Expanding to meet its doggy daycare, boarding needs

Rich Palzewic

Staff

January 27, 2025

OSHKOSH – Because Stay and Play Pet House – located at 3792 Jackson St. in Oshkosh – was running out of space for its doggy daycare/boarding demands, Co-owner Cassandra Running said it was time for an expansion/remodel project.

The months-long project, spearheaded by Keller, Inc. out of Kaukauna, broke ground last fall and is expected to be completed by the end of June, she said. 

“It was definitely needed,” Running said. “By year four in business, we knew an expansion was necessary.”

Stay and Play officially opened for business Feb. 1, 2018.

Running said they initially just started jotting down notes on things they thought would be nice if an expansion came to fruition.

“Over (last) summer, we got to the point that every single weekend, we were booked full on kennels,” she said. “We had no room and were turning people away for boarding, grooming and other services. An expansion was no longer a want but a need.”

Running said the project was supposed to be done about 18 months ago, but the company they were working with at the time fell through.

“They weren’t very thorough, and there were a lot of different things that happened,” she said. “We ended up switching to Keller, (Inc.), and they’ve been rocking it – taking advantage of the weather to get as much done as they can. It took lots of meetings to perfect (the design) and get everything where we wanted. Mother Nature is the ultimate decider, but Keller said if everything goes well, they’ll be totally done by the end of June.”

Running said the project is both an expansion and a remodel.

“The expansion part of the project is a building we’re adding on to our current building, but we’re also revamping our current building,” she said. “The main part is getting our addition done and occupying that. Once that part is done, Keller will move into the remodeling of our current building. We’ll be expanding our current inside daycare and revamping a little bit upfront.”

To help support the busy boarding facilities, Running said the project will more than double Stay and Play’s kennel space.

“The kennels we currently have are just fine, but we’ll have much better kennels upon completion,” she said. “We’re going (with) a more upgraded commercial kennel and expanding from one outside play yard to two. We put an overhang on the current building with a six-foot cement slab, so if dogs need to escape the summer sun, they have a place to go that isn’t lying in pea gravel or have them all hogging the dog beds. It’s more comfort and luxury for them.”

Upon completion, Running said Stay and Play will have 44 boarding kennels and a cat room that can accommodate 10 kitty condos.

“We can take more than 44 dogs if they’re housemates and the owners want them in the same kennel,” she said. “Our interior daycare will also be expanding. That will be nice because on days when it’s bitterly cold or really snowy or rainy – we still go outside, just not outside all day because we play off of Mother Nature – this will allow the dogs more inside area to play.”

Running said a typical day will see about 50 dogs at the daycare facility, but sometimes that number balloons to as high as 80.

She said they are extremely proud that they’ve made it this long in business.

“They usually say, within the first seven years, businesses don’t really make a lot of money when they’re new,” she said. “We’re coming up on seven years, and we’re at a point we had to add on. It’s satisfying to know our customers are happy – we must be doing something right.”

In total, Running said the project includes a 2,670-square-foot addition and a 1,530-square-foot interior remodel. 

A vision years in the making

Though she knew she wanted to work with animals from a young age, Running said she was too soft-hearted to be a vet.

“I always knew from a young age that I wanted to do something with animals, but then as I grew up with my own dogs and saw that vets had to euthanize them, I knew that would stick with me,” she said. “I always knew that I wanted something in the animal field, but I just didn’t know exactly what that was.”

That’s when Running said she decided to open a boarding facility on the north side of Oshkosh.

She said she worked at a similar boarding facility for five years before opening Stay and Play.

“I decided to leave that place and look into starting my own facility,” she said. “Sherry (Slife), the other co-owner (of Stay and Play), is married to my dad, and she had been working at Winnebago Mental Health but was looking at getting out of that because it was too physical for her. We found a location, and the rest is history.”

Running said she and Slife make a good duo.

“I’m an animal lover and Sherry has also owned dogs,” she said. “We have boarded dogs, cats, guinea pigs, ferrets, a pot belly pig and flying squirrels before.”

Running said Stay and Play mainly offers daycare, dog grooming and dog and cat boarding.

She said call-ahead services include nail trims, nail grinding, teeth brushing, anal gland expression, ear cleaning, foot trim, sanitary trim, self-serve bath and brush/blow out.

“We also carry dry dog and cat food, dog treats and a large variety of dog collars, leashes, harnesses and health/wellness products,” she said.

Additionally, though Running said it’s not too common, Stay and Play offers cat grooming.

“Probably not too common,” she laughed. “Many cats groom themselves, but we’ll have people come in who want their cats to get a haircut, or we do cat nail trims quite a bit. I’d say daycare is probably our biggest service because that’s a daily thing, but so is grooming and boarding.”

Running said besides her and Slife, Stay and Play has about a dozen employees.

“I’m also one of the groomers,” she said.

Running said they get many repeat customers – some folks bring their dogs in daily, while others show up a few times per week.

“That’s something we pride ourselves on – our customers are not forced to set up a routine with us,” she said. “We like to say we’re here when you need us. We also accept unneutered and unspayed dogs as well. Those dogs have to pre-book because we won’t take an unspayed female and an unneutered male on the same day, for obvious reasons. That’s another (option we offer) that other facilities don’t.”

Running said Stay and Play definitely couldn’t be what it is without its loyal customers.

“Our staff is great, but our customers make us who we are,” she said. “They are the ones who keep our lights on and doors open. We pride ourselves on knowing our customers well. When a customer pulls into the parking lot at night or in the morning, 95% of the time, we know what dog is being dropped off. We want our customers to feel like they are a part of our extended family. We want happy customers, happy dogs and happy employees.”

Redoing the building

Running said after she and Slife purchased the building, there was quite a bit of work to do.

She said one of the lengthiest parts of the process was working with the city.

“The building was a residential property when we bought it,” she said. “It had the big building on it we use for (the) business, and then it had a house and a garage. Though we knew we’d have to put some work into it, the location was great because it was close to (Interstate) 41, so it’s easy for people going to and from work and easy to find.”

Knowing the location was “perfect,” Running said they wanted to see where the business could take them.

“You never know how things are going to turn out when you first start – it could go great, or it could go horrible,” she said. “You roll the dice and hope for the best. After we purchased the property, we spent quite a few months outside cleaning and making it our own. We took down a lot of trees and did a lot of landscaping.”

Running said she had to work with the city to get the property rezoned from residential to commercial.

“There were a lot of codes we had to go through with them,” she said. “Once we got the ‘okay’ to open the business here, we gutted the big building and worked every square inch to the best of our ability to get the most out of the space we had.”

Social media presence

In searching for “Stay and Play Pet House” on several social media platforms, Running said visitors will see the boarding facility has a strong presence.

“My staff had been hounding me for the longest time to do TikTok, and I’m like, ‘Guys, I do not have enough time to get that and do it on my own,’” she said. “Knowing this, I finally gave the okay to our assistant manager to take care of it. We come up with ideas together, and we’ll take the videos and clips and post them. Our customers really seem to like it.”

Running said they started TikTok several months ago.

“It’s a nice way to put stuff out on social media and do something fun,” she said. “It gives people who are maybe having a bad day something they can watch that’s fun. We recently did one where we went outside – Mother Nature plays a role, too –  and took some videos of dogs having fun in the snow. Customers love seeing their dogs – it’s a fun way to interact.”

Running said Stay and Play also has a handful of yearly parties.

“We have our anniversary party in February,” she said. “Then in March, we have what we call our ‘Shamrock Shakedown’ for St Patrick’s Day.”

Running said Stay and Play also hosts the “Boo Bash” for Halloween and the “Ugly Sweater Contest” in December.

“For three of the parties – St Patrick’s Day, Halloween and Christmas – we take pictures of every dog in attendance and post those on Facebook,” she said. “That is very time-consuming, but owners love it. And then every year, I personally hand-make ornaments for our customers around Christmas time.”

For more information on Stay and Play Pet House, visit stayanyplaypethouse.com or find it on social media platforms.