Our Story
Our Story
Desert Pine Pets may be a new name, but our story began long before 2026.
Our journey started in 2016 with Country Critters, a small, locally owned pet store created from a lifelong love of animals and a desire to offer something different from the typical big-box pet store. From the beginning, the goal was simple: provide quality animals, supplies, and knowledgeable, personal service to the people who love their pets as much as we do.
Our first brick-and-mortar Country Critters store operated from 2016 to 2018. As life changed, so did the business. Rather than giving it up, we adapted. In 2019, Country Critters moved online, allowing us to continue serving pet owners without a traditional storefront. We continued operating online through 2024, learning along the way how to combine the personal service of a neighborhood pet store with the convenience and selection of online shopping.
In 2025, Country Critters returned to a physical retail location in New Mexico. That chapter gave us the opportunity to reconnect with local customers face-to-face and reminded us exactly what we wanted the future of the business to look like.
In 2026, that future became Desert Pine Pets.
Country Critters → Desert Pine Pets
Desert Pine Pets is the next chapter of the business we started a decade ago. It's not simply a new pet store—it is the evolution of everything we've learned since 2016.
We've taken the experience behind Country Critters and built a business designed around the way people shop for their pets today: online ordering, local delivery, and nationwide shipping on eligible products, while still keeping the personal service of a locally owned pet business.
Based in Edgewood, New Mexico, Desert Pine Pets serves our surrounding communities with local delivery while also shipping products to customers throughout the United States.
Our store focuses on the animals and products we know and love, including reptiles, aquatics, rabbits and small animals, live feeders, frozen feeders, live plants, habitat supplies, and everyday pet essentials.
We're continually adding products and expanding our selection, but we don't want to become just another enormous online catalog. We want Desert Pine Pets to remain a place where there's a real person behind the store—someone who actually keeps animals, understands the products, and cares about what ends up at your door.
A Small Business With a Long Story
From a small pet store in 2016, to years online, back to retail, and now to Desert Pine Pets, we've changed a lot over the years.
One thing hasn't changed: the animals come first.
We're proud of where Country Critters started, and we're excited about where Desert Pine Pets is going.
Thank you for supporting a locally owned New Mexico small business—and for being part of the next chapter of our story.
Welcome to Desert Pine Pets.
Rooted locally. Growing with you.