I first met Angela Gertino a few years ago at the Salt Lake Pet Expo when our booths just happened to be next to each other. I had never done anything like that before and being a sometimes painful introvert, I wanted nothing more than to spend the next two days hiding under my table rather than trying to force myself to engage with hundreds of strangers.

Thankfully, I couldn’t have asked for a kinder, more friendly “booth neighbor” who introduced herself and even sent me home with a bag of treats for Milo.

Angela is a Salt Lake native, born and raised. Her little pup Chance was diagnosed with congestive heart failure so she started making her own dog food to help with his heart disease. A few years later she watched a documentary called Pet Fooled on Netflix which she describes as “a horrific film that exposes the commercial pet food industry” and the very next day she was on the phone with the department of agriculture and the state of Utah to get licensed to manufacture pet feed.

She is now a certified pet food nutrition specialist and can offer custom food for all kinds of special dietary needs. She even states that “if you don’t choose my food, PLEASE choose to educate yourself so that you can provide the best possible nutrition for the furry companions in your life”.

I recently invited myself to her shop and kitchen to see where she makes her food and adorable cakes and treats. Her two dogs Sophie and Ellie were NOT impressed with my intrusive presence and made sure to let me know it. However, after a few minutes they accepted that they’re ferocious techniques weren’t going to work and allowed me to look around.

The space is exceptionally clean and insanely organized. I loved hearing about all of Angela’s upcoming cookie sets (she has a new one each month) and seeing her GIANT container of cookie cutter shapes. I was seriously impressed with the intricacy and imaginative things she can do with a “dog biscuit”.

At one point, an alarm on her phone went off which I mistook for an Amber Alert. She corrected me saying, “I have to set an alarm to remind me to take the organs out of the freezer”.

While that sentence sounded a little “Dahmer-esque” you know you’re getting the best of the best when you buy your food from Mindful Mutt. She loves helping pet owners overcome and manage health problems that their pets are dealing with through a whole food, limited ingredient diet and I know she’d love to meet you and your pets.