Dexter, Marley & Ted
The three mutts who started it all.
How a former zookeeper, a homestead farm, and three unforgettable dogs became a bakery.
Dexter, Marley & Ted
The three mutts who started it all.
I've spent my whole life with animals. Not the "I had a dog growing up" kind, the kind where you're elbow-deep in a kangaroo enclosure at Busch Gardens at 6 AM and wouldn't trade it for anything. I was a zookeeper for over a decade. Hoofstock. Birds. Reptiles. If it had a heartbeat and needed care, I was there.
Back then, home was Tampa, Florida. Long days at the zoo and a house full of animals who didn't fit anybody's payroll. That's where this whole thing started.
Dexter, Marley, and Ted. My three mutts. They were the ones who got me through everything: the early mornings, the hard days, the quiet moments that needed a warm body next to you on the couch. I started baking treats for them because I knew what was in the stuff on store shelves, and none of it was good enough. I'm a former zookeeper. I know animal nutrition. I know what real food looks like. So I started making it myself.
It was just me and the three of them in the kitchen. Organic peanut butter, oats, ingredients I could pronounce. They were my taste testers. My quality control department. My entire board of directors. And they approved everything.
Friends noticed. Their dogs noticed more. In 2010 I set up a folding table at a farmers market around Tampa, a few dozen treats and three mutts' worth of inspiration, and that's where Three Mutts Bakery was born. Not from a business plan, but from a kitchen counter covered in flour and three dogs underfoot waiting for scraps.
Years later I left Florida and landed in Crouse, North Carolina, and the bakery came with me. I built Keuler Family Farm, home to every rescue I couldn't say no to, and if you know me, you know I never say no. In 2019 I opened my booth at Just Around The Corner in Lincolnton, and that's where you'll find me today.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Gandhi
I'll tell you something that matters to me: the dogs most people are afraid of are the ones I love the most. Bully breeds: pit bulls, staffies, the ones with the big heads and bigger hearts. They're the most misunderstood dogs on the planet, and I've made it part of my life to change that. Every rescue I take in, every dog I rehabilitate for a new forever home, every "Resting Pit Face" shirt I sell, it's all the same mission.
Dexter, Marley, and Ted have since crossed the rainbow bridge. That's the deal you make when you love a dog: you get them for a little while, and they change you forever. But their names live on in every treat I bake, every basket I wrap, every bone I stamp with somebody's dog's name on it. This bakery is their legacy, and I'm just the human keeping the oven warm.
This was never just about treats. Over the years I've personally fostered more than 50 dogs: pulled them out of rough situations, patched them up, loved them through the scary part, and handed them off to families who'd treasure them. It's the hardest, best thing I do.
And the bakery is part of that mission, not separate from it. Ten percent of every sale goes straight to Angels to the Animals, an animal rescue in Denver, North Carolina that saves dogs and cats right here in Lincoln County. They do the unglamorous, around-the-clock work of saving the ones nobody else will. When you buy a bag of treats, you're spoiling your own pup and helping one who's still waiting for a home. That's the whole point.
Every dog deserves real food. Not filler. Not preservatives. Not something you can't pronounce. I bake with organic, dog-safe ingredients, the same stuff I'd eat myself. Every treat is made to order, by hand, in small batches. Nothing sits on a shelf. Nothing comes from a factory. It's just me, my kitchen, and a whole lot of love.
If you're reading this and you've got a dog next to you right now, give them a scratch behind the ears from me. And if you want to spoil them with something baked by someone who gets it, someone who's been a zookeeper, a farmer, a rescuer, and a dog mom, well, that's what I'm here for.
Word is getting out about Three Mutts Bakery. Here is my chat with the Tim Johnson Beach and Oldies Show, talking treats, rescue, and the three mutts who started it all.
Featured by the Tim Johnson Beach & Oldies Show.
Every treat is made to order with organic ingredients. Place your custom order and pick it up at the booth.
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