What's Good for the Goose

In the Winter ’03 issue of Bark, we wrote about Alisa Puga Keesey, creator of SheaPet shampoos, conditioner, tonics and treatment balms for dogs and cats. Keesey was an unlikely entrepreneur. An anthropologist doing development work in war-torn Uganda, she was training rural women to process nuts from the indigenous shea tree with maze grinders. With very little investment, the women could create a premium butter to be exported—at prices set by the producers—for use in cosmetics.

At her side was Scout, a Rhodesian Ridgeback she had brought to Uganda from California. When Scout developed severe hot spots romping through the African bush, Keesey discovered that nothing less than shea butter healed his sores. Putting two and two together, she decided to create shea-butter products for animals, which could help provide a sustainable, fair-trade market for the Ugandan producers.

So why blog about it? Because our dogs’ grooming bounty now extends to us. Keesey recently launched Nilotica Botanicals, a line of organic, fair-trade balms for adults and babies of the fur-free variety. The same Nilotica shea butter that is so effective in treating hot spots, itchy skin, abrasions and irritations on dogs is now formulated for dry, weathered skin, chapped lips and sunburn on humans. One more opportunity to feel good and do good.

Lisa Wogan