In the midst of these challenging times, we are incredibly sad to share the passing of Eileen Abe, of Animal Communicators Hawaii. Exceptionally long post ahead, but we could do nothing less for such an exceptional human being. ♥️

We first met Eileen in January 2013 when she was planning a Wedding between her dog, Roo and her foster dog Boo Boo. Yep – you read that right, a Wedding of two Dogs! It was a crazy idea, but an AWESOME idea that to this day remains one of the most favorite things we’ve ever done. Right away from our very first interactions, Eileen’s unique and passionate personality shone through right away and thus began our journey love and friendship.

Eileen was a member of the first Pet Business Networking Group we put together – Pacific Pooch Hui. We shared many meetings together talking about our businesses and how we could support each other. As a retired longtime member of the Executive Team at Zippy’s, Eileen was a wealth of knowledge for all of us. For Hawaii Doggie Bakery, she led us through business sessions to improve our Team and helped us to rewrite our Mission Statement that was so spot on and we still use it today.

About a year into opening our shop, Eileen also came on to Hawaii Doggie Bakery to assist with what now has become our Shop Assistant Position. Her background in creating handcrafted products for Weddings and Events helped us figure out the packaging of many products you may have purchased in the past! Having her in the shop helped us to figure out what it would be like to have an employee (a very scary step for any new business owner!) and gave us the confidence to post our first job listing and bring new people onto the team!

It was during this time that Eileen started to explore Animal Communication and Energy Work. It’s not easy to get into this profession – not many people will understand it – honestly we also didn’t get it at first! But we trusted Eileen, and we provided the same support and encouragement that she always showed us and we came to appreciate and value the service. Our own family dogs provided volunteered as subjects during her training/learning process. Eileen talked to Katsumi & Kuri and we would verify whether the facts were accurate or not, thus honing in on her Animal Communication skills.

We were so proud and happy when Eileen finished her training and began offering Animal Communication services to the public. We were honored to host many Pop Ups in our shop and loved to see her connection not just with animals but with their human families as well. It was not an easy job – she soon found that a lot of need for her services was for lost animals, sick animals and furry family members who passed on. Eileen was such a giving person that it was often a struggle to keep her own spirits up, but her desire to help others kept her going and we so admire her for everything she did.

Eileen is also the creator of our Doggie Leis and May Day Doggie Haku Leis you may have seen in our shop over the years! She was always coming up with new little creations and we loved the interactive and creative process of developing new products. She would send us a photo of something, we’d give our feedback and often it would literally only be a day before she showed up in our shop with an amazing prototype. Some of the things never made it to the shelves – hilariously pawesome things like Doggie Fascinators and tiny little things for legs that never got named. We had so much fun thinking up new creative things together.

Throughout all these years, Eileen became a treasured friend not just through our business connections but our family as well. Even our Mom became friends with her, and Eileen’s Holiday Gifts of beautiful cakes & unique goodies made us a big hit with our extended family as well. We have so many memories of Eileen – too many to account in this one post. We just remembered the time she got us a secret tour of the Zippy’s manufacturing facility – she wanted to show us the scale and scope of what we might become. We made a treat delivery to her a few days ago, and it’s hard to believe that was the last time we’ll ever see her.

Rest in love, Eileen! You are loved so very much by so many, and we will never ever forget who you were and the lessons we learned from you. We are better people to have known you, and to have had the honor of your friendship and love.