Meet Mari Jones

Seven dogs, acres of property with kennels to maintain, travel 20-25 weekends a year (to dog shows), and a full-time day job supporting the finance function of Octane. Oh yes, and a family who are “all in” with raising, training, boarding, breeding and caring for dogs and horses! With a little singing and soccer on the side. This is Octane controller Mari Jones’ life, and she loves it.

“My passions are accounting and showing and breeding dogs!” was Mari’s answer when asked. She laughingly added: “I work so that I can afford to show my dogs.”

While her love for numbers and accounting grew during school and early employment experiences, Mari said her mom was preparing her from her time in utero to love dogs. “My mom was showing dogs when she was carrying me, and I grew up loving and caring for them.” 

Her mother Ann has been breeding dogs for nearly 65 years, so her passion also runs deep. The family’s kennel name is Bujo Kennels, which is a combination of a beloved bulldog and the first letters of Mari’s surname.

It’s a hobby that requires dedication and time, too. With her mother and “adopted sister” (dear friend) Erica, Mari can travel up to 25 weekends a year in either a 42-foot RV or a smaller van, depending on how near to home the dog shows take place. She grew up north of Houston in Conroe, Texas, where there is an active kennel club that hosts several dog shows each year. “There is a big dog show community in Houston,” Mari said. A lot of work goes into the care of the beautiful, well-behaved animals we see on televised dog shows.

Day-to-day, Mari is directly responsible for the health, exercise and medical care for four Doberman Pinschers, one Standard Schnauzer, and two Beagles. With her mom’s five dogs (two Labrador Retrievers, two Beagles and one Pumi (a Hungarian herding dog)), their award-winning Bentley the Basset Hound (who travels full time with his professional handler), and Erica’s five Basset Hounds, one Doberman and one Beagle, their close trio of dog handlers lovingly feeds, cleans, exercises and cares for 20 dogs! And that does not count the horses her mom boards at her neighboring property.

“All of our dogs, except the new puppies, are Champions or Grand Champions,” Mari said proudly. “Bentley is an American Kennel Club Platinum Grand Champion Basset Hound who has been the nation’s number-one basset hound the last three years.” 

Bentley won “Best of Breed” at the Westminster Kennel Club show the last two years. She said Bentley has official sponsors, has appeared in commercial campaigns, and has sired healthy, award-winning bassets throughout his life. He and several Bujo dogs have competed worldwide, in addition to the southeastern and southwestern U.S. dog shows on their regular May-November circuit.

Mari described the commitment of showing dogs as a lifetime investment in the health and wellbeing of these animals. She emphasized: “We are responsible for every animal we bring into this earth till the day it dies. If everyone who had pets were as careful and invested as we (show-dog owners) are, there would be no need for shelters.”

From the dogs’ birth, she and her fellow owners begin stimulating the dogs’ brains and bodies. “We are constantly handling them, loving them and training them,” she said. The dogs are well-fed with diets that include good vitamins and food that helps them grow. She and trainers like her exercise and train their dogs to be desensitized to loud bangs and children’s cries, to be well-behaved, and to obey their owners, whether they are raising the puppies to show or to sell to caring owners.

She also noted that the best show-dog owners health-test their pets, because all dog breeds have common health challenges for which owners should monitor. “People who breed for money often do not health-test,” she said soberly. “When our dogs are two years of age, we test their thyroids, hips, elbows, eyes, heart and so forth to determine their health issues” before Bujo Kennels decides whether to breed the dog. 

What makes a winning show dog? Mari said that there is a function for each breed, and to each dog’s appearance. Bujo Kennels’ decades of showing dogs have made them experts at understanding features to look for and which features and temperaments will disqualify dogs from showing well. “If dogs we breed do not meet their breed’s show criteria by 12 weeks of age, we’ll find homes for them.”  But their investment in the dogs they breed does not end with a sale.

Buyers who purchase dogs from Bujo Kennels sign a contract that says, if they cannot – or no longer want to – care for their dogs, Mari will take them back and will care for them for life. “We love our dogs that much; I adopted back a 12-year-old Beagle recently.”

Mari heartily agrees with this statement from a Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show judge: “Not every dog is a show dog, but every dog is a pet.” Between puppies comprised of two Beagles, one Lab and one Doberman, Mari said the last six months has been the longest period her trio of owners has gone without attending a dog show. They are spending their “free time” raising the puppies to show. “My boyfriend is a godsend; he is just as invested in my dogs’ health as I am, and we love them all.”

An important part of Mari’s dog show life is recruiting and educating interested youngsters about showing dogs – and ultimately, caring for animals. “We do a lot with 4-H Clubs and sponsor junior showmanship programs that teach kids ages 8-18 how to show their dogs,” she said. Conroe’s Kennel Club also offers scholarships to students; one student Mari mentored is in her last year of veterinarian school and another is planning on attending.

Mari said her attitude at dog shows and with young mentees is the same as her attitude working for Octane: “I love helping people to do their jobs better.” She strives to be helpful in the show ring and when Octane colleagues call her with questions or dilemmas that need resolution. “I am here to make the Operations jobs at Octane easier, and to help our field professionals when I can.” 

She said that dog shows can be cutthroat sometimes, but she prefers to practice the Golden Rule, to help others when they need it, and to share her knowledge so that everyone advances and gets better – in the show ring and at work. “The best compliment I get is a ‘Thank you for helping me’.”

Dogs were not Mari’s only early love. Her family owned a piano, and the little girl who enjoyed music was fascinated by the notes on music books’ pages. She learned how to read music and taught herself – “Mom helped, too!” she said – how to play the piano. “I’ve always been a mathematical and a numbers person. Music is numbers-oriented,” Mari noted.

After singing in choirs during junior and senior high school, her sophomore-year choir teacher, Miss Baker, asked her mother if she had heard Mari sing. Although her mom was initially skeptical, Miss Baker began formally training Mari to develop her vocal capacity and her breathing technique, helping Mari enhance her singing skills so well that she won a scholarship to Stephen F. Austin College. Mari’s aerobic capacity was already strong, thanks to years of playing soccer in school, an activity she continued in college. “I played soccer for 22 years!” she said.

Despite winning the voice scholarship, Mari began as a pre-med major in college. That changed when she was cast in the musical Show Boat. Her college’s Dean of Music asked if she had considered majoring in music. After further exposure to opera, Mari had found her niche, and she switched her major to music.

She knew firsthand how well people’s cognitive abilities are developed by exposure to music – whether playing, singing or studying it. “Music is numbers ability, and voice or playing ability while reading. It just exercises your brain, lungs and eye-hand coordination so well,” Mari said. 

While teaching or singing professional opera were logical professional steps for her after college, Mari did not enjoy student-teaching, and: “Singing Opera does not pay the bills!” she said. 

Her professional path still involved numbers, though. Jobs managing apartment properties led Mari to develop her talent for financial reporting and analysis. “I enjoyed bookkeeping, and I learned my first accounting on the job” while working for various companies in bookkeeping and administrative roles. She enrolled in a Texas program designed for non-accounting degree holders to take the courses necessary to qualify for the CPA Exam as CPA Eligible. That and years of experience as a Financial Controller led to her job with Octane.

“Each workday is different, and I’m happy helping to solve problems and streamline processes,” she said. Mari still enjoys the ways that financial reporting processes can clarify a business’s financial health and progress. She likens it to the way organized notes on a page of music produce beautiful, coordinated sounds. “At month’s end, I reconcile balance sheet accounts and research solutions to problems.”

What advice would Mari give to new employees?

“I interviewed with Terry and Joe Seikel. They emphasized that this company was a family company – with a family environment,” she said. “I found out that that is true; they ‘walk the talk’. So, I would tell people ‘Welcome!’ and I’d advise them to stay the course, to learn every chance they can, and to know that Octane gives back as much as you give the company.”