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Countless millennials have dreamed of quitting their laptop jobs to pursue their true passion of playing with puppies. Anna Wittel is giving it a shot.

“On my business card, it says ‘Happy Dog, Happy Life’ because I feel like that’s really true,” she told The Lookout in a recent phone interview. “I think dogs can just add so much to your life.”

Wittel, who arrived in Richmond in 2008 to pursue a master’s degree in literature at Virginia Commonwealth University and has lived in Church Hill for the past decade, hopes this sentiment is widely shared enough in Richmond that she’ll be able to add dogs to her work life. Currently, she runs Mutti, a content services agency here in Richmond. As holder of a German passport, she borrowed that language’s word for “mommy” when launching her business shortly after giving birth to her daughter. But as a longtime dog owner (Jenny, a 1.5-year-old beagle mix is her current companion) who has been been drawn to work with man’s best friend for years, the near-homonym for “mutt” has proven serendipitous.

Having successfully co-founded Church Hill’s popular monthly HoundTown meet-ups, she’s now taking steps to expand Mutti’s remit to include both copywriting and canine services. She’s currently completing coursework with Tarheel Canine Training to become certified as a dog trainer, and envisions an entire suite of mutt-y offerings under the Mutti banner.

Some of the less complex components of Mutti Dog Services are already in play. Wittel already offers walking and sitting services, and has collaborated with all-breed Richmond rescue Beagles and Bentleys and Fairmount’s Second Arrow Yoga & Physical Therapy on an event they call Puppy Therapy. It’s exactly what it sounds like: you buy tickets to go cuddle with puppies, all of which are up for adoption. As you might have expected, the inaugural run sold out in June.

“People were thrilled, it was just so nice,” said Wittel. “Puppies are happy, people are happy. Simple.” A second Puppy Therapy event is scheduled for Saturday, August 15th; tickets are $20.

Her transition from pixels to pups won’t happen all at once, but maintaining progress on that path is both a personal goal and a professional hedge. “I know that I'll be doing the content” work for awhile, she said. “I'm good at it, I've like build up a lot of expertise in this area, and it can be lucrative. Although I will say, with [artificial intelligence], I don't know where the industry is going.” She anticipates juggling both businesses under the Mutti “creative umbrella” until the business’s dog-centered division is ready to stand on its own paws. The Lookout’s canine correspondent Ernie Infante was relieved to learn that the free HoundTown gatherings, which Wittel and a friend first organized in July 2024, will continue apace.

HoundTown’s “mayor” is looking forward to to more tail-wagging to come. “I am so ready,” Wittel said, laughing. “I have so many ideas of collaborations and different events. We've got the ‘book a puppy’ thing, where we'll bring adoptable puppies to your team event […] think about people who work in high-stress jobs like healthcare or the restaurant industry, we bring puppies to you.” Maybe it’s that, maybe it’s training and dog-walking, maybe it’s something else entirely, she said, waxing abstractly about her Fido-focused future. “A year from now, it would be great to have enough dog-walking, pet-sitting, and training clients that I can hire people and create jobs for people in Church Hill specifically, because as much as I love Richmond, I'm like all about Church Hill.”

Mutti’s next per-mutt-ation (sorry) may still be coming together, but Wittel’s vision for the next phase of her career is crystal-clear. “I just want to do things that help people and help dogs,” she said. If there’s such a thing as a dream job, that just might fit the description.

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

The construction on the new pétanque courts at Chimborazo Playground is still on pause, but you may have noticed representatives from the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation doing some work in the park’s northeastern corner on Friday.

“We're putting in a brand-new pollinator habitat,” explained Raven Larcom, a pollinator conservation specialist & administrator with the nonprofit, which focuses on protecting bees, ladybugs, and other pollen-peddling insects. The project, funded through a grant via the United States Department of Agriculture’s People's Garden initiative, will bring native perennials to the northern fenceline of the tennis court and the western edge of the Chimborazo Community Garden. Planting is slated for September, but on Friday, the crew had dug up crabgrass sod strips and circles where the plants will go, then laid down black plastic sheeting to solarize those areas and get them ready for the new arrivals.

“All selected specifically to benefit bees, butterflies, beetles, anything that's beneficial and an invertebrate,” said Larcom, who noted the project is aligned with the goals of Bee City Richmond and Richmond Grows Gardens, and guessed it may even help a bit with flooding issues in the park. “They need to eat just like us.”

In May, a local developer bought Pritchard Brothers’ low-slung white-brick building at 2720 E. Marshall St. for $1.2 million. Richmond BizSense first reported the deal in late June, identifying the buyer as Chris Farag:

On reddit’s active r/rva board, some users fretted about the new owner’s “bro-coded” pedigree, while others mulled over the accompanying flyer BizSense surfaced from Richmond commercial mega-realtor Thalhimer showing plans for renovating the building, which previously housed an auto-auction business. (Your humble Lookout editor has only lived here a few years, but in that time it did not seem to keep regular hours/days of business.)

“From the renderings it looks like they are just putting in two or so storefronts,” wrote one redditor, in a comment likely to stir up agita among the anti-code-refresh contingent. “It would be great if they tore down the eye sore and built a small apartment building with storefronts on the bottom. Something similar to the building where Soul and Vinegar is.”

Check out the document in full on The Lookout’s share drive.

Happenings on The Hill is a digital bulletin board for events, causes, and other items of interest to East Enders that don’t necessarily merit full editorial treatment. Got something for a future edition? Email the relevant details, links, etc. to [email protected] for consideration!

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