As I walked to the door of Southlake Kia at Southlake Auto Mall, I was nervous. No, I wasn’t signing any deals on a new car today, as nice as they looked, but I was coming to visit with a four-legged, high energy friend in tow: my Australian Sheperd, Bailey.
I had heard that Southlake Auto Mall was pet friendly and wanted to find out a little bit more about this. But it’s one thing to read about it on their website and call them over the phone and talk about it, and another completely different thing to come strutting through the door with a sniffing, smiling, 40 lb. ball of chaos who likes to howl to announce his arrival.
But when the doors creaked open and the singing shepherd came running through, I was welcomed with smiles and hellos; a huge sigh of relief. I took a moment to let Bailey get the lay of the land and took a look around for the Southlake mascot: Lucky. A brave little pooch who was found near the Southlake lot who spends most of his days hanging out with the crew in the body shop.
But Lucky had the day off. That Lucky dog.
I made my way across the lot to Southlake Nissan and met up with Sales Professional, Rafael Cartagena Jr., who has a cute little pup named Bullet himself. Bullet had the day off too, though, and was relaxing at home (does any dog work around town anymore?) I asked him why in the world would a car dealership want animals running around all over the place? I mean, what do cars and pets have to do with each other?
“It’s always been pet friendly since I have been here,” said Cartagena, who’s been with Southlake over a year-and-a-half. “And think about it, a lot of people have pets and when they buy a car knowing whether or not their pet fits comfortably in it is a big deal to them.”
Good point. So does that mean can the pets can come on the test drives too? I asked. Surely they have to stick around with Lucky while mommy or daddy gets down to business.
“Of course,” Cartagena added. “If they want to take their dog on a test drive then they can. In fact, we just had one lady in who has a rescue dog that travels all over Northwest Indiana visiting hospitals and shelters to cheer people up. This dog was special and it was important to her that the dog loved the car as much as she did.”
I had never thought about it like that when I first asked why Southlake Auto Mall was pet friendly. Pets are our best friends and part of our family, and in the case of anxiety and medical dogs, they’re with you wherever you go. So why wouldn’t you want to bring your four-legged friend out to help in your car buying decision?
“And people feel more comfortable too with their pets around, too” said Cartagena.
So with the answer as to why is Southlake Auto Mall pet friendly thoroughly answered, one more remained: When they say pets, is it just dogs, or are any pets allowed?
“Any pet,” Cartagena answered. “I had one lady who wanted to bring in her parrot and I thought that would have been pretty cool to see that.”
Well, that answers that. If Polly want a new car, you know where to go and who to talk to now.
