Darcel Winslow feeds treats to day care dogs at Uncle Buggy’s.
Sibling blood hound Great Dane mixes Ellie and Otis at the top of the gravel pile in Uncle Buggy’s outdoor play area.
Dogs play fight on top of the gravel pile at Uncle Buggy’s Hotel for Dogs.
Monk is a dog new to day care at Uncle Buggy’s.
Darcel Winslow feeds treats to day care dogs at Uncle Buggy’s.
Sibling blood hound Great Dane mixes Ellie and Otis at the top of the gravel pile in Uncle Buggy’s outdoor play area.
Dogs play fight on top of the gravel pile at Uncle Buggy’s Hotel for Dogs.
Monk is a dog new to day care at Uncle Buggy’s.
ELLSWORTH — Uncle Buggy’s Hotel for Dogs doesn’t have private rooms with king beds, a minibar and a balcony view, but it comes pretty close to resembling a five-star resort for your furry friends.
The 6,000-square-foot doggy day care and boarding facility opened on Aug. 4 at 19 Boggy Brook Road and is owned by mother-daughter duo Darcel Winslow and Cassidy Hall of Surry. The two are working day and night in preparation for the business’s grand opening on Sept. 27.
“We’ve put our heart and soul into this,” Hall said. “We’ve been here every day since the first day of June.”
The two acquired the building in May and left their jobs June 1 — Winslow as a town administrator in Surry and Hall as a medical assistant — to start building their own business.
Uncle Buggy’s was created in memory of Winslow’s son and Hall’s brother, Jeremiah “Jimma” Moon who passed away in 2016.
“I cannot tell you how much he loved dogs, and he kept bringing them home to the point where we had to say no more dogs,” Winslow said. “He would have helped every dog that needed a home.”
Hall inherited her brother’s dogs when he passed, sparking the idea of opening a dog kennel, though she and her mother didn’t pursue the idea until years later.
“My mom and I, when we first started talking about it, it was more of a joke,” Hall said. “Then as we’re talking about it, and as I’m reading, and as I meet people in the dog world, I’m like, alright, let me do a little bit more research on this, let me do a little bit more learning.”
Hall’s kids called Jeremiah “Uncle Buggy,” inspiring the business name.
Winslow and Hall came across their current building over a year ago, but the option fell through. Then, another opportunity didn’t work out.
“We reached out again to the man that owned this building, and everything just sort of fell into place, and here we are,” Winslow said. “[It’s] kind of scary though. It’s a big leap to leave our careers, but it’s exciting.”
The business recently passed its state inspection after taking advice from a variety of friends from the dog world, including Bill Matlock, a dog show judge from the American Kennel Club, other dog-boarding business owners and a retired veterinarian.
“We really tried to pick everyone’s brain … to put it all together and do it the right way,” Winslow said.
There are limited options for dog boarding in the area, more so after Something to Wag About, a pet grooming business on Bucksport Road in Ellsworth, ended all day care services in August.
“We had such a hard time finding … somewhere to take our own dog, not for day care but for boarding,” Winslow said.
Uncle Buggy’s is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., though they can make alternative arrangements based on the needs of their clients.
“We get it, people work,” Winslow said. “We want to try to make our services available to everyone.”
Uncle Buggy’s is open to dogs, but construction is still underway in certain parts of the facility in preparation for the grand opening.
“It’s a lot,” Winslow said. “It’s just the two of us right now. My poor husband, he works full time and then comes here every night and weekend. My son John, her brother, comes every weekend to help us work. But it’s all coming together.”
The large indoors space will be lined with turf and can be split into different sections to accommodate the needs of the dogs that day. Winslow and Hall even leave the puppy channel on the TV for the dogs to watch.
A large mural of a hotel spanning the entire wall leads the way into the kennel area, which Hall calls the suites. On the side of the building is an outdoor play area with kennels and playscapes.
In the center of the lot is a large pile of gravel, which Winslow said was supposed to be spread out, but they decided to keep it because the dogs love the dirt pile.
“It’s a work in progress, but we’re getting there,” Winslow said.
Uncle Buggy’s grand opening will feature tours of the facility, dog assessments by Bill Matlock, $15 dog nail trims, dog stenciling, homemade dog treats and frozen pup cups, raffles and giveaways.
Winslow and Hall hope to hire staff in the coming months and want to offer grooming services by next spring.
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