TulsaPets Magazine September 2023

September / October 2023 • TulsaPets 33 E veryone loves a clean pet, but not everyone enjoys the process. Bathing a pet can be a messy, time-consuming job, and many owners prefer to leave that work to the professionals. Muddy Paws, a full-service grooming facility at 2234 East 56th Place, not only provides an easy solution to cleaning, it also trains women with criminal backgrounds through the nonprofit organization Pets Helping People (PHP) to prepare them for careers in the pet-care industry. “According to our mission statement and the vision that we have, we are targeting ladies that have had some kind of a criminal background,” explains Debbie Davis, exec- utive director of Pets Helping People. “They don’t have to just be from Oklahoma.” Davis says the organization trained about 30 women a year before the COVID pan- demic started. That training provides a path for reentry into society for women with felonies and criminal backgrounds. Classes consist of eight to 12 trainees working PETS HELPING PEOPLE Muddy Paws Aids Trainees and Animals by Julie Wenger Watson | Photos courtesy of Muddy Paws Pets Helping People is the only facility in Oklahoma that offers hands-on training in pet care.