July 27, 2007: Good news and Bad News Dear Everyone, The bad news first: As you may know Last week, after 9 months of negotiations, 6 contractors, 2 attorneys, countless sleepless nights, phone calls, letters, faxes, emails and 30-page estimates, the insurance company put the last nail in the coffin. Their final "offer" is far below what they know we need to rebuild and maintain operations, and after all this waiting for a reasonable settlement, we are out of money. In essence, they have put us out of business. We are suing them Monday. I am so sorry your dog has had to suffer because of big corporate greed. It just figures, right? The good news: I believe Dog Days of Buffalo will be back. There is a good chance that Dog Days will be purchased by one of our clients and run in a manner very similar to the way it has in the past. I have spoken with my staff and most of them, including management, want to return to Dog Days. So keep your fingers crossed that we can sell the business along with the building, so that Dog Days can come back, almost exactly as it used to be, only better! In the event that this sale falls through, our building and triple
lot will be listed for sale. If you, or a group of you, are
interested in buying the Dog Days business before we list the property in
the next few weeks, write back to me soon. Dog Days of Buffalo
is a very successful business not only spiritually but financially. If
you buy the business I will make myself available to assist for as long as you
need. I want all of our If you have prepaid for services (ie. a Buy 10 card) or have an outstanding credit, I will be mailing your refund this week. We've missed you already for the past 9 months but are really sad now knowing that we won't be chuckling with you about the dogs at the reception desk anymore, laughing as we watch them on the monitors or soaring through the air at discharge. It's impossible to describe how much each and every one of you and your dogs mean to us individually. I always marvelled that we truly had the best, coolest, and smartest customers of any business I knew. So many close human-dog, human-human, and dog-dog relationships were forged at Dog Days; I believe that's what heaven is. When I opened up in May 1998 on Elmwood, people stifled
giggles or looked at me quizzically when I talked about dog daycare, and dog
training was still traditional and abusive. Dog trainers and
veterinarians thought I was crazy too. Now, nine years later, the
benefits of dog daycare are common knowledge, among dog owners and
professionals alike. There are lots of other dog daycares in But I'm also happy to pass the torch on to younger, less bitter people. Please stay in touch with your emails and pictures, and forgive me if it takes a while to write back - we're in the process of a big move. I love you and I love your dog, and I'll never forget. Thank you for being a Dog Days customer. I think you gave me some of the richest memories anyone has ever had. Suzanne L. Harris, BSc, CPDT Dog Days Of Buffalo Update: June 11, 2007 Dear Friends, Still nothing good to tell you regarding the Dog Days of Buffalo rebuild although we do still plan to do so! Our insurance negotiations continue and we believe are coming to a resolution soon... but that's what I thought 7 months ago, right? I have heard rumors that we may rebuild elsewhere but we have no plans to do so. We love our Amherst Street location. The attorneys are working at a settlement and today we had a fourth walk-through by the insurance contractors. We will not be open until September at the earliest, so please make your summer and Labor Day plans elsewhere, give your dog a big fat kiss for us, and thank you for staying in touch! If you want to contact me, feel free to email me at customerservice@dogdaysUSA.com. Suzanne Dog Days Of Buffalo Update: March 2, 2007 Greetings to all Dog Days friends, I am sorry to say I do not have any news regarding our reopening for you yet. We are still negotiating with our insurance company, and are just keeping our fingers crossed that they will come through for us very soon. It's disappointing to think that we could have been repaired and up and running by now had the insurance end of things gone quickly. But as anyone who's gone through a larger claim before knows, this takes time. Particularly when you feel it will cost more to repair than the insurance company does. But we will get there. My best guess at this time for our reopening is looking like June, and this too is just a guess. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this uncertainty causes. In the meantime thank you so much for all the kind cards and voice mails, which mean so much! I intend to post a banner on our fence with the reopening date as soon as I know it, so keep an eye out when you shop at Wegman's. Otherwise, stay in touch and if you need to reach me, email me at suzydog@dogdaysusa.com Missing you & your dog!! — Suzanne Dog Days Of Buffalo Update: The Oct. 12 Fire Happy Holidays to you and your dog! Thanks to all of you who wrote such thoughtful (and sometimes very generous!) cards. It's very hard to express how much each and every note, call, e-mail, voice mail, card and meeting-on-the-street means to us. We miss you, and plan to reopen as soon as we possibly can. In the meantime, here's what's happening with Dog Days of Buffalo: A power line ignited a fire at Dog Days on the night of the Oct. 12 storm. Kerry, who lives upstairs in our caretaker residence, was in the process of taking our 19 boarding dogs out for their nightly potty break at 9:30pm when she got a shock on the kennel doorknob and realized there was smoke coming from the 2nd floor. She immediately started evacuating the dogs to our rear daycare yard where they were individually hooked with couplers to the chain link fence. A good neighbor and a Wegman's employee, both of whom had seen the fire, assisted Kerry in this process. The Buffalo Fire Department came quickly as well and one dog, Tess, escaped through the front door during the mayhem. (Tess was picked up minutes later by another good samaritan neighbor who kept her warm & safe until we caught up with her 2 days later. Tess was fine and reunited with her grateful owners shortly afterward.) Blaine got there shortly after the fire department did, and I got there a little later (I had to wait for my parents to get to my house to watch our human kids). Janelle (our daycare/kennel manager) came out and helped us get all the dogs into our various cars and over to our house. Needless to say it was an all-nighter, but the dogs were great. The next day, Victoria helped supervise the dogs at my house while I made phone calls to dog owners. Some dogs were at our house for a over a week, but most were picked up within a few days. No dogs or humans were injured or lost and for that we are so grateful. The building however has significant fire and water damage and cannot be used until major repairs are made. We are currently in negotiations with our insurance company on the repair/rebuild and do not expect to reopen until spring, so I recommend that you make your boarding reservations up to Easter elsewhere. You may have seen some activity in November and early December; dumpsters, etc. Fire/water damage removal people have been in the building and have removed most of the drywall and insulation on the walls and ceilings. The contents have been removed as well. If you peek in the front window you won't recognize the reception area; it's pretty well stripped and looks the way it did when we were first fitting the place out back in 2002. Smells like smoke, though. Our insurance coverage includes loss of business and so in the meantime all of our vendors and more important, our staff are all getting paid; we expect Janelle, Victoria, Gail, Andrea, Alicia, Tatiana, Taurean, and Susan, our groomer, all to be back when we reopen. Life for the staff and me since October 12 has been, for lack of a better word, weird. We miss all of our canine and human clients so much and know that this is probably making life a little difficult for many of you. We hope you understand that large insurance claims take time to work out but please know that we truly are moving as fast as we can so that we can reopen as early as possible. I know I keep repeating this, but we miss you guys a lot and can't wait to be back! I will keep this site updated so you know what's going on and when, so check periodically. Thanks again for all the good wishes. — Suzanne Harris Photos
|
|||||||
|
Home | Terms of Service | Ask a Question | Dog Days Update
Training Articles | Behavior Questions Answered
