Monkey business

F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEWPet Kingdom co-owner Rebecca Horvath carefully holds up a hedgehog inside her pet shop. F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEWA marmoset hangs out in its pen at Pet Kingdom. The 2431 E. Tropicana Ave. pet shop sells everything from sugar gliders to kinkajous. Clockwise from top left, baby bearded dragons bask in the warmth of a heat lamp at Pet Kingdom. Rebecca Horvath holds up a blue-tongued lizard as it flicks its tongue. Employees at Pet Kingdom dress casually in nature-inspired T-shirts. Horvath said she gets plenty of requests from animal lovers who would like to work at the shop. "A lot of people come in and want to work here, and I tell them they?ll have to wait until someone quits. Everybody who works here really loves the animals, and I think it shows."PHotos by F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEW Clockwise from top left, baby bearded dragons bask in the warmth of a heat lamp at Pet Kingdom. Rebecca Horvath holds up a blue-tongued lizard as it flicks its tongue. Employees at Pet Kingdom dress casually in nature-inspired T-shirts. Horvath said she gets plenty of requests from animal lovers who would like to work at the shop. "A lot of people come in and want to work here, and I tell them they?ll have to wait until someone quits. Everybody who works here really loves the animals, and I think it shows."PHotos by F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEW Advertisement

How much is that monkey in the window?

You can go to nearly any pet store and get yourself a hamster. Cats and dogs are plentiful, but for some folks, that's just a little mundane. If you find yourself hankering for the fun and companionship of a hedgehog, a sugar glider or a degu, the place to go in the Whitney area is Pet Kingdom at 2431 E. Tropicana Ave., a fixture in town since 1980.

Actually, the shop's clientele is by no means limited to the neighborhood. Thanks to some high-profile customers, who have used the location as the setting for television shows, the shop literally has people coming from all over the world to check out the cockatiels, ferrets and bearded dragons.

"Paris Hilton was just in here," said Rebecca Horvath, who owns the shop with her husband, Frank. "She's been coming here since she was a little kid. She's bought ferrets, a kinkajou, munchkin kitties..."

Hilton may be one of the shop's more faithful celebrity customers, but she's by no means the only one. Magician Criss Angel filmed a trick there.

"Penn and Teller get a lot of their bunnies here," Rebecca Horvath said. "Actually, a lot of magicians get their bunnies here."

Of course, one doesn't need to be a celebrity to patronize Pet Kingdom. The store boasts a large number of repeat customers.

"There are people who have been coming here for years," Horvath said. "Sometimes you'll come in here and there'll be 40 people milling around. We get tons of people from out of town because we're so close to the Strip. We're a destination."

The store is such a destination that Horvath has had to field some unusual calls.

"I get calls from people all the time asking if we charge admission," Horvath laughed.

It's not only the clients who are loyal, but the employees, as well. The store's eight employees are all longtime fixtures there. Some made the transition from frequent Pet Kingdom visitor. Two members of the staff come in four hours before it opens to make sure the store is clean and fresh.

"A lot of people come in and want to work here, and I tell them they'll have to wait until someone quits," smiled Horvath. "Everybody who works here really loves the animals, and I think it shows."

Her store manager has been working there for 14 years, predating the Horvaths' purchase of the store eight years ago.

"We were interested in buying a business, and it happened that this place was available," Horvath said. "The previous owner had twins, and the place was just too much for her. In fact, she told me I'd be burned out in two years. It hasn't happened yet. I love to be here. It's a great place to work."

Among the animals the store carries are tortoises, short-tailed possums, birds, marmosets, servals and even puppies and kittens. Horvath gets the puppies and kittens from local families and sells them on commission.

"We don't do puppy mills," she said. "We bring them here, get them to the vet, de-worm them and make sure they get their shots."

In addition to the cute and cuddly critters, the store also carries a variety of snakes, tarantulas, scorpions and reptiles. Pet Kingdom doesn't sell fish, which are carried in good supply by many stores. The Horvaths prefer to use the space for less easily obtainable animals.

"All of our exotics are captive bred. A lot of them come here on airplanes; they love me down at the airport," Horvath said. "Some of our reptiles are shipped by Fed Ex from Florida."

Although the store has a number of big fans, not everyone in the valley thinks that exotic pets are a great idea. Veterinarian Toby Goldman, of Island Pet Hospital at 7025 W. Ann Road, deals with quite a few exotic pets and said that for many, owning an exotic pet isn't good for the pet or the pet owner.

"There's a reason most pet owners stick to dogs or cats," Goldman said. "They're of a better temperament for human interaction. There are some exotics, like kinkajous, that can be downright dangerous to own."

Nevada state law allows the ownership of a variety of pets, but individual municipalities and even neighborhood and homeowner organizations have unique rules that potential pet owners should consider before taking home an exotic pet.

Horvath isn't really a hard sell entrepreneur and is careful not to saddle a customer with a pet they can't handle.

"I probably talk more people out of buying pets," Horvath said. "They think they want something until you tell them what caring for one requires."

Horvath and her employees try to educate their clients, letting them know the unusual species requirements. They usually sell animals with a starter kit that includes everything the owner needs to care for the animal. They're always happy to answer questions from both prospective clients and those that already have purchased an animal. They offer teacher discounts so teachers can liven up their classrooms with an unusual class pet.

"If we were just in it to make money, we'd probably sell a lot more things," Horvath said. "But we really care about the animals and we want to make sure they go to good homes."

The size of the store and its lack of expansion plans go successfully against conventional business wisdom, as well. It's a fairly small store, and they like it that way.

"People always ask if we want to expand, but really this is a lot of work," Horvath said. "At this size, we're as busy as we want to be."

Horvath said she doesn't mind the people who come in just to look around. She figures that most of them eventually will break down and go home with something, and in the meantime, she's happy to see people who are happy to be there.

She herself spent five years visiting the store with her husband and stopping in during lunch breaks.

"We never bought anything," Horvath said. "But then we just decided to buy the whole place."

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.