A KENNEL

CRUSTY ARTISAN BREAD, FRESH FRUIT, BOILED EGGS AND AMARETTO SPIKED COFFEE set before me by my own hand in lieu of a plan to be drawn however slowly throughout the morn. I needed to draft a business outline. The farm took a sudden veer in this alternate direction. It must become a kennel. "It is not enough to designate as farm in any manner which the board can find fit. What you can do is have a kennel... or something along that line. Maybe you should plan a hobby farm...worms or something." The mocking tone of the county zoning officer echoed in back of my mind as I rushed through numbers pressed onto newsprint and catalogs. I traced out a basic format on copy paper listing purpose and starting a list of itemized means. We had a truck and were expecting a trailer to be delivered to our purchase point some hundred and fifty miles south. Kennel cages and kennel fencing would cost a pretty penny but if we got a few before heading out to the land we could make it work. There was no building on the land handed down through family and sold to me as the only interested party, but I had a house plan that included room for a detached kennel and kennel run. The best thing about it all was the openness of the area. There was a bird aviary off in the distance, about a thousand feet out from our spot. There was also a small wooded area littered with evergreen... Northern Pine of a tree farm. The closest neighbor. an older couple with a brick house situated on the corner of the main roadway, was one thousand feet in the opposite direction. The older couple were acquainted with my grandparents and were actually anticipating our arrival as new neighbors. I made note of the perfect fit of such business to the area.

Five miles north was a military school and nearby, as if to compliment the secure placement of children into a military boarding school, was a SAR training camp. SAR or Search And Rescue teams wee formed after a series of courses for dog and master, then taken to task in scent training and cadaver searching for the comfort of families near and far. The region was prone to flooding and not a year went by without the need for search and rescue due to inclement weather or an eventual runaway or unexpected missing person otherwise. The cost of participation in the SAR Program and marketing services in that capacity were noted. Consideration for leasing or running dogs as on site security were noted as an option for special rates. Recalling the original family plan for using the bit of land passed down from the grandparents as a simple family cabin... a get away from the every day routines demanded by schools and nursing home, hospitals and mental care facilities had faded long ago with the increased need for income from a regular job. A regular job held by every generation and every family member familiarized over the extent of sixty plus years of having the land site in the family; owned by those grandparents. Now, no longer reaching its best aim toward becoming a cabin in the woods, the best acceptable option was fading to this lesser plan. It could be a kennel. A dog kennel... dog farm so to speak. Someone would really need to have a love for dogs... animals and patience to live with more than a few. The thought could send a mind roaming in directions of better use... more lucrative use for that size plot of land. Fishing worms for the many fishing holes, lakes in the area backed by alternate bait provision... crickets, slugs, mealy worms, grubs and minnows, maybe a few repair tricks made available to passer by fishing hopefuls as well. Or maybe a rabbit farm. So many rabbits could fit in the length of a small barn on and under shelves with skin and prep options available to folks with a taste for country food. A sip of spiked coffee was needed to get back on course. Spiked coffee and a piece of bread smeared with fig preserves turned the brain back to the issue at hand. The plan for what and vendor sourcing came together easily from the catalogs already ordered and laid our from the business planning file. Determining the breed was a more difficult task. Kennel dogs to be sold at cost had to be purchased at cost and well cared for. Here in town there were numerous veterinarian independent offices and mall variety available. The kennel would be in a rural setting a good thirty miles from the closest known animal care other than humane society which was only seven miles away. The humane society did not care for vended pets. The best decisive track on the matter was to list three options and get their fee for service noted under medical care. The facility would need to have insurance coverage on both the animals and property. Special insurance coverage by agencies specific to livestock would insure the animals to a certain dollar amount based upon value and purpose of breed. A guard dog or search and rescue animal was a more valued animal than a labradoodle or cockapoo decoration dog. The other deciding factor to insurability was the retail cost of sale item... animal. The value of the breed and it's documented origin as a valid or pure breed. We settled on a Mastiff Breed, the Cane Corso to start with one given as a birthday gift given by friends from school days.

The food and medical care, shelter and health maintenance... their physical exercise addressed, the more immediate need for residence to enclose personal items belonging to the caretaker. There would need to be a structure... a cabin for residential designation or at least an office dedicated to the care for dogs on site. There would need be a small home a "tiny house," a two bedroom cottage house constructed for the caretaker of the kennel. There should also be accommodation made for an alternate income. The original problem with utilizing the land for permanent dwelling was its designation as rural property. One should need to be at a retired stage in life with a steady income to get best use from living on the land. The chosen builder, a team of youngish brothers and their one sister had not called back with an estimate for building the drawn plan taken to them over one year ago. They had the original sketch and blueprints in hand but never returned a written or vocal cost to build. Without their summary there could be no bank loan for construction. Construction companies were limited in that area. There were only three to choose from and it was improbable to consider bringing one from a more populated area. They don't go that far. They don't go that far but a kit house or altered garage could serve the purpose... with a local builder's finished estimate. In order to take the plan to the bank for an FHA or Veterans Home Loan thee had to be a finalized estimate for everything pertaining to the business. I had papers guaranteeing validity for money from Veteran Affairs based on a military injury I had suffered in line of duty, I simply had to claim it... Veterans Business or Veterans Home. I set the pen down and finished my meal.