Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Melhuish.
Hi Victoria, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
During covid we got Moet a Shorkiepoo puppy, (shihtzu/yorkie mum with mini poodle dad) My daughter, 11 years old at the time, & myself started @funkymoet on instagram. Mainly to learn more about social media & not swamp my personal social media with thousands of puppy pictures!
We posted about our life in Fort Lauderdale/Miami, Florida, sharing local dog friendly restaurants that had ‘yappy hours’ & ‘dog menus’.
We travel alot and people were very keen to learn more about how we travel with a dog. This caught the attention of Yahoo News and they featured us.. then UK & USA press & NBC. We also started a facebook page ‘International Dog Travel’ to share our experiences and information we have learnt. Moet’s taken 82 flights & been to 18 countries & countless cities. We travel by plane, train, ferries, cars & boats/ yachts…
We also run ‘Fort Lauderdale’ Dog friendly’ supporting local pet events and local shelters.
We’ve hosted the annual Intercontinental Miami Food Fest, local vendors promoting their pet foods.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our account got hacked. That was crazy having a dog instagram account being held for ransom & being asked to pay in cypto!
To be honest traveling with a dog is a challenge. We try to destress the process, in hope to normalize dog travel.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a British retired superyacht captain. For the past 16 years a mother, taking only short contracts.
My Saturday job was at a photographers in City Centre Manchester, UK. So Ive always had a keen interest in photography.
My daughter Sasha is now 16years old. She is hugely into Technical Theatre Productions & Stage Management.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
We try to share direct links and information. Working as a yacht captain dealing with immigration, customs, vaccination records was a daily part of my job. I think that helped me to find dog travel less intimidating .
We have kept our account real. As social media has become more monetized, there is temptation to promote any products.
We have been lucky to attend pet product trade shows, Global Pet Expo in Orlando. So gey to test alot of products. We only promote a few peoducts that we genuinely use and love.
We love having a small platform to support start up companies, local businesses & especially women entrepreneurs.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/funkymoet
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574179958418
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@funkymoet?_r=1&_t=ZT-965Dh2LdjPq
