occasional stranger on the street. Since I always need more dog pictures, I haunt off-leash parks and dog festivals, and I try to be discreet but I always get busted: "Are you from the paper?"
This picture includes Sweetie (in the pink, I'm in the gray.) She had a sore on her back that she kept open for years, so we had to keep little sweaters on her until it healed completely. She had a pretty nice wardrobe for a while there.
Favorite Links:
- Astronomy Picture of the Day
- A nice site about chickens
- New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest
- A Word a Day
- Check out the Visual Thesaurus
Bonnie Campbell
Sometimes when I come to work, I sit down, look around and think to myself, if I had thought 7 years ago I would have been working in a cartoon --- I would have said you were crazy.
I worked for 30 years in the Space Department at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland. I, among other things, was entrusted with the unique job of scheduling the integration of satellites. One of them you may have heard of is Cassini, a robotic spacecraft mission studying the planet Venus and its moons. What an exciting program.
I say that we are a cartoon because as you look around there are cats resting on their beds, hanging from shelves, begging to be fed first thing in the morning and as you can see from my picture, assisting us in our work. You can see how involved Michon is in the work I am talking over with him. We just don't know what we would do without our buddies around to help us out and the great thing about it is that we can always reach out and pet someone.
We often have visiting dogs and other kitties. If the other animals don't care, ours sure don't. We've even had a chicken and a rooster. (The rooster didn't like me and I was scared to death of him) -- I think if a horse walked in here the kitties would just give a look and think, what a big cat that is.
In my time away from the cartoon, I like to sew, read and craft. A few weeks ago I finished and delivered to an assisted living facility the 300th lap robe I had knitted. I am also the coordinator for an organization called PAWS of Athens, an organization that helps people that would not ordinarily be able to aford to spay/neuter their animals. This is a most rewarding experience. I have the unique opportunity to speak with all of these people and hear their stories so I am usually marveling at their love for their animals or crying with them over sad stories. I have the reputation for being able to cry with the best of them.
I always look forward to talking with all of our clients when you call and enjoy sometimes swapping stories about our animals. I especially like telling the stories of many of our animals in our catalog. It makes the animals on the cards come alive and helps you know them a little bit better.
I am the Office Manager so if there are ever any problems, I am the one you should speak with. We really do want to hear your concerns and/or problems and will do anything to fix it for you. We pride ourselves in communication with our clients and making everyone happy with their experience with Barx Bros.
Favorite Links:
Terri Jarrett
I joined Barx Bros., Inc. in November 2005, and have enjoyed every minute of it. Picking and packing orders seems to fit well with my task originated, “get it done” personality. When talking with my mother and grandmother recently, I learned that my compulsive counting is something that runs in the family. At least now I can put it to good use.
The real reason I enjoy my job so much is that it allows me time and space for my real love, quilting. I have quilted for more than 12 years now, and when I’m not quilting, I’m thinking about it. I belong to two local, two state and two national quilt guilds. I love participating in quilt shows; I’ve won a few ribbons. During lunch hours, I learned how to shop for fabric on-line, but I would still much rather touch the fabric before I buy it.
My husband and I live in the country and enjoy gardening when we are not playing servant to our four furbabies.
Layla – one of a litter of four, she was the one kitty too timid to fight her sibs for Mama’s milk, yet she’s the last one still around.
Corinna – whom we adopted from the local animal shelter. We were told that she had been there for six months. She went nuts when my husband walked by her cage, reaching out for him, and she has been a wonderful addition to our family.
Big ‘Rnge- (like orange without the “O”)- was a stray, who is the sweetest, most loving cat I’ve ever had. I can’t believe that someone put him out, he’s too cute and nice to live on the street.
Roscoe- who was my mother-in-law’s cat, he came with the house we recently bought from her. He’s a sweet guy, getting used to his new “sibs”.
Michon
The first thing Michon said to us was "hhhhhh--KTT!" He was a tiny kitten in a litter from a dumpster colony that PAWS was working on (more about PAWS below). He and Bonnie just fell in love and we couldn't bear to rehome him. He is a sixteen pound, chocolate brown bruiser with a heart full of mischief.
Alma
Alma was trapped in a feral cat colony and handled with leather gloves until someone realized that there was nothing feral about her. She was a couch kitty that had been dumped (possibly because her litter box habits are less than perfect.) We have had her for years and no one has seen her blink.
Favorite Links:
Peppina
Peppina is named after the pizza parlor where she lived out of the dumpster for years. One of the workers there had a little girl who wanted a white kitten, so she let Miss P have litter after litter hoping there would be a white one. After I made off with her and had her spayed, I just couldn't take her back there, and she had a mean streak so I couldn't rehome her either. Years later, the "street" has worn off some, and she is sweet and docile. Still pretty opinionated, though.
Gammie
Gammie is short for Grandma, her original name. She was the ur-ancestress of a large cat colony that we helped to spay/neuter. She was already an older girl even then, and wasn't holding up well living outdoors, so the owner agreed to let us keep her. She had a reputation for keeping a neighborhood Rottweiler at bay, and we can believe it. Gammie is not mean, but she is Mrs Run the Show.
Suzi
Suzi was born in the shed behind our previous shop location. She was about six months old when we moved, and not yet reliably tame. We kept her inside here and in a day or two she came around: you could see her realizing, "This is Great! Living inside is the way to go!" She is the only one of our cats who never, ever door darts. She is fourteen now, she's been treated for hyperthyroid disease and has three teeth left, and has us all in her absolute command.
Sweetie
Sweetie believes that if your sleeping box is big enough for you, you should find a much smaller box. She came from the same horrid kitten mill as Jefferson and is surely somehow related to him, and is just as loving and just as deaf as he was. She was first named Madeline, but within a week everyone was saying, "Hey, Sweetie!" and it stuck. We have rafts of Sweetie pictures. She loves to hang out with the shipper; we think she understands that it has been several different people over the years, but maybe not. We have also seen our computer guy fixing the server with one hand and scratching Sweetie with the other. She's hard to resist.
Blind Lemon Jefferson
J-Man had a sad story with a happy ending. In 1996 a kitten mill near here was shut down by the police, and Jefferson was one of the survivors. We adopted (hired) him for the office; I picked him in particular because he had a ruined eye and I was afraid no one else would want him. He was half blind, completely deaf and we had no idea how old he was, but he was a sweet old soul who loved everybody. He loved to ride around the shop on our inventory carts, and was always forgetting where he'd left his tongue. For years we all had the cardboard keyboard corrals like you see here, to keep him from typing. One day in 2004, he ate like a champ, played with everybody, got three rides on the cart, and died in his sleep in his favorite bed that night. We remember Jefferson with great joy and gratitude that he was a part of our lives.
