09/23/2026
So, its official. Have had a week-long festivities of retirement hoo-ra!!!! Wow, never thought I would get to this date. What a ride! Its a bend in the path of life....no way am I going to stop working - just got to decide what's next? This week has instead been an ending to a family business. One that I suggested as a teenager, Mom ran with it, Dad joined in and here we are 50+ yrs later. I have had some of the best people as customers these past decades. The "good byes for now", all the cards of well wishes and gifts the past few weeks have blown me away. For those of you that are FB friends also...."thank you" seems so inadequate. One of you stated in your card, "Cindy is rolling her eyes about now" - yes, I did with tears too. Never did I plan to come home to take this business over...."but you gotta do what you gotta do." My decision was take care of family and then, yes, take on a career where the loved ones in question were in the house only 30 yds away - or connected too often to the walkie-talkies or riding around on a Gator giving orders or....well, you get the drift. Oh, family businesses - never a dull, boring, calm moment.
And then there are the 4-legged pals...there was a photo I have turned this place upside down trying to find - Dad holding a King Charles Spaniel, Duffy, and Mom standing near him - both smiling for that sweet, sweet customer who actually coined the name "A Country Vacation". Decades doing this kennel and it was the only photo of them together - go figure. No luck finding it, but in looking at all the family albums, I realized everything happened around the kennel responsibilities. Holidays, parties, everything - the care of the paying guests would dictate what happened when. That is kennel life - farmers understand it - a living, breathing thing that is just visiting in your care well, honestly, the worry connected to all that is the part of my brain I can't wait to turn off! Anyways, in looking for that photo, I also brought down from my shelf in our office all the photos of dog clients we were so graciously given over the years by their owners - I saved everyone. Some of the photos are 30 yrs old at least. And cards......it was so cathartic to read through those cards. So although this is an end, it sure is one where I feel the love. I only wish Mom, Dad, Mark were here to celebrate this. And the actual dogs and cats...well, I have had pets here that have seen through my soul. They made me laugh when I needed it most. I have sat on my bench in the different yards only to be joined by a dog who just wanted to soak in the rural life with me - oh if everyone could just sit and chill with a dog. I have been given peace in the way only God's creatures can give during those months caring for Dad & then Mom in the difficult times or then after losing them and Mark - no words spoken, just antics to make me smile. "We will not know when we are entertaining angels." was how it was always received. I will never forget those times.
I hope my former employees know I could not have done it without them. I hope my boss knows that it was her work ethic that was always my goal. For those of you on FB, I want to single you out..., of course Sheree Barlow, my cousin who stepped in when I had surgery - you gave us such joy, Denise Littlejohn Gibson, my sister in law who handled the office and the catery sometimes at a moment's notice for years, my nieces Amanda Gibson Aldridge and Rachel Ritchey who were more or less born into the business and brought with them responsible friends to be such an army of dog walkers and kennel scrubbers - Sarah, Kim, Christy, Ann and then Jennifer Ellen, Katherine Dickey, Hannah Mengos, Sarah S., Jessica Woods, the amazing Buchert sisters - Steph Buchert, Amy, Katie - and of course my longest employed, Sara Heffelfinger who could remember absolutely everything and everybody - toys and all - along with Carla Beatley who stepped in to do the office after Mom's passing, only then to do the the lion share of the work in the kennel to get me to this day. There are others that I know I'm forgetting right now, but without you all - I can't imagine.
So I'm sharing a few photos including one of a few amazing gifts I have received this week. A Country Vacation Boarding Kennel - in retrospect I guess, I was destined to do this. Having pets as my best pals was in my DNA. Working for one's mother - never easy. But continuing what she started and all that leading to being present as her and Dad's caregiver at the same time - I wouldn't change it for the world. So, Mom, Dad, Mark....we did it - the dogs and cats are done. All is good. Time for another path. Thanks again everyone.
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