Whether it's cow magnets, chicken leg bands, horse shampoo, dog food, egg incubators, cat food or even primate food for a capuchin monkey, Blackford invariably does have it in stock.

If not, the proprietor of Sam's Downtown Feed & Pet Supply on W. San Carlos Street knows how to get it.

Valerie Riegel, curator of Happy Hollow Zoo, says Sam's supplies most of the grass feeds, hay and bedding straw used at the zoo.

Additionally, the store provides tasty rodent blocks for the four 100-pound capybaras-- Larry, Moe, Curly and Chico--as well as primate food for the lemurs and capuchin monkeys.

Regular weight-control cat food works for the meerkat, while the ferrets enjoy kitten food.

Riegel says, she also shops at Sam's for her own dog, Jace, and her cat, Scooter.

In fact, dog and cat food far outsell the cow magnets, egg incubators and hay, but Blackford believes it's important to stock it all.

"We decided on the name Downtown Feed & Pet Supply to describe both where we are and what we do," Blackford says of the decision he made with his wife Lisa and then-partner and cousin Conrad Leedom, who died in 1994.

The addition of Sam's to the store name "wasn't my choice," Blackford says. "My wife and Conrad thought since I was the primary person at the store, it should have my name on it."

In 1986, as Downtown Feed was opening its doors, the long-established Cali Brothers Feed and Grain Mill in Cupertino closed, creating another potential customer base.

"We've made a real effort to maintain a feed store atmosphere, which is my desire," he says. "We didn't want to be a strip mall pet store."

Maintaining a feed store atmosphere hasn't been difficult, as the 5,000-square-foot retail area actually was a feed mill from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. Blackford says it was also reportedly a gin mill during Prohibition. There's an additional 5,000-square-foot warehouse adjacent to the store.

The straw and hay bales add to the atmosphere, although customers more often buy them to use in their gardens or for décor than to feed cattle or horses.

Then there are the cow magnets. Esoteric as they sound, there is still a market for them.

About the size of a small finger, the magnets are given to cows to swallow. They lodge in the first chamber of a cow's stomach, attracting any bits of metal a cow ingests while grazing.

"High school science teachers use them for science projects, some people use them for homeopathic reasons and some people attach them to their cars, thinking the magnetic field will help gas mileage," Blackford says of the $3 magnets.

While customers know Sam's for its products and service, anyone driving along W. San Carlos Street is familiar with the large statue of a horse standing in the parking lot, as well as the 1938 Ford pickup with the store logo on the side, also usually parked there.

The truck has been in many parades and displayed at the Air Systems Car Show, but it is most popular each December when Santa arrives in the back of it to visit children at the Midtown Safeway.

Blackford was born and raised in San Jose. His great-great-grandfather Blackford came to San Jose in the 1850s and got in the prune business.

Although Blackford's family roots are agricultural, he initially opted for a career in the music business.

After working for a number of well-remembered local radio stations, including KLOK and KFAT, he landed a job with the then Circle Star Theater in San Carlos.

Starting as a stage technician, Blackford quickly worked his way up to the public relations team. Over a four-year period, Blackford worked with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Andy Williams, Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Patti Page, Tom Jones and Wayne Newton, among others.

In 1978 Blackford moved to CBS Records in Los Angeles, working in artist development.

A year later, as record pirating was taking a toll and tape cassettes were making records obsolete, Blackford says his job ended.

"The music business is a fun lifestyle when you're single, but it's awkward as a married guy, so in 1980 I joined my cousin in the feed and pet supply business," Blackford says.

Initially, Blackford worked with his cousin at James Grain, a company established in 1919 that Leedom had purchased in the early 1970s from the James family.

"We opened the store together in 1986 and were partners until 1994 when he passed away. Now it's just Sam and Lisa," Blackford says, adding that their son Ben, 23, and daughter Jessie, 18, frequently help out.

In the two decades since Downtown Feed opened, the Blackfords have built up a clientele throughout Silicon Valley and up the Peninsula, even attracting customers from Stockton and Tracy.

"Our primary emphasis is in the Rose Garden and Willow Glen neighborhoods," Blackford says.

"We know people go out of their way and it's gratifying that customers want to support independent stores. Some might think a sole family store won't be competitive, but we're often better priced," he says.

"We offer old style service. We're friendly and we want people to come in. It's general, genuine hospitality."

Sam's Downtown Feed, 759 W. San Carlos St., San Jose, www.samsdowntownfeed.com, 408.287.9090. Open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, closed on Sundays.