By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
UPPER EAST SIDE – The blizzard that has wreaked havoc in the outer boroughs has been a boon to pet stores on the Upper East Side, where dog booties are in demand.
Best Pet Rx, a pet pharmacy on Second Avenue and 91st Street, sold out of dog booties, which protect pooches' paws from snow and salt, two days after the snowstorm. There was also a run on booties, Musher’s wax and soothing petroleum jelly, at Litter & Leashes on East 66th Street.
"It's been so bad outside this year, we have to re-order our booties every two days," said Jeff Goldstein, who runs Raising Rover and Baby, on Lexington Avenue and 93rd Street, and sells booties range from $16 and up for rubber disposable ones and $40 and up for others.
"All day long they’re coming in for booties and coats," he said. "We’ve sold more coats this year than in my 22 years. The economy must be better because we’re selling coats that cost $400 to $500."
Ziggy and Macho love frolicking in the snow, but the owner of these Maltese pooches, Jenny Alicea, won’t let them play outside unless they have their booties on.
"I had to be persistent," Alicea said of getting Ziggy, 14 months, and Macho, 9 months, to wear booties. "I started in November, before the cold came in."
Alicea didn’t want her dogs to get hurt from the salt used to melt the snow, so when Macho’s booties fell off — in the middle of a crosswalk — she scooped him up and carried him the rest of the way from East 91st Street to the dog run at Carl Schurz Park.
"The salt irritates their paws. It burns them. It’s like having an open wound," said Danny Carrero, of Best Pet Rx. "There are a lot of dogs coming in. Some of them are screaming and crying."
Magnolia Fernandez, 22, a professional dog walker on the Upper East Side studying to be a veterinarian, had disposable booties on her nearly one-year-old miniature Schnauzer, Vader (as in Darth Vader because he had a breathing problem), and on her client’s dog, Luca, 8, an Italian Spinone, whose back paw toe nails have worn away, making salt particularly painful.
"If you don’t put them on when they’re young, they won’t wear them. They’ll chew on the booties or try to rip them off or kick back to take them off," Fernandez said. "But there are some dogs that won’t do their business with them on."
Fernadez will carry paper towels when she walks bootie-less dogs in the snow to wipe their paws on the go. "If they lick the salt from their paws, they can get sick and throw up," she said. She’s seen dogs with salty paws develop the habit of chewing on their paws.
"It’s worse for the little dogs," said Wandy Martes, who runs Sporting Dog Walking Co. on the Upper East Side. "For the bigger dogs, I usually just pat their paws with snow so they don’t get irritated.
Jennie Votava’s black Lab Whippet mix, Lizzie, 5, was limping from the salt before she got booties. "She loves the snow. She eats it. She likes to run snowmen over," Votava said.
But many pooches, such as the Yorkie, Bobby, refuse to wear booties.
"He’s 12 years old. I’ve tried for a long time. He locks his legs up," David Lodestro, 40, said of Bobby. "I just take him out for five minutes and bring him back and wash his paws right away."
Even a short walk is challenging: "He will stop, sit down and raise up his paws to show me he’s in pain," Lodestro said.
