We're Iris, Michael, and Sammy, founders of The Goodest—a veteran and female-owned small business out to help dogs be the best version of themselves.

All this started, after we amassed a sizable collection of plush toys that our sweet girl, Sammy, had disemboweled in a matter of minutes. We realized buying more toys like this was a waste of money that created more, unnecessary waste, even though it was providing the Samster (one of her many nicknames) with some enrichment. Surely there was a better way?

We tried various methods of repurposing the old toys (we jokingly called them pelts) in order to keep Sammy entertained in a longer, more meaningful way. Some were better than others. Some absolute failures. And some...we'll just pretend those never happened.

After many attempts, we finally found something that worked, and looked to see if we could buy what we'd created. But it didn't exist, and we quickly realized that we'd accidentally invented a new type of cloth enrichment toy.