Help Me Save My Doggy Day Care

Hi, friends! My name is Dawn and I own a little doggy day care, located in Columbus, Ohio. I’m here to ask for some help! My landlord is selling my building and I have buy or move my business to a new location.

My entire life, I’ve been an animal lover, and I’ve always felt a special connection to dogs. But one thing that I would never have dreamt, is that I would one day own a business where I’m surrounded by these adorable pups every single day! I started out by doing in-home dog sitting through Rover, as a way to earn extra money while I was laid off from work. Rover just happened to be brand new to Columbus, and I was one of only about six sitters at the time. I had some experience working at a small daycare in Chicago, so I was able to use my knowledge and skills to quickly fill my schedule with regular clients. I soon found myself with way too many dogs in my house and knew that I would have to open a proper business with a proper location.

I came up with a name for my business immediately - I would name it after Spots, my first and favorite daycare dog from Rover: Stay Spot Doggy Day Care! I wanted it to be a fun, safe, and inexpensive place for people to bring their pups. These lucky dogs would play with their friends all day at daycare, and sleep over “slumber party” style, the way they had done at my house. I would eventually offer in-home pet sitting, and call that service “Sit, Spot!”, pet taxi would be called “Fetch, Spot!”. Ultimately, I was really hoping to open a rescue facility, calling it “Heal, Spot". I dreamt big! After a year or so of looking at buildings, filing paperwork and almost giving up because the process of finding the right spot, my building would seemingly fall out of the sky and into my lap! This was a building that I had actually looked at before and, though I had loved it, I’d given up during the tedious and expensive filing process. The problem was that it was located close enough to the University that I would have not only had to go through the City of Columbus for permission and zoning, but also through OSU.

One day, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw a post by an old high school friend: “We’ve opened a doggy day care!” was the caption, with a photo of this building! I thought that it was such a striking coincidence that I had to message him. When I explained why I had let the building go, he agreed that it had been one of the most difficult parts of the process and then his wife graciously offered to help me if I were to find a new building that I liked.

Almost a full year had passed since my friends had opened at this location, when she suddenly contacted me to ask if I would like to buy the business from them. I couldn’t believe it! I felt like it must be inevitable but I had to act quickly and I was so blessed to have family and friends who could help me make it happen at a moment’s notice!

It seems like business took off almost immediately! I had many clients who followed me from Rover, most of my friend's clients stayed with us through the transition, and people from the neighborhood were coming in daily to ask about about us. We were almost immediately averaging about 40 dogs per day, a lot for a facility of this size. We quickly l added groomer and were able to begin offering transitional boarding and care for foster dogs, while they wait for their forever homes.

That’s not to say we haven’t have had our ups and downs over the past six years. It's been incredibly hard work, sometimes seven days a week and twelve hour days - so many back to back open to close shifts. I've been knocked down, I've been bruised up, I've been bitten, I've been so tired at times that I can barely lift a mop. I work when I'm sick, I work when I'm injured, and I work when my mental health is suffering. Then there was the pandemic which took the biggest toll - not just for my business, but for me, personally as well. I lost many dear friends and two wonderful employees. I watched my father’s health deteriorate, and cared for him, until his death last year. My marriage ended. And of course my business suffered. But I’ve kept pushing on, because of these dogs and their sweet faces ... They just bring so much love into my heart (even the naughty ones who knock me down and bite me) and I just can't imagine my life without them.

Currently, Stay Spot offers Day Care, Boarding, Grooming, and Pet Taxi. The business is picking up again with new management and employees that care about the dogs and their parents like I do. We have been slowly getting new customers and we have a wonderful groomer who is also bringing in new clients every day.

And so I'm here, humbly asking for your help. Please help me save my doggy day care. We’ve had a rough few years but we’re finally bouncing back, and we have so many great things in store for us. I need to raise $30,000 that would be used for moving to a new building and renovations to the new place. This is so important to me, not only because it’s my business that I’ve worked so hard for, but because my employees, my customers, and these beautiful dogs are depending on me to stay here and continue my work. If you can't donate but have taken the time to read all of this, I'd really appreciate you sharing this fundraiser. Thanks for reading my story!