WINNSBORO – Fairfield County Animal Shelter recently received a much needed donation – 38 kennels.
When Camp Bow Wow, a doggie daycare facility in Columbia, moved to a new facility in November, owners Frank and Christine Ellington contacted Hoof & Paw’s community outreach director, Kathy Faulk, to ask if she knew anyone who could use the kennels they were leaving behind.
She did – the Fairfield County Animal Control Director Bob Innes who sometimes has more animals than space to keep them these days.
“Yes,” Innes said. He would like to have the kennels. That was probably an understatement.
With an average of 50-60 dogs on premise at any given time and more during certain times of the year, the kennels would come in handy.
“Since the Animal Shelter in Fairfield became a no-kill shelter almost two years ago, it is more frequently than not overwhelmed with animals…just too many coming in and not enough going out,” Faulk said. “And they need proper facilities to house all the animals.”
Faulk next arranged for the transfer of the kennels to the shelter. County Administrator Jason Taylor sent county employees Tim Marthers and Buddy Johnston with a 16-foot trailer to pick up the kennels.
Arriving at the Camp Bow Wow facility early on Saturday before Thanksgiving, Marthers and Johnston were joined by Brett Smith, a Blythewood resident and Hoof & Paw supporter, who arrived with another trailer. Faulk was there to oversee the project.
But when the doors opened to the Bow Wow building, and the four saw the magnitude of the gift, they were overwhelmed.
“That’s a lot of kennels,” Marthers said as the group quietly surveyed two giant rooms of kennels. “And they’re big. I was thinking little chain-link kennels.”
And all the kennels had to be dismantled.
There were several sizes of high end, heavy-duty, powder coated steel kennels complete with solid side panels and ranging from seven-foot tall kennels with 10-foot runs to smaller four-by-four kennels for small dogs.
“Just looking at all those kennels,” Faulk said, “we knew immediately they would not all fit on the two trailers, and we could also see that the work to disassemble and haul them out of the building to the waiting trailers below the dock would be a day’s work for just three men.”
Nevertheless, the three went to work dismantling the kennels, stacking them (to take them out) and loading them onto the trailers.
As noon approached, the three men were over half-way through. Faulk showed up with iced tea and a couple of buckets of fried chicken from Zesto’s to keep the team going.
It took two trips for each trailer to get all the kennels to the animal shelter.
“The kennels are very nice and the large ones with runs will be especially helpful when the weather is nice and we can house some of the dogs outside,” Innes said.
“This was a huge donation that the shelter needed and will put to good use!” Faulk said. “A very big thank you to Camp Bow Wow for reaching out to Hoof and Paw with this wonderful donation.”