Learn More About Our Future Kennel!
For over a year, we have been working with the Town of Rochester Planning Board to receive approval for our property to be designated a sanctuary and for us to build a kennel facility. We are thrilled to announce that as of June 2020 we officially have their approval!
Why do we need a kennel?
We are very passionate about the work we do, but have been limited in our dog, cat, and small animal rescue efforts by the number of foster homes we have available. This kennel facility will not house many animals at one time (in comparison to most kennels in the area), but it will greatly increase our ability to help local animals in need. As it is now, we receive an average of 5 requests weekly to take in local dogs and cats from owners who can no longer care for them, showing that there is definitely a need in the local community for our kind of rescue. We are currently at capacity with our number of foster homes, and therefore are unable to help until one of our current animals is adopted, opening up that spot. This kennel will bring jobs to the area as well as activities for local volunteers to participate in and enjoy alongside our loving animals!
Dogs, cats and small animals we have saved since our founding.
The Design Plan
We are designing this kennel to be a visually beautiful building to match our barn that we love so much. The inside is going to be designed to set our animals up for success, creating as close to a home environment as possible in a kennel. The kennel will be able to accommodate 10-15 adult dogs, 10 cats, and 10 small animals at any given time, and we will be hiring three additional full-time staff members to care for these animals.
Drawings from our architects (Sasaki + Spade Architects) of the proposed building.
Animal Care in the Kennel
There will be ten indoor single-dog kennel suites, large enough for them to each have plenty of space to stretch out and relax, with doggie doors leading to concrete outdoor kennel runs. The dogs will be kept indoors overnight or in poor weather, but between 9:00 am - 4:00 pm they will be allowed to go between their indoor and outdoor runs as they please. This will help those dogs that arrive housebroken to retain that skill, and to have plenty of space for enrichment materials to make the kennel feel like home. In addition to the individual dog kennels, we will have a cohabitation room that will house up to five dogs. This will be more of a doggie daycare environment, allowing very social dogs to better retain their dog-sociability in the kennel environment. There will be a small yard coming off of this room so that these dogs can also decide whether they want to be indoor/outdoor during our work hours. We also plan to have a multipurpose room, which for now we are calling a puppy room, within the building where we can house the puppies or dogs who require more medical care or observation than the others.
We plan to have two other rooms to house animals, one dedicated to cats, and the other dedicated to small animals. The cat room will be set up as a home, cage-free environment where up to ten kittens and adult cats can patiently wait for their homes while looking out the window and relaxing in a comfortable space. Due to our partnership with the Animal Control Center of NYC through their New Hope program, we are often asked to care for and find homes for many small animals. We currently care for these animals in the barn office, but look forward to having a room within the kennel to better serve these animals. The small animal room will be able to house up to ten animals whether they are hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, ferrets, etc. and each animal will be housed in a cage habitat that suits its size and enrichment needs.