In 1978, my friend, June Dounchis, created "House of An-Ju. She was showing her poodles and needed a quality shampoo and grooming sprays to get the finish she wanted. However, at that time quality pet shampoos and grooming sprays did not exist. She had a friend with a small lab at the time and told him what she needed it to do, between the two of them, "House of An-Ju" had it's first products. June set up distributors around the world, and concentrating only on cat and dog show breeders, she found her audience.

June lost her entire family within 6 months time in 1995 and shortly after suffered a massive heart attack and stroke. She recovered, but she only had four more years and she was in and out of the hospital, but that didn't keep her down. As soon as she was released she would pack up and off she'd go to the cat shows on the east coast. She'd often said she wanted to die at a cat show, she almost got her wish. She died two weeks after having gone to a cat show in the hospital, October 3, 1999.

I lost my mother 5 months before June died, so it was a double blow for me that year losing the two of them. Then in January of 2000, former distributor Jerob sued to try and undo the trademark that June and I had done together, as well as the transfer of ownership of House of An-Ju to me. To read the lawsuit go to www.uspto.gov. There you can read the entire lawsuit and the fact that I won both the lawsuit and Jerob's appeal. The final decision was December 3, 2003. June put the business in my name because we were fellow entrepreneurs, but most important friends. I had a business that I created in 1984 called "Cat's Pause & Doggie Daydreams".  I created quality pet beds that could be thrown into the washer & dryer while still retaining it's shape. I used quality materials in solid color washable suede which was unheard of back when I started. June knew that I would always demand quality just as she did.

Last January 2005, a former classmate of mine, was sitting at his laptop in San Francisco, trying to remember the name of a restaurant he liked. He did a google search and typed in Anju and ended up reading my lawsuit and appeal, and said I know this girl. (The restaurant's name was "Anzu") He is an environmental scientist and he also became my partner. Now isn't life interesting?

Now we have our own laboratory so that we can run a "good quality assurance program." We will be doing a lot of promotion soon gearing up for the winter season. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come...

Aleda Michelle Kellgren & Robert E. Cox owners of "June's Original" "House of An-Ju, Inc."