The Zoot Story

A Margarita and a napkin. Great ideas are born in strange ways. Zoot Pets is about two friends who decided they wanted to create something great combining very different skill sets aquired in academic and professional life.

Stratford High School – Houston, Texas, Class of ‘82

Fast friends in high school since they were 14, Wayne and Jim shared mutual interests in physical fitness, sports cars, music and just hanging out as kids. The 1976 Dodge Aspen with bucket seats and two transmissions (Jim) and 1978 Buick Regal with moon roof and dual exhaust (Wayne) did not qualify as Porsche 911’s, yet it gave us stuff to dream about. Wayne always had really cool pets; boa constrictors, rats , quail, iguanas, african gray parrots in addition to numerous cats and dogs. He would regularly strike out to the Buffalo Bayou with a stick and a towel hunting for snakes. The 7-foot long boa bit Jim on “a walk” one time but that is another story. Wayne’s father, David Zeh served on the board of directors for the Wichita Zoo and was very involved with the Hermann Park Zoo in Houston, Texas. Jim had various fish all named for baseball players, guinee pigs Peeper, George I, George II, George III and a cat as a youngster. Beau (Terrier Poodle Mix) and Peggy (Cocker Spaniel) were his dogs growing up. Houston is famous for its large cockroach population (Both population and size!) Jim and Wayne would often joke that “one day” they would start an extermination company and call it “Zoot” (Zeh + Root).

Wayne C. Zeh, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

After graduation from high school, Wayne attended the University of Texas and graduated with a degree in business administration with a marketing major. Wayne had a change of heart in his senior year and decided he wanted to pursue veterinary medicine. After graduation from UT, he enrolled at Texas A&M, took two years of biology with no guarantees, and was accepted to veterinary school. Four years later he graduated and settled in central Texas where he resides today. Wayne worked at several local clinics before building his own pet hospital, Pet Medical Center in Harker Heights, Texas in 1996. He has developed a reputation in the area as a caring and compassionate doctor. In addition to 15 years of working with all kinds of pets, Dr. Zeh is one of the most qualified exotic pet care providers in the state. Wayne is Married to Christina, and has 3 children. Pets included Dachsunds Hemi and Millie along with “Sugar”, the border collie.

James W. Root, Jr. – Master of Business Administration

Jim Root attended to Stephen F. Austin State where he studied marketing and graduated with a bachelor’s degreee in business administration. After graduation, he took a job with Shell Oil Company in Los Angeles. While working for Shell, Jim enrolled at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California where he received his MBA. Jim worked in varoius positions of increasing responsibility in sales management and marketing at Shell. Career adventures took him from Southern California to South Florida, Connecticut and finally back home to Houston. He then hired on with the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo where he held executive positions in both sales and marketing. Jim posseses a passion for customer service and realizes business success is based on the quality of people representing your business. Jim is married to Courtney, has 2 children and a boxer named Nacogdoches.

About that margarita

In the fall of 2004 in Plano, Texas, Jim showed Wayne this great place he took his dog in McKinney when they went on vacation. * Woodland Park Pet Resort – McKinney, Texas
It was after that visit where the idea of combining professional veterinary care, with first class all suite boarding on multiple acres of land was born. Put that together with beautiful architecture and a lot of passion and you have our business! “Well, what do we call it?” That was the easy part! Zoot!