By Matt Skoufalos
Larry Weinreich first became introduced to radiology in 1984 while serving in the U.S. Air Force. Throughout his eight-year USAF career, he worked with CT, X-ray, and interventional radiology systems as a technologist; after his active-duty career concluded, Weinreich continued as an RT in civilian imaging environments while also serving another 15 years as a medical liaison corpsman in the U.S. Navy reserves.
“Everywhere I went, they stuck me in front of an X-ray machine,” he joked.
As his civilian career wore on, Weinreich took on additional responsibilities, becoming a manager of imaging systems, and then a director of radiology, and eventually adding an educator’s role as a radiologic technology instructor at South Texas College in McAllen, Texas until the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic contracted the program.
Today, Weinreich is director of radiology at South Texas Health Systems, which includes imaging departments at the STHS Edinburg adult hospital, STHS children’s hospital, and six freestanding emergency rooms in McAllen, Edinburg, and the South Texas Valley.
“I like imaging because it’s different every day,” Weinreich said. “I get to solve problems, and make sure patients have a good stay. I like the people that I work with.”
When he’s not at any of the various locations under his supervision, Weinreich spends his evening and weekend off-hours developing Mellar Mercantile LLC, the small online shopping business he operates with his wife, Melanie (Melanie + Larry = Mellar). At 59, he’s contemplating a future in which that enterprise gets his full attention in retirement. But together, the couple also has their hands full at present with a household of 17 adopted cats.
The orange cats are: Sunny, whose forepaws are bent at odd angles, and Beast; the tortoiseshells, Shelley and Sally; and Maine Coon mixes Oakley and Jack Dempsey. Rocky Marciano, a gray and white fellow, looked like he was starving when the Weinreichs met him, but never lost a fight scrapping for meals in the neighborhood.
Siren meows loud enough to let you know he wants attention, and so does mama cat Millie. Copper was named for her eyes; Wrinkles, for his wrinkly paws. Georgia was a mean kitten, so they named her after the Charlie Daniels Band song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” but Rudy Valentino was so sweet and charming he was named for the iconically handsome silent film star.
“I’ve had cats most of my life,” Weinreich said. “I started rescuing cats when I was a kid living with my grandmother, who had about five or six cats of her own. When I found a kitten in the alleyway, she nursed it back to health, and kept it until it was a very old cat.
“I married my wife in 2009, and there were some neighborhood cats who were strays and feral, so we started TNR [a trap, neuter, and release program], fixing as many as we could,” he said. “They would show up pregnant, and we would find homes for some. Others had problems, and we kept them.”
With 17s come 17 heartbreaks, Melanie Weinreich has said; although the couple’s fostering and care efforts have changed the fortunes of many wayward strays, it’s not always enough to save them. In moments like those, the Weinreichs comfort themselves by knowing that they’ve done what they can for those lives they’ve touched.
“I can’t stand to see animals in pain,” Larry Weinreich said; “I can’t stand to see them suffering, or lonely, or starving. If one of them’s around us and lost, we end up helping them. We keep far more than we’ve ever adopted out because I get attached to them, and we can’t give them up.
“They are part of the family,” he said. “They have all the emotions we do. I see love, I see jealousy. They have different personalities, likes and dislikes; some of them are pig-headed. They’re really thinking, living beings. The only difference is they can’t speak to us, and they don’t have thumbs.”
Of course the couple’s love of cats has poured over into their commercial operation. Among the most popular products for sale at Mellar Mercantile are its cat-themed, drop-ship coffees. With feline-related monikers like Caterwauler and Purrfect Brew, the Weinreichs have memorialized their housemates in the names of their coffee blends.
“‘Sunny Side Up’ is for my Sunny guy,” Weinreich said. “‘Tortitude’ is for Bear; ‘Maine Diet’ is for Jack Dempsey.”
Years ago, when the couple lived in Canyon Lake, and the local chamber of commerce was looking for someone to open a coffee shop in town, Larry contemplated starting one as a side business into which the Weinreichs might retire.
“I like coffee a lot,” he said; “I had wanted to open my own regular, walk-in, brick-and-mortar coffee shop, but it’s expensive, and I don’t know how to make the fancy drinks myself. So we got into drop-shipping.
“We incorporated as an LLC, got our EIN number from the IRS, and did something we never thought we were going to do together,” Weinreich said.
Today, the couple lives in McAllen, Texas, on the border of Mexico. Although they may still someday open a small coffee shop closer to home, they’re focused on growing the Mellar Mercantile brand online, expanding into imported arts and crafts from Africa and South America, and possibly expanding the inventory to include pet items. For now, the business is poised for slow, steady growth as it approaches its first six months of operation. And in the meantime, the Weinreich household hums with the low rumble of contented cats.
