On Sunday, August 17, we left for a week long vacation on the Outer Banks. We dropped off our full-blooded Jack Russell Terrier at Dirty Dogz a boarding and grooming business located at 500B Copeland Drive in Hampton, Virginia. On the phone they seemed very nice and caring.
The thing that attracted us to them was the convenience of dropping our dog off and picking her up anytime on a Sunday, the fact that she was not going to be left in a cage all week and that it was a family owned / run business. We left Maddie there with her dog food and treats and were to return to pick her up on the following Sunday, August, 24th. We did worry about her most of the week because the place was not nearly as nice as we thought it would be when we saw it. On Thursday morning we decided to call and check on her. We were assured she was doing fine and to enjoy my vacation.
On Sunday, August 24th, we returned to pick her up only to find that she was gone. They couldn't provide us with any information as to exactly when she escaped from the property and could not locate the person who was last with her on Saturday. They did know that it had happened sometime Saturday Night/Sunday morning because she was there when the attendant left on Saturday - he assured us of that! We have two young children who at this point were devastated and crying. We asked to speak to the owner, Ms. Rice, and she told us she was in a business meeting, but had already been in that day. We were not allowed to see where our dog was being kept while she was there because it was unsafe. We said What are we suppose to do now, just leave? And he said, Yes, leave!
We called the police and they came and asked a few questions, but said it was a contract between us and the business so there was nothing they could do. The officer did go in and retrieved our nearly empty bag of dog food. We realized we were getting nowhere and felt like we needed to be out searching the streets for her since she had only disappeared a few hours earlier. We left to start searching.
We didn't feel very good about her at this point because this area is mostly industrial/commercial so she would have no where to go. It was also right next to the interstate and Aberdeen Road, so we feared she may have gotten run over. We called family members and we all began searching the entire area. My brother-in-law went back in and questioned the guy working about what he thought may have happened to our dog and he said his cousin had been there the night before and maybe took our dog with him.
While our family continued to search for Maddie, my husband went to the SPCA and I went home to check for any messages. We played our answering machine and had received several phone calls from the owner of another boarding company, Wagging Tails, located on Aberdeen Road. Our Jack Russell had been found on Tuesday, August 19th at 7:30PM, walking down Aberdeen Road and was now in her care. She assured us our dog was being taken care of, was happy and ready to see her family. Though we were so happy that our dog was found and okay, we were so angry because we were completely lied to by Dirty Dogz.
They had assured me on Thursday she was fine when in fact she had already been gone for at least two days. We had left our cell phone numbers in case of any type of emergency. We did have one call from Dirty Dogz on our home answering machine on Sunday morning around 11:30 asking us to call them. They knew we were on vacation, but never tried to contact me in any way prior to let me know that they had lost our dog. They returned a nearly empty bag of dog food that my dog couldn't have eaten because she was only there two days at the most. They either fed it to the other dogs or dumped it out so we would think she was there all week.
We do feel Dirty Dogz should pay Wagging Tails for boarding our dog. There is no way a place like Dirty Dogz should be allowed to remain in business. We were actually a little concerned from the start because the place was not clean and the odor was extremely bad, but is was a Sunday morning when we dropped her off and maybe they had not yet had time to clean. There were large piles of feces and urine everywhere. The sign for the business looked as though it was made out of cardboard that had gotten wet and started to roll up.
The back yard of the business was nothing but weeds that had grown taller than the broken fence surrounding the property. Several dogs were contained inside the fence but you could not see them because of the weeds, only hear them barking. We did search the internet and found another source who was very upset with Dirty Dogz. Please do NOT take your pet to the business if you care anything at all about them. I can't believe I left my dog in such an unprofessional environment. I truly doubt this business is legitimate. Please make people aware that their pets are not safe at Dirty Dogs!
As of today, August 25, to our knowledge, Dirty Dogz has no idea that we have even found our dog. They have made no attempt to contact us or return any of our phone calls. They never showed any sign of care or concern for what they did. They NEVER even offered any type of apology.
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