FEED STORE A PARADISE FOR PETS: WESTERN FARM CENTER HAS GROWN OVER YEARS, BUT BERTOLINIS' GOAL OF GIVING ADVICE ON ANIMALS, GARDENS REMAINS

Although not its main purpose now, or when Larry and Lou Bertolini opened it in 1967, Western Farm Center's retail shop is a canine Disneyland. And stocking pet food did play a big role in its history.

Today's canine customers always find a big bowl of water outside the door. From an early age, dogs recognize if they put front paws on the counter and look beguiling, cookies will be coming their way. And, of course, it's a gloriously scented place with bags of feed, dog treats at nose levels, other dogs to meet in the aisles, birds in cages for excitement, toys that squeak and roll and all sorts of different sorts of feed. "From the beginning, we just really wanted to help people and give people good advice for their animals and gardens," Larry Bertolini, 84, said. "I saw a need in the community for products and information for the small farmer. It became a wide spectrum of items for all animals and their needs."

When the only feed store in Santa Rosa closed in 1965, Bertolini was working at Albers Milling Company. Lou Bertolini was at Dauren Hauer Manufacturing, a company that made hop picking machines. The two brothers got together over lunch at Lena's (now Starks Steakhouse) to talk about leasing space and providing stacked animal feed for local farms. Bill Paganetti was hired to run the store. "We had dogs and cats growing up on our family 20-acre vegetable truck farm, which was one mile west of where Western Farms is now," Lou Bertolini, 80, said. "We played with them, but they were considered part of the farm animals, too. They had jobs. The cats caught rodents and the dogs were watch dogs." The brothers and their five siblings grew up working the fields in the gardens that their father, Italian immigrant Aristide Bertolini, owned on the north side of Santa Rosa Creek. They got much of the experience they would need in their future business. They had horses and cows for making milk, butter and cheese. They grew hogs for the family's needs and for sale, as well as goats, ducks, chickens, pigeons and rabbits. And, they made their own wine. "We used to peddle just-picked vegetables door-to-door around town," Larry Bertolini remembered.

Customers to the new feed store were soon asking for other things. The brothers told Paganetti to write down what people asked for and they would see if they could get it. Soon they needed a bigger space. The next small growth spurt was when people wanted baby chicks, ducklings and goslings. It was more than one person could handle, and a few more were hired in 1968. It was Larry Bertolini who saw the potential in 1970 when a salesperson from Nutro came calling wanting the shop to carry the company's premium dog food. "We were just in the right place at the right time," Lou Bertolini said. "Larry started working here full time. I would come in before work, on my lunch hour and after work. From the beginning, I did the homework and Larry was the front man. He was great with the community and with the salespeople and doing the advertising."

In 1978, Lou Bertolini came on full time, too, and the brothers had to make a business decision. Should they add stores or start expanding into wholesale? They were able to buy the property and a couple of trucks and began delivering to most of California and Western Nevada. By 1988, they had bought the land Western Farm Center currently occupies near Railroad Square and had to decide to relocate to Sacramento or sell the wholesale portion of the business. That was an easy choice. "I was asked to stay in the Air force after the Korean War," Lou Bertolini said. "I said 'no.' I have a great place to go back to in Santa Rosa. Why would I want to live anywhere else?"

The store, which has grown to 40 employees, has been selected as the Best Pet Shop in Sonoma County, the best retail feed store in California and has twice been honored as National Retail Feed Store of the year in 1986 and 1991.

"If it wasn't for Santa Rosa and our great employees where would we be?," Lou Bertolini said. "We were just a couple of dumb farmers who were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time."