K9 Kaos

Saturday Open House – February 4th 10 to 2

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:50:17 +0000

Just wanted to let you all know that we are having a little “to do” this Saturday, February 4th from 10 to 2. Stop by to meet some adoptable greyhounds and also to meet the all famous and adoptable Apollo the pit bull. We will have some dog food demonstrations and free samples available. It will also be a great time to take a tour of K9 Kaos.

Hope to see you then!

2011 is over?!

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:58:54 +0000

This blog was my New Year’s resolution in 2008 and look I still have a blog. Admittedly, I am not a very consistent blogger but I try. I am never quite sure if anyone actually reads my blog and then yesterday a new customer came in and asked me if I was the one that has the dog that …ehem… pee’s in my bed. So YES! there are some readers. Yippeee.

It was a big year for K9 Kaos as you know, so I won’t bore you with all of those details all over again. We moved! It was also a big year for Greyhound Placement Service as it also moved here and officially opened its new kennel in August. Michele has been living on site and running the K9 Kaos boarding kennel which has been amazing. We have all survived the holidays so far without any of us killing each other…. although it has been close a couple of times. We still have one big boarding weekend left and I think we have a pretty good system going now.

My dogs are all well. KO, do I dare say out loud, is no longer doing the pee thing. She is still extremely wobbly so we try to limit her adult beverage intake. She is as bossy as ever and will be 13 in March. The rest of the pack is great … I can’t believe the little babies are already a year old. Michele has been running the yearlings (now 2) and they are all doing so well. The little babies are turning into good travelers. Maybe I will actually go to a race meet in 2012. We’ll see.

New things for K9 Kaos in 2012? Fully computerized???? (perhaps that will be my 2012 New Year’s resolution) Moving right along to something more realistic: We will have a full training schedule put together this year. Jean MacKenzie is teaching some fun classes here now and I hope to add some obedience type stuff as well. Agility and that sort of thing will be a while because we still don’t have any flooring which we need for jumping. I think we will also be having some veterinarian time here on site which is pretty exciting. I will have more details on that soon, as well as a schedule of dates, services offered, and prices. We have had some good suggestions from customers regarding new services, one is that we start hosting some puppy playgroups on the weekends. I’m still thinking that one over… but if you have any suggestions or ideas on things that you would like to see at K9 Kaos, please drop us a line I would love to hear from you.

I wish you all the very best. Thank you so much for another unbelievable year. I am so grateful to have such amazing friends, family, customers, staff, dogs, and a husband that has allowed me to live another day. (believe me.. he has plotted and planned)

Here’s to 2012! Anne

Super Fun Dog Class Starting Soon

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:38:46 +0000

We have another super fun dog class starting up on December 1st. This one will start at 6:15 pm and takes place at K9 Kaos. Stop by our training page at k9kaos.com and check it out. I am taking this session with my dog Cloney and it is really fun. I love the nose work stuff the best so far. It is so fun to watch your dog doing what comes so naturally to them. It’s pretty cool stuff. Don’t miss out, we only take 7 students per class and this past session did fill up. We still have spots available for the December 1st session.

K9 Kaos Grand Opening Celebration – October 15th

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:01:58 +0000

Please join us at the new K9 Kaos for a grand opening celebration on Saturday, October 15th from 10:00 – 3:00. Take a tour of the new facility, meet the staff and get some samples and great information about the products that we sell in the store. We will also have some raffles and great more...

We Survived Irene!

admin — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 03:02:20 +0000

I must admit I was a little concerned about our visit with Irene. Man oh man, the place is so young. I mean come on… she (our building) is only three weeks old and I didn’t think she was all that ready for a hurricane. But we did survive it well. We lost power for about 5 hours. It sent me over the edge as I realized that we could not hook our generator up. Just slight panic. Well, close to full blown panic if I’m being honest especially as the emergency light batteries starting giving up after a couple of hours. But it was all fine and we got it back before the sun went down. We did get some water in the basement in a really strange spot which was kind of a bummer but it’s manageable.

The coolest thing was our rain gardens! What is a rain garden you ask? Well, I have to admit that about 15 weeks ago a rain garden to me was one of the following: 1) a complete waste of good dog yard space 2) entirely too big or 3) completely in the way. But I now have a new found like (not quite love.. see above reasons) of my rain gardens. A rain garden, you see, is really just a fancy name for a drainage ditch. It is probably a fancy name for something else really fancy but I will leave it to my civil engineers to correct me. Anyways, here is a picture of the big rain garden out back in action!

Hmmmm…. I’m thinking Doggie Water Park!!

Settling In

Anne — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:26:04 +0000

We are now in our second week at the new place. I sincerely thought that we would be slow the first couple of weeks which would have given us some time to settle in to the new building. Not so! We had about 30 dogs boarding in the kennel for our weekend opener and daycare is right where we left off at the old place. Amazing.

Our open house was so awesome. It was so nice to see everyone and there were so many kind things said about the new place and K9 Kaos in general. I have to give a huge shout out to those that put that open house together for me. All of the cooking, getting tables, balloons, soda, filling coolers…. all of that was done by my great friend Kim and my family, my Mom & Dad, Aunt Angie and my cousins Jo & Sue. Also a big thank you to my dear friend Andee for spending the weekend and helping us out with everything. The place looked great and there was PLENTY to eat! My amazing K9 Crew did a fantastic job giving tours and talking to so many people. You guys are the best and K9 Kaos is what it is because of you!

We have a few building challenges that we need to get through. The big one right now is a leak in the ceiling about the break room in daycare. The water we use to clean the boarding kennels is leaking through a crack in the concrete above and making it’s way down. The poor kids have no lunch room right now because it is basically all buckets. Hopefully that will be fixed soon!

I still have so much to do… my first priority right now is to finish writing the new website. It is all designed and ready to go, it just needs some copy by me. I will hopefully get to finishing that tomorrow. The days seem to fly by.

Melancholy

Anne — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:12:31 +0000

Tomorrow is Monday. Monday is normally my crazy paperwork day. I have payroll to do, I usually have a couple of days of sales days to catch up with, banking, ordering, scheduling. You know.. paperwork. Tomorrow is the last Monday at the old K9. It makes me think about how much I am going to miss that place. It is such a special place for me, it was a dream come true.

Many of my early on customers will remember the spot that I now call my “office”. Our break room and my office was once the main entrance to K9. Now that back room is where all of the action is for the K9 Crew. We eat (a lot), we laugh, we work, we cry, we talk, we drink coffee (the kids drink coffee flavored cream & sugar) we complain, we worry, we plan the day. I sometimes sit at my desk while the kids are eating lunch and I listen in. I have learned some very interesting things from eaves dropping on those conversations. Now, I like to think that I just listen, but they will tell you that I ALWAYS butt in. I just can’t help myself. That kitchen is where it all happens day in and day out. I love that kitchen. I am so going to miss that kitchen.

I have spent so much of the last two years thinking about the future that I forgot to obsess about what was being left behind. It’s all just hitting me right now. What if the dream was too big? What if we don’t find a new kitchen?

It’s Happening…

Anne — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 02:48:19 +0000

Things I say to myself constantly are “Is this really happening? Yes, It is happening you fool” Other things I ask myself, generally in the middle of the night, are things like: “What were you thinking?” or “Why couldn’t you have just done something small?” or “Should I start taking heavy narcotics?” or “This is crazy” and then back to the more popular… “What were you thinking”.

It really hit home when our amazing friends came to the old K9 this past weekend to pack up our flag pole and our granite memory bench. It was no easy feat but both items are loaded on the trailer and are ready for relocation to the new site. I am so grateful for all of the help, our friends are really incredible. I love this picture of them taking down the pole. It’s like a modern day Iwo Jima moment.

The bench was easier than I thought. (of course I didn’t lift it) I think Joe would have loved that it took 6 men to move it.

The new building is coming along so quickly now. The floors are going down now and should be finished by Friday. All of the kennels and the retail shelves are being delivered on Friday. The installation for all of the new kennels will take about 7 days. We are hoping to get the retail shelving put together on Sunday. Here’s a shot of the retail area. The lime tiles are my favorite for sure!!

The fencing guys, 125 Fence, are making great progress. It will take me a long time to get used to the smaller yards. But the dogs are going to love their inside rooms especially because they are fully air conditioned! I know that the smaller yards are so much safer for the dogs in the long run which is most important to all of us. Here’s a picture of the beginning of the daycare yards.

It’s so hard to believe this project is winding down. Our weekly meeting this week took place at Margaritas. This is most definitely a policy that we should have instituted 16 weeks ago. We had a great chat about my architectural firm challenges to date which have been hysterical. But I guess the third times a charm and I have finally found the very best architectural firm ever. It’s true. Do you want to know who it is? I highly recommend you hire them for all of the your architectural needs. Seriously, if you need the best, contact Luis Lobao or Jim Thornhill of applied Form + Space you will be happy you did. I am. http://www.afsarch.com

Four Weeks….

Anne — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:03:10 +0000

….that’s it! Four weeks is barely a minute. It took me longer to write out my “things I have left to do” list. I am stressing my friends out, my poor husband practically needs armor and my mom wants to come and finish up the project for me. That actually sounds like a great idea. The contractors would be so happy if that happened. Everyone would have a nice lunch everyday, maybe some lasagna, nice soup and sandwich. If someone didn’t feel like working that day she would say, “it’s okay honey, take the rest of the day off… here have some pie.”

Questions Aaron has asked me in the last 5 minutes. “Do you think they would find your body if I buried it out back?” and “Should I just move out onto the driveway?” Do you think these are signs that I am crazed?

You probably don’t want to hear any more about my stress level…so here’s a quick building update.

The siding is going up now. The new building will be barn red and the existing building will stay white.

…okay so maybe it is impossible to actually see the one tiny piece of siding that is in this picture. Please insert your imagination here….

The retaining wall was built by LJH Landscaping and looks amazing. I’m so happy with the look of that wall!

Early progress

Finished

We passed our rough inspections last week so the sheetrocker dudes have been very busy closing in all of the walls. It’s looking very green there right now.

This is the hallway in daycare. To the left are the daycare rooms and to the right are the nap rooms

Here’s the big daycare room. We will also offer training classes in this room.

I guess that’s the update for now. The next 4 weekends will be so busy packing and getting everything ready for the move. We are still on schedule to move the weekend of July 29th and we will be open on August 1st.

Shut The Front Door

Anne — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:19:22 +0000

It’s in!!! Our new front door is in and it looks fabulous. (If I don’t say so myself)