About Us
What is The Nature Objective?
updated Spring 2025
It was the best of times and the worst of times; it was 2020. Fall of 2020, to be exact. And like that very long year, this is a very long story. (Prepare yourself for a 10-15 minute read.)
It began in the Fall of 2019, actually. You see, 27 years after we (Tim and Sherry Emerson) opened in 1988, we experienced a tragic 2015 fire, but chose to rebuild. We had finally settled in to some much needed normalcy from rebuilding and reopening our company, Pet World Lawrence, in 2016, and there we were a few years later preparing to launch our online store the following Spring of 2020, Pet World Lawrence Online.
We were also making plans to expand our company even more to promote nature based products and experiences, with an increased focus on Eco Tourism in the summer of 2020. Lots of plans with what we thought would be lots of time. But as we were planning to begin these new business ventures fairly leisurely, during our approaching semi-retirement, Covid decided we had work to do right away.
Lockdown?! Just when we thought we'd seen everything.
Like the rest of the world, lockdown threw us for a loop. Feverishly we reinvented and redefined Pet World, our existing local company, again, and again, making changes by the day -- sometimes by the hour -- fixing things that hadn't previously been broken until we could finally exhale and function in a weird, new world, as a designated "essential" brick-and-mortar business. As if the fire destroying everything hadn't been hard enough, the pandemic presented a whole new set of challenges but we were surrounded by amazing people and quitting was not an option. Our community was nervous, counting on us, and no way would we disappoint them. When the lockdown dust began to settle about eight months later our primary company appeared to be spared the pandemic demise that destroyed so many other small businesses. It was once again time to exhale and remember where we left off before Covid. We shook our heads like exhausted, post bath-time dogs and finally resumed the conversation.
Oh, hi there. I remember you. So. Where were we?
It was January on Monday, September on Tuesday, and now it was Wednesday, October, and there we were, right back in the same pre-pandemic place we had been a year earlier, but we were definitely not the same people, and this was never going to be the same world. So we asked ourselves -- again -- what we had asked ourselves before the beginning of the end. Where do we go from here?
The Climb, The Ride, and The Final Frontier
Adult Life Phase 1 was definitely The Climb. A decade of young Tim and Sherry, building and creating and figuring out who we were, who we were not, and what we were doing.
Phase 2 was The Ride and it was a wild one! Two decades of ups, down, ins, outs, expanding and contracting, correcting and redirecting, flopping and failing, growing and sharing, sucking every possible drop out of raising a family and living the entrepreneurial lifestyle that we loved.
But then, three grown kids later, we were entering Phase 3, The Final Frontier. What was our exit strategy? For some it means a retirement that does not involve employment. For us it means something very different because we don't want to stop working altogether. Like, ever. Reflecting on three decades of struggle, survival, failure, and success while experiencing an empty nest leaves a person feeling some type of way. We had a lot to think about and it was time to make some decisions.
With the help of countless people, our Pet World Lawrence rehoming center became a local icon, setting a standard few places could even hope to achieve. It was a team effort and at that point a well oiled machine, run by a staff of competent, passionate employees. We even had long time managers in place who could have taken over if it got to that point. We had experience. We had the team. We had the time. So what was the next move? It was taking the next step toward the ventures we always wanted to do someday because, well, it was Someday.
I remember saying, "Wow. Yesterday was Sunday and today it's Someday."
Just like that.
Two Different Yet Complementary Paths
For Tim life is simple. He knew what he wanted to do and he did it. He's a minimalist whose passions have always been conservation, travel, and the cold blooded world of all things scaled. This includes aquariums, terrariums, wood, rock, plants, fish, reptiles, and every possible thing he can responsibly do or source having to do with those passions. Having only known a life full of pets and rescue work, at that point his import/export business, global connections, and warehouse acquisitions all culminated with the launch of Pet World Lawrence Online, which we somehow managed to do on schedule, even during the onset of the Covid pandemic. All he had left to accomplish was the further expansion of his wholesale business and maybe adding some Eco Tourism that he believes the world needs.
I decided I definitely still wanted to be a part of all that.
Me? Nothing is ever simple with me. Tim and our children are experienced world travelers but I didn't even have a passport until I was 40. My passions have tended to stay closer to home and, quite frankly, I absolutely love NE Kansas, all year long. A fourth grade field trip to hike through the woods around Lake Perry changed my life forever. After high school I fell in love with a guy who wanted to open a pet store and needed a partner. Six years later we got married and six years after that we started a family. All that combined with the very first Pet World birthday party (where kids brought animal shelter donations instead of gifts) was all it took to chart my next course.
I didn't grow up with pets, I never wanted a pet store, and had never even been to an animal shelter. But I did have a special, secret place outdoors where I used to escape my troubled childhood household and I always wanted a dog. I realized at an early age the spiritual, restorative power of trees, dirt, quiet, faith, fresh air, and sunshine. Nature shaped me, and probably saved me. When I began to comprehend, as an adult, that the connection between a child's natural affinity toward nature and animals can lead a child to grow up caring about their environment and understanding how all living things are connected, I recognized my calling to get kids outside and keep them in touch with nature. I thought I could do all that through Pet World, and for 20 years, I did.
We offered classroom pets, tours, on site classes about animals, community events, nature camps for kids in 2003, and made the investment purchase of a large, old farm property in Jefferson County, (not far from Lake Perry, as fate would have it), to provide a summer home to our giant rescue tortoises and an outdoor space for us to escape with our kids and unplug. It had woods and trails and when I first set foot on it I felt like I was finally home.
Providing safe, unstructured nature play for children is my passion. Prior to my fourth grade field trip, my home life had become unsafe. But experiencing the magic of those wooded trails inspired me in ways I had never imagined. As a child I always dreamed about a safe place to explore, with trails and trees and secret forts in the woods, and now we had that place and could share it with children who didn't know what they were missing.
Tim decided he definitely wanted to be a part of that.
Teamwork Does Make the Dream Work, If You Can Survive the Nightmares
Together, somehow, we make a good team. Tim's passion for life and outdoor adventure has always been contagious and my love of retail combined with a desire to cherish women, children, and dogs is a perpetual driving force. We certainly are not a perfect couple and it's no secret we've had plenty of challenges, way too many, but when we are careful with each other we work really well together and make great partners.
Since 1985, I have supported Tim and his dreams at Pet World while making them my own. Now he is supporting my dreams to reconnect children to nature and making them his own. We've even decided to build a small, age-in-place home on our nature preserve. Who knows, maybe we'll survive another 40 years together and live the rest of our lives on a land trust.
The Unexpected Catalyst
We knew "someday" we'd make some changes but didn't know when someday would come. One day, several years ago, during a routine insurance meeting I brought up all the ways our business was growing beyond the norm. We were discussing off site aquarium maintenance, dog walking, in home consultations, overnight nature camps, eco tourism, and a few other ideas. Our wise and extremely successful agent of 30 years listened patiently, as always, and shared my enthusiasm along with his own plans for retirement. But there was serious discussion about it being time to separate our nature programs and all off-site services from our brick-and-mortar pet rehoming center and insuring them with specific policies designed for those things, instead of this continuous struggle for underwriters to expand and reclassify our company every year as we added more products and services.
What was once a little pet store had grown into a large rehoming and learning center that defied definition at that point. There are only so many riders you can add to a business policy, after all, and we were already dual licensed as a rescue shelter and a pet store in the same location. Plus, how could we ever turn Pet World Lawrence over to someone else if so many of our other business ventures were too intertwined? Ready or not, with the need to redefine and properly insure, it was time for a change.
Our Primary Objective
When I left that insurance meeting, I carefully considered Tim's goals and thought long and hard about my goals. Tim has always known what matters to him. After all of my life experiences, what mattered most to me? What was our combined primary objective? Foster. Educate. Inspire. Conserve. That was our Pet World motto and our mission since 1988. Pets keep people in touch with animals which fosters an interest in learning about habitats which inspires humans to stay connected to nature. The objective of maintaining our connections with nature is to inspire the preservation of nature and encourage the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional grounding that comes from staying connected with nature. We can't love things we don't know or understand, right? The more you experience the world the more you understand it and respect it. The more time you spend in nature the more you care about nature.
Nature.
That was our objective.
I realized what was seemingly a mere practical suggestion regarding insurance coverage was actually our next step. Thank you, Ron King, for the inspiration and direction.
Someday had come.
After our decision I met with leaders of Jefferson County to discuss our thoughts about quietly letting our new company use some of our nature preserve acreage for "by appointment only" eco-focused recreation. We wanted to do something only for limited, tiny groups, never open to the public, to promote outdoor experiences and unstructured nature play for children through this new company. They all liked the idea and granted us the necessary permitting. And from there The Nature Objective was born.
A new, sister company built from part of our existing company, during a time of global pandemic, initially for insurance purposes, that solved a dilemma and fulfilled a dream. Go figure. Two complementary entities that are better together apart. Ironic, indeed, considering the timing of it all.
Our New Old Purpose
The more high-tech life becomes, the more nature children need to maintain balance. Our intention is to use every skill we've developed, every network, every resource, and every breath in our bodies to reconnect humans to nature any way we can. Big ways, little ways, easy ways, hard ways, near, far, whatever it takes, we're willing to try. For the final phase of our working lives, we can't think of a better objective than helping humans stay connected to nature.
Welcome to The Nature Objective. We hope you'll join our adventure.
~Sherry Emerson