The Exciting Journey of Sasha's Gang at Doggy Daycare

An Off-Leash Doggy Daycare!  

Six years ago (before Sasha's Doggy Daycare)I awoke each morning next to my beautiful RN wife, while my backside was well warmed and frequently aerated by the shrapnel-like claws of a Golden Doodle named Finnegan and a German Shepherd named Rogue (Sasha’s half-sister of sorts), all now crossed over. And all sorely missed.

I was in the embryonic stages of my retirement, having left the remote-location employment of an innovative biotech down in Petaluma, California, my actual workspace now the lush wetlands in the far outskirts of Redmond, Washington (and a plane ride maybe once a week). To be brutally honest, I was not always a prudent investor (built/operated a guest lodge in the Peruvian Amazon for nearly a decade). And most of my retirement was hog-tied in stock options of this aforementioned biotech which better served as wallpaper than it did currency. In other words, retirement was to be a lukewarm hybrid of social security and a ho-hum IRA.

Reality was setting in. If I wanted to maintain, not so much an extravagant lifestyle, but one where I didn’t have to make the agonizing decisions between prime rib and ground chuck--butter or margarine, I was going to have to take this dog by the tail. As a retiree! With encouragement from friends who sang the praises of their own pet facility in Atlanta; in tandem with what I knew as an absolute given: I adored dogs. So this inspired me to take that first step to assess the potential opportunities in the Puget Sound region for a new doggy daycare. I visited four or five daycare/kennels in the area and toured their facilities. Not that this necessarily emboldened me, but it certainly underscored the fact that I was going to be considered ‘small’ in comparison to their respective establishments. They were large, well-staffed and appeared very efficient.

Was I up to the challenge? There appeared to be many moving pieces, some familiar. Many not. Did I have the strength and fortitude to wrestle them into place? I struggled with that a bit but finally surrendered to the fact that I must still be interested since I was reaching out to leasing agents to determine what buildings might be available in the Redmond area.

My Peruvian Amazon lodge taught me a real lesson: The closer the better! Distance is not for the faint of heart. Distant ownership sucks. And problems are often exacerbated further by the damning complexities of distance. And language. I spoke junior high school Spanish at best. Sufficient to locate a bathroom and a Starbucks. Not to negotiate over hectares for my lodge. I subsequently started visiting prospective sites, remaining in Redmond and resisting overtures to visit other northwest communities such as Edmonds and Marysville. Beautiful towns, but not locations I can get to even in an hour with the traffic and all.

Long story, just a little longer. We eventually found a two-story location of 6,000 square feet (maybe 35 daycare and 12 boarding slots) with space for an elfin dog run. Available green space in Redmond is a scarcity so an enclosed outdoor dog run would be elusive, but still remained a must-have in my book. And with guest access to it via a doggy door, it would save our night wrangler a great deal of angst when nature beckoned her boarders and it was raining out. She could simply slide open the doggy door and they would file out on their own accord while she remained dry and warm.

So in August of 2019, we finalized the lease agreement with an opening date of November 2019. So that provided us with just a little over three months to get walls built, signage finalized/erected, doggy run constructed, rubber floors installed, pet gazebos built and much more! It was a sweaty, labor-intensive effort but exhilarating as well, getting ready to greet our prospective customers, both two-legged and four. We were ready to set the world on fire! Unlock the doors and allow the canine stampede to carry us away. While it wasn’t quite that rampageous, it was welcoming.

I had a sectioned business plan, coil-bound with glossy plastic covers, front and back. Sections covering all aspects of operating a doggy daycare from staffing to pricing to advertising/marketing, social media and of course sales projections. Spit-polished and looking like a million-dollar baby. The first three months we were hitting it over the fence. Quickly break-even to profitable. It felt like a good decision. That was until February 2020 when COVID-19 swept the land! And there were no contingencies in my glossy business plan for a world-wide pandemic!

We probably lost close to 50% of our business when Bill Gates told his employees to work from home. Which eventually included their school-age children and their day-cared dogs! Just a roll-of-the-dice! But that’s the past and done with. I’m now prepared to bring you up to speed on where we are today. Present and future. But I give you fair warning! You may find some of what I tell you all a bit curious. Maybe even supernatural. Certainly spiritual in many respects. And perhaps sounding very metaphysical.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?” –Albus Dumbledore Sasha's Doggy Daycare

The Adventures of Sasha’s Gang--Introduction

Turquoise is an eight-year old Australian Shepherd. A beautiful and soft-as-cotton battleship gray and black spotted altered male. Smart as AI. A tsunami of genuine personality and life! And this is where it begins to get a bit quirky if you will, almost a little Twilight Zonish in nature. Turquoise possesses the ability to translate the thoughts of other dogs and transmit them to humans! I wouldn’t had thought that even possible until I placed my hand upon Turquoise’s back last week when he first boarded at Sasha’s. Instantly, my body tensed, as a gentle creek of vibrating warmth rippled up my arm, tranquil and relaxing. And my mind swarmed with visitors, stampeded by unfamiliar voices....(to be continued) Read of more of Sasha's Gang! Visit us at: https://store.sashaspr.com/blogs/news