the cattery
the kennels
grooming room, was tatty stable floor covered with straw and brick walls
very small part of repairs and improvements ,even down to laying new drainage
view from bottom paddock towards kennels
VIDEO of left kennel block etc.
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Excellent. What makes it even better is that the cattery we occasionally use looks just as well laid out and maintained. 
when we took over there was an old open barn (where red dustbin is shown) with cat open cat pens and nothing past half way.also broken paving where I replaced with grass. Also had new floor inside of original pens
Project here was to extend the cattery to match throughout, put up new roof - add power points in each pens for new heated beds- add corridor lighting- upgrade cattery kitchen- alarm whole cattery and add security lighting. Also repaint everything
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Speculate to accumulate eh? Always nice to do a job properly. Makes it easier to sleep at night.
@realspeed … I knew you had kennels … but i never imagined it was quite so big.
I bet it was a demanding business … but very rewarding working with animals.
As for upgrading the kennel blocks one hell of an undertaking. First the kennel blocks themselves required old rusty iron bars removed and mesh panels everywhere. Added brick half walls between kennels right hand block - rewire adding power points to every kennels both blocks and now trip fuse box instead of industrial grey lever type. relaid kennel floors from concrete to tiled. alarmed all and added CCTV and security lighting . complete upgrade of kennel kitchen including new window, outside now pebbled instead of broken concrete - upgrade storage room. converted other stable into isolation pens . Just part of some of the work I did
yes it was rewarding in more ways than you can imagine. when we took it over I was suffering from extreme stress working for BT. Megraine every night and physically sick going home every night.
It took about 6 months to get over it thanks to buying this place. Although still stressful here it was stressI put on myself not from an uncaring company.
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So true, I/we wanted to get it the best possible within our budget limitations which is why I did most of the work myself .had new front boundary wall built by a client as most builders would not do the job. One push and the old wall fell over. new wider gate and inserted letter box
public footpath infront with vehicle access to the kennels
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Nice job. It never ceases to amaze me that if the first impressions are that the cattery owners don’t take pride and make an effort, why should anyone trust them with their beloved pets.
You made the effort and everyone’s been a winner.
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It looks like you did a great job with your renovations and improvements - the pet accommodation looks very clean and well laid out.
You must be proud of what you achieved . 
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Why did you go into that sort of business?
We had dogs which we showed and bred so a continuous progression into a new business to get away from previous work completely
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They look amazing
It looks lovely but oh, how I hated leaving them
How did you cope with crying, guilt wracked cat owners? 
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Wot you on about? Didn’t have to we had sold and gone
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Realspeed, Your kennels did look impressive and wonderful but no way would l ever leave my pet in any kennel.
They either come with me whilst l’m away or, l do without going anywhere!
Yes, l’m silly and have probably missed out on loads of nice holidays but l wouldn’t enjoy my time away, worrying about them and missing them.
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Some kennel owners go the extra mile.
I remember when we left our little Jack Russell in kennels for a week.
Never again … she was so upset the kennel owners told us they’d taken her into their own home to help her through it.
Oh she was so pleased to see us … and us, her.
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It is up to the pet owner of course, all we could do is offer the best accommodation we could afford together with the boarders well being. Some animals don’t mine being in kennels others don’t. I can only show you mine that was and some of the effort put in to make it acceptable.As we had gone from. 350 clients to over 5,000 we must have been doing something right I guess it. We even had clients that had moved to other parts of the UK and booked with us while visiting friends/relatives nearby as they had booked before before they moved away, even a vets booked their dogs with us while on holiday. We were fully licenced and every animal covered under our insurance policy, some boarding establishments don’t do this
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No, I meant back when you were running it and taking in animals
Did you ever get people like me who burst into tears everytime they dropped their cat off?
Not really but we did have a few client return earlier than booked and tried to demand a refund . Already had that issue covered in our terms and conditions contract which they had signed when they left their pet. Also we’re our opening times which we kept strictly to, we may have still been exercising the dogs for example or even having our evening meal. I think the previous owners must have been a little more lenient but having laid down ground rules the conditions soon got accepted by all but a small handful. Think for example when a shop is closed you don’t expect it to open out of hours just for you, same with our place
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