What could be a more relaxing and fun way to spend an evening, or an afternoon, than sitting around someone's comfortable home, noshing on coffee and cookies, and enjoying time with your friends, while at the same time looking over, handling, and learning about dozens of new, innovative and unusual products available for your pets.

PetLane is a fairly new company, founded in 2002, that makes it their business to bring their own brand of pet products to the people who would be interested in knowing about them, in this case to people who have pets. PetLane is the idea of Lane Nemeth, the woman who started a business in her kitchen designing and producing products for children and presenting them to parents at small house parties. That business grew up and became Discovery Toys, and had gross sales of $100 million in 1997, the year she sold it to Avon.

Discovery Toys made a name and reputation for itself by offering products that, in addition to being innovative, were safe, sturdy and both mentally and physically stimulating. Parents loved them. Nemeth, a doting pet parent herself, felt that with pets being the “new children,” pet parents like herself would enjoy learning about and examining the same type of products for their pets in a casual, comfortable environment. And so, PetLane came into being, once again, on Lane Nemeth's kitchen table.

With the annual gift-giving season about to begin, some of you may want to have a group of your pet loving friends over for a little socialization, and see what PetLane has to offer. In metro Atlanta, PetLane is represented by Shannon Cooper. She can be reached at 678.428.1031.