Dog care facility struggles amid outbreak of canine respiratory illness

ROXBOROUGH, Colo. — A dog daycare and boarding facility is asking for help making ends meet after it says business plummeted due to an outbreak of a canine respiratory illness. 

A Dog’s World, located in Littleton, is open 24 hours a day as a boarding, daycare and grooming facility. Dogs have access to a large outdoor play area and indoor rooms that include soft furniture, a ball pit and television sets. 

“We’re unique in that we’re free roam,” said Nancy Murphy. “You can choose to board your dog here 100% cage-free.”

Murphy and her husband Mike have been caring for dogs in the Roxborough area for 18 years. They expanded their in-home business to a full-service facility in August 2020. 

“Very, very rough timing,” Murphy said. “Right in the middle of the COVID pandemic.”

She says the business survived a slow start during the pandemic thanks to grants and loans. Earlier this year, Murphy says they finally started to see success. 

“2023 started off really well, and I would say up until the middle of August it was awesome,” Murphy said. 

Around Labor Day, Colorado started to see an uptick in severe cases of canine respiratory illness that can be fatal. According to Colorado State University, their veterinarians saw two times as many cases in September, October and November 2023 as compared to last year. 

“We had a couple of customers call and say that their dogs didn’t make it. So it’s really been a devastating illness,” Murphy said. 

Last month, CSU continued to warn pet owners to avoid places where they may come in contact with large groups of dogs, like dog parks.

Murphy says it has nearly cut their business in half. 

“The people that are staying away and their dogs aren’t sick have told us they’ve canceled boarding and daycare because they’re worried about the virus and protecting their dogs, which we completely understand that,” she said. 

The Murphys say they did not take a paycheck last payday to ensure the rest of their staff got paid. She says one staff member has volunteered to work for free. 

“The main issue for us is paying our staff. Our payroll, because we are 24 hours a day, our payroll is between about $22-32,000 every two weeks,” Murphy said. 

A Dog’s World started a fundraiser to help make ends meet until more customers feel comfortable returning. Within a day, they raised more than $10,000.

“It warms my heart to a point that I can’t even express,” Murphy said. 

At some point, she says it will be important to make a profit. In the meantime, Murphy says the priority is keeping the place open as long as possible so the pups all have a safe and comfortable place to go. 

“I hate to put a timeline on it because you don’t know. It’s just like COVID. You don’t know,” Murphy said. 

The fundraiser is still active and can be found online here.