When Becky Caton retired from the military after 27 years of service, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, the only thing she was sure of, was she loved animals.
For the last seven years she and her husband have taken in rescue dogs and fostered them. Evenually that dedication to caring for abandoned dogs developed into the dream of opening a kennel, thus the idea for Countryside Bed and Biscuit was born.
“This has been my dream for the last five years,” Caton said. “The issue has been getting the land. Any land near the highway is so expensive, especially with water attached. My realtor found this land for me. I bought the land in April and it was just yuck, so I started from the ground up.”
The facility she has designed and had built is nothing short of a dog -- and cat -- play land.
“We have several different sizes of kennels for the dogs ranging from a few smaller 30x30 kennels to the runs which get as large as 4’ by 8’ for the larger dogs,” Caton said.
The kennels which sport a variety of bright colors are complimented by a special floor designed to protect the animals that will be walking on it.
“We have a special floor throughout the building that is designed that even if it gets wet it isn’t slippery and is not hard on the dog’s feet,” she said. “The first couple of days after they installed the floor I walked around barefoot for a couple of days to make sure there wasn’t a place they could get snagged.”
In addition to the spacious room for housing dogs, there is a smaller room designed for kenneling up to four cats, a shower room, an office, entry, a large play room and a huge fenced in back yard.
“We can house up to 42 dogs and four cats,” Caton said. “We do have a room set up for a groomer, but I don’t have one at this time. But, because I anticipated one day having one I wanted to have the room set up and ready to go.”
The large playroom sports tall ceilings, old couches and lots of toys which allows the animals to run and play at will.
“We are not a kennel where our guests are locked in their kennels all day,” Caton explained. “Really the only time the dogs are in the kennels is between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. when we are closed for the night. Other than that they are allowed to have free reign of the facility, unless they are not a socialized animal and are not comfortable with the other dogs.”
Countryside Bed and Biscuit is open for drop offs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and with the addition of Caton has several volunteers that help care for the borders.
“We have taken every care to make sure that this facility is designed to offer the best care for the animals here, from the LCD lights that don’t hurt the dogs eyes to the dog proof walls,” Caton said. “We are very new, and it has been slow going since we opened in October, but people are starting to find us and those that do are making return appointments.
“We are not done finishing out the facility, we need to finish the backyard for one.”
Caton said that eventually the fenced in half acre of space for the dogs to play outside will be sectioned into areas one, for smaller dogs, one for larger dogs and possibly an agility area.
“The weather kind of stalled us for finishing the outside area this fall, but we will get it done this spring,” she said. “I also have a grooming room set up, but don’t have a groomer on staff at this point. But I figured it would be something I would like to add at some point so I wanted it to be ready to go when we got them on staff.”
When asked what she most enjoys about her new business, Caton said she loves seeing the animals interact and looks forward to seeing more animals in the facility.
“We do both long-term kenneling and daycare,” she said. “I have a lot of volunteers who are helping out because we are here from 6 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. We introduce all the dogs one at a time to make sure that they are socialized and get along with other dogs. If we do get an animal that can’t be with the others, they will be in their kennels more. We do the temperament testing, just because a lot of times people assume dogs do get along, but they don’t necessarily.”
For more information about Countryside Bed and Biscuit you can visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Countryside-Bed-Biscuit/655299004567619 or call Caton at 605-660-1269.
