What started as a recess brainstorm between two best friends has blossomed into a neighborhood business built on paws and purpose.
Third-graders Lulu Tunic and Maddie Dorsey, both 9 years old and students at Ethical Culture Fieldston School, recently launched Puppy Pie, a dog-walking service born from their shared love of canines and a spark of entrepreneurial spirit.
Their qualifications? Solid. Tunic has proudly walked her 3-year-old Labrador, Cupcake, “like 50 times,” and Dorsey has helped care for her aunt’s golden retriever during visits to Texas. So far, their clientele includes a few friendly neighbors — but the girls are ready to expand.
The duo already has a track record in neighborhood commerce. In the summer, they run lemonade stands featuring special treats like fresh watermelon juice. Winter brings a shift to hot apple cider and hot chocolate, served with marshmallow and whipped cream toppings. Occasionally, Lulu’s younger brother, Forrest, joins in, selling his original drawings.
“They do this all off the steps of the gate in front of our house,” said Andrea Schelly, Maddie’s mom. “Usually I text all the neighbors, and people come over and buy their stuff. They also get a lot of traffic from Wave Hill.”
The girls even dipped into competitive business early — in second grade, they ran rival Rainbow Loom bracelet shops: Bloom and Ultra Looms, though both fizzled out quickly.
But Puppy Pie is different. “We were just at recess one day, playing and drawing,” Lulu recalled. “We came up with the idea of making some kind of business. And then we worked our way up to the name and what it was.”
By the end of that day, the business was already taking shape. When Schelly came home, she found the girls hard at work designing flyers at the kitchen table — the first step in bringing Puppy Pie to life.
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