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| > About the Chamber > Member Profiles > Day Hill Kennels |
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Day Hill Kennels
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Owner Roger Ball grew up in Windsor and has always loved working with animals. He graduated from Bloomfield's Watkinson High school and then enrolled at Kansas State University and earned a degree in biochemistry.
Ball wanted to be a veterinarian but knew he didn't want to get into any kind of research. Ball was actually in prevet school when the opportunity to lease a property for a kennel first materialized.
In 1976 Roger Ball and his wife Roberta borrowed three thousand dollars from his grandfather and leased a 1,200 square foot heifer building from the Warren Thrall Tobacco Company.
Dayhill Kennel had first resided at the bottom of Dayhill Road and consisted of a mere twenty-four kennels. In 1985 he purchased six acres of land on Addison road. The land was originally an agriculturally zoned area. Industries began buying the land and soon it was changed to industrial. He applied for and was granted a special use permit to allow a commercial kennel to operate in an industrial zone.
Ball designed the original 3,500 square foot building himself and personally hired subcontractors from referrals from his boarding customers.
The business originated with one hundred kennels and a ten-cat cattery. He has since added to the original building three times and is now currently kenneling one hundred and eighty dogs and thirty cats.
The building and play area cover a 12,000 square foot area. He employs ten kennel assistants. Some are students working just for the summer while in prevet or veterinary technician programs.
He offers boarding, grooming, pet pick-ups and currently his newest sideline is pet shipping for airlines.
Ball believes his success here is due to the personalized service he offers his customers. Ball said, "We take pride in knowing all of our customers and their pets on a first name basis. There is a certain comfort level with familiarity, it is important to our clients that we know who Fido is."
Ball even remembers the name of his first dog boarded. A white standard poodle named Shamus. The owners of the dog had made their reservations for boarding him in the new kennel long before construction was complete. Unfortunately, the new kennel wasn't ready for boarders when the time arrived for their vacation. Ball so as not to disappoint his clients, allowed the dog to camp out in his own home.
copyright 2005 Shari King
View the Day Hill Kennels website
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