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Taylor Hill and Daniel Fryer have been married for almost one year, and it seems like their romance is only getting sweeter!
While trying to start a pet-focused business, the model lost her labradoodle Tate to lymphoma, but instead of wallowing, she decided to launch Tate & Taylor, a new media content platform and community designed for both pets and their humans that features a Shopify-powered marketplace of Hill’s favorite pet products.
“He loves it. He’s really supportive. He’s here today, so he’s excited to see me do something like this. This is my passion and something I love very much. He also grew up with dogs, and Tate was his best friend and like a son to him. Losing him was difficult for both of us, but luckily, we now have [our new dog] Salem in our lives,” the 28-year-old exclusively told OK! while at the engaging pop-up event at Shopify NY on Friday, April 19.
After Tate’s passing, the duo didn’t think they were going to get another pet so quickly, but when they encountered Salem, it was meant to be.
“We were volunteering with our rescue partner at Tate & Taylor, which is Animal Aid USA. They go from New Jersey down to Georgia every 28 days and take dogs from kill shelters or people who surrender their dogs. They take them from the side of the road, puppies and boxes outside — you name it. They have all kinds of dogs from these different backgrounds, and they put them in a convoy and ship them back to New Jersey where they have multiple adoption partners and get them into homes,” she said. “I went to volunteer with them last summer down in Georgia, and it had been a month since I lost Tate. I was weirdly drawn to this beautiful black dog. I was like, ‘You’re stunning. You look like a cat.’ He looked like Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. He was really timid of everyone else, but he came to me.”
After their encounter, the brunette beauty was adamant on him joining the family. “We were drawn to each other. We fostered him to see if it was a fit. Obviously, it failed because we fell in love with him, as you do!” she quipped. “We later adopted him.”
Though Fryer was hesitant for a brief moment to welcome another pet into the mix, it worked out in the end. “It took him a second. He wanted to foster at first since it is an important thing to do,” she shared of her hubby.
Since the duo are both booked and busy, Fryer steps up to “help” with Salem when she’s away. “He’s a nice dog dad!” she gushed. “I love to run and so does my husband, so we go on runs with him, and it’s incredible. Salem’s such a good runner because he’s bigger and has the energy for it. We do like two-and-a-half miles together. I love having him in the city because he gets me outside and gets me moving — and I meet so many people because of him!”
“Salem’s been such a blessing. It was a little nerve-wracking bringing him into my life because I had Tate for nine years, and they’re so different. He’s nearly 70 pounds and a German Shepherd, while Tate was small. I see these similarities in Salem that I saw in Tate. Tate was really outgoing and friendly and loved attention while Salem is more catlike. He kind of plays hard to get with people. They have different personalities,” she continued.
Hill is grateful Tate was able to attend her wedding despite being sick. “He made it through to get there. He’s an angel, best dog in the world. He knew he needed to be there, which was really special,” she shared, adding that being married “feels the same but different.”
“It’s amazing and great. It’s like you’re just more cozy with one another,” she said of her relationship. “It feels like this is my person. It’s been really fun!”
In the meantime, Hill is thrilled to be honoring Tate and doing good at the same time with her first entrepreneurial venture in partnership with Shopify. So far, the site features 23 SKUs, including a “F*ck Cancer” merchandise line, which donates a portion of profits to the Buddy Fund at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center to help fund pet medical costs and rescue organizations like Animal Aid USA.
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“I’m excited that my business is alive and I get to see it in-person! I’ve been working on this for two years. It’s a dedication to my dog Tate, who was the love of my life. Shopify’s been amazing, and they said, ‘We have the perfect space. Let’s bring the store to life.’ So, to be able to be here and experience this launch feels great,” she said of the NYC event.
“I started building this with Tate, so it didn’t always start out as an homage to him. It was always dedicated to him, of course, because he was still here with me when I started doing this, but I always thought we were going to do this together. It’s a thank you to him because he taught me so much,” she continued. “We were less than a year from launch when he got really sick. We were working with all these brands, and I was dealing with his cancer diagnosis. Once I lost him, I shifted my purpose. I was like, ‘I want to use this for good as well as change.’ In losing Tate, I channeled that toward a charitable component and tried to figure out where I can make an impact the most.”
