THE OWNERS of an animal shelter plus a kennel, and cattery near Dursley have completely transformed their facilities following a £60,000 renovation.
Claire Fern, who opened Elmview Boarding Kennels in Cambridge with her business partner Lauren Hunt a year ago, says she is now "living the dream" as they plan to expand.
When they got the keys, Claire said that they faced an uphill battle to transform the place, as it had been neglected and run down in previous years.
Due to funding provided by loan provider Together, they have now been able to carry out works including insulation, new windows and insulating the outside of the buildings to reduce heating costs.
The pair have always had a passion for animals, and five years ago they opened Aura's Dog Rescue UK, which is based at the same site.
They were inspired after a trip to Romania, where they found themselves compelled to help in the dog rescue effort there.
Due to the size of the stray dog crisis in the UK, which Claire says has been fuelled by lockdown, Aura’s Dogs have had to stop rescuing from Romania.
Meanwhile, the team continues to rescue and care for abandoned, neglected and abused dogs from across the UK.
The kennels mean that they can now offer the rescue dogs an even better quality of life whilst they wait for their forever homes.
Claire said: “We mainly wanted safety and security for rescue dogs.
“They’ve had an incredibly hard life and we wanted to be able to give them an environment in which to thrive.
“We’re still renovating the kennels, but we’ve already improved them so much.
“Lauren lives on site at the kennels to provide round the clock support and I live just a few minutes down the road.
“Owning the kennels is really an opportunity of a lifetime – we never thought we’d find somewhere so close to home that we could buy.
“Before running these kennels, neither of us had any real business experience, but the past 12 months have been a dream.
“We can’t wait to keep doing what we’re doing and helping dogs from across the country find their forever homes.”
Claire now plans to use funding from Together to continue to renovate the kennels, and wants to eventually expand dog rescue, which will include the addition of six new kennels for Elmview, which will help Aura Dogs through the winter season.
Claudia Calladine, head of affiliates at Together said: “Supporting businesses like Claire’s is a key part of what we do here at Together.
“We were able to give her the initial short term loan, and then when she proved that the kennels were proving to be a great success, we were more than happy to extend her term to allow her business to continue to thrive.”
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