One room, four kinds of goods.

The front window faces East State, at the east end of the Commons. Beds are stacked on a plank bench. Leads hang on a rail so you can feel the weight before you buy. Bowls sit low because they are heavy. Clippers stay in a drawer with the spare blades, edge covered.

We opened the counter for a plain reason. Leads people brought back were failing one fold behind the snap after a wet spring, and foam beds that had been rained on held a smell a wash did not fix. Those are supply problems. We stock the supplies, and we will say when the problem is not a supply problem.

A dog that will not put weight on a paw, a cat that has stopped eating, a belly that goes tight after a meal: that is a veterinarian, not a shop on State Street. We will not guess at it from across the counter.

The name

People ask if the name is a character. It is the room. A hollow is the dent a dog wears into a bed, and it is the empty shop in the morning before the lock turns. The sign is the words, painted. There are no ears on it.

What we will do

Match a bed to the way the animal already sleeps, not to the corner that looks balanced in the room. Cut the talk about a lead down to width, length, and the stitch at the fold. Set a slow bowl on the floor so you can see whether it walks. Put a clipper in your hand so you know if the spring is too stiff.

Call during open hours and we will hold a size until the next day we are open. We do not ship. We do not take payment on the website. Cash and cards are at the counter.

What we will not do

We do not clip nails, trim a coat, or sell a bowl because a dog ate fast once and someone used the word bloat. We do not keep animals for sale, and we do not board them. We do not stock food. If you need a crate or a coat, we will tell you it is not on the shelf.

Monday the door is locked. That day is for resewing folds and airing wool in the back, not for browsing. The phone message names the hours. From December through March there is a low tub of water inside the door for salty paws. We change it when it goes cloudy.

If you want the goods in detail, start with wool beds, leather leads, slow bowls, or clippers. The rinse for inlet clay is the mud note.