01/05/2025
Season 10, Episode 1
The One Where They Survived Ten Years
Today is a big day. If I’m being honest, I never thought we would make it here. Over the years we’ve had our fair share of obstacles, and I never really knew how my parents were able to get us through it financially. They figured it out every single time though, for us.
At one time we were just two girls with a dream. A dream of something better, somewhere better. We ran a daycare at the ages of 18 and 22, and it was very different back then: there wasn’t a lot of competition, no one knew what dog daycare was, and COVID hadn’t made separation anxiety a real thing yet LOL. In the summer of 2014 we had had enough of the toxic work environment. Plotting began, and we started crafting an idea of getting out, and taking all our dog besties with us. We spent the remainder of 2014 searching for a building, drawing up a business plan, and secretly running a daycare out of our rental home. When we finally found the building on Forsyth in September, it felt like it was meant to be. We signed the lease and got to work, and one thing about this industry, is you can’t do it without a great support system. We immediately started pulling out carpets and painting, and our best friends were there with us every step of the way.
October rolled around and everything was perfect, we were ready to open and even had Thanksgiving and Christmas reservations. However, the day of the fire inspection, our entire world came crashing down. We were told that any building housing animals like this needed a sprinkler system. Now this came as a shock, considering I worked in a shelter first, and two daycares- none of which had sprinklers. We had to meet with a group of people from the city and plead our case on being able to operate our business. We ended up being able to open, but had to promise to start work on sprinklers within 6 months. Our parents got right to work and about a year and a half after opening, our sprinklers were finally installed (literally longest process EVER).
Because the sprinklers put us back 2 months, we moved our official opening day to Monday, January 5, 2015- and the rest was history. We started that morning at 6:30am, and Achilles was our very first drop off. By the end of the day, we had 12 dogs in total.
From there, we took off. It felt good, too. Other daycares were referring people, we took in our first foster named Mowgli, and we finally had new clients (Georgia, Jackie, and the entire Barta family). Life was great. Britt and I worked all day with our grandma, and while she watched the desk, Britt and I would pile into a playroom and chill with the dogs all day (a pregnant Britt was sometimes caught falling asleep in a pile of dogs on the toddler mattresses we used to have).
It was finally time for employees, because working 6:30am to 7pm (there was no nap time back then!) was exhausting, even for 2 girls in their 20’s. We found Maddie, then Nikia and Cassie, and finally by October we had Christina and Michelle (fun fact: these two became best friends and Michelle ended up being the Maid of Honor in Christina’s wedding). Eventually we found Kait and Alex, Shelby, Rebecca, Victoria, and Liz, and quite a few more in between all those keepers. But people grow and change, and they move on. We gave hugs good bye and watched their lives evolve. But every one of them helped mold us into who we are today- and for that, I am forever grateful.
Trying to put an entire 10 year history into a few paragraphs is difficult. So much has happened. I’ve been lucky enough to help in weddings, plan baby announcements, watch foster puppies be born, help dogs get adopted, meet new families, and watch our original families grow and change and sometimes move away. The days haven’t always been easy, but they have always been worth it. I’ve said goodbye to more dogs than you’ll ever know, we survived COVID, a flood, the sprinkler installation, staff quitting with no warning, being stolen from, scammed, and the list goes on. But at the end of every hard day, there was always our family to lean on and your friendly faces to greet us at the door. You all have seen us at our best and our worst, especially this last year. After the closure of Fairbanks, I wasn’t sure we would ever recover.
As I look towards our future, I get really sad. After this last 5 year lease is over, what will that mean for us? Will someone buy the building and kick us out? Will someone buy it and let us stay, but double or triple our current rent? How do you leave behind everything you’ve worked for for 20 years? If I didn’t have this daycare, I really don’t know who I would be. This place is my home, my safe haven, and my dream fulfilled that I made when I was 18 years old. This is my life.
So today, I’m going to look back fondly at all the memories I’ve made here, whether with the staff, the dogs, or the pet parents- You all have been a part of our story. I appreciate every single one of you that I’ve met on this rollercoaster of life. Thank you for taking a chance on two 20 year olds. Love you all to the moon and back. Cheers to 10 years, and hopefully 10 more.
Love,
Tayler
