Even the Pets at East Village Boutique Duo are a Twosome

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This is Store Sidekicks, an occasional end-of-the-week feature in which we profile the fuzzy wuzzy creatures who inhabit shops around the city. If you'd like to nominate your favorite store animal, drop us a line at tips@racked.com.

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Best friends come in all shapes and sizes, but Frankie and Monster, the five-year-old rescue dog and Chinatown turtle in East Village boutique Duo, are by far the cutest. The unlikely BFFs are the shop's much-loved mascots, said co-owners and sisters Wendy and LaRae Kangas.

Duo's block of E. 9th Street is a tight-knit community. Sometimes Frankie will run to the laundromat next door, or have playdates in the store's backyard with other dogs on the street. Neighbors have given her so many treats that she eventually learned to dance for them. Cult glasses shop Fabulous Fanny's even loaned her a blinged-out belt to wear around her neck when we visited. As for Monster, he attracts the kids on the block, who love to come in and feed him. The sisters say they're known in the neighborhood as "the shop with the turtle."

But not all friendships come easy. "Our pets have gender confusion," the sisters told us. They'd always believed Monster to be male, but a neighborhood vet says he might be female. Plus, as Wendy confessed, "Frankie secretly wants to chew on him."
· Duo [Official Site]
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