The Barking Lot is a step above in pet care

ELIZABETHTOWN – Some of our family members have four legs and a special social community that pampers and cares for them is the Barking Lot, Inc. located conveniently between Elizabethtown and White Lake on US Highway 701.

The 4-acre pet spa, boarding facility and doggy day care has not only amazing indoor and outdoor facilities, but what makes it stand out is the years of experience and the extreme love of the grooming staff which includes Barking Lot’s owner Denise Cross.

You can glean a wealth of information from the business’ website: https://www.barkinglotinc.net/ but to actually feel the passion and pulse of the people that will pamper and spoil your pets – a visit with Cross and her staff would help you to find out if, in fact, it’s the place that your furry family member would feel a “home away from home.”

The Barking Lot is not just a groomer, but can also be a pet-motel or a daily day care – complete with 24-hour music, television, elevated cots and temperature-controlled suites. Not to mention the presence of other “guests” for socializing and that human presence that makes it not so lonely away from the family at home. There is also a local veterinarian that is always on call if an emergency should arise.

“We work closely with Dr. (Douglas) Gensel at Elizabethtown Veterinary Hospital,” Cross said. “We love both vets in Elizabethtown but we are required by the state to have a vet on call 24-hours a day. We do consider ourselves the link between you and your own family vet. At times find things that need a vet’s attention and our groomers have taken numerous classes in skin and coat, so they know what they are looking at. We don’t diagnose, but we can let you know if we suspect that a veterinarian needs to be seen. Whether it’s a mole or something out of the ordinary.”

Barking Lot also has Dr. Curt Locklear from Lumberton’s Southeastern Veterinary Hospital as a standby.

Cross grew up in Elizabethtown and graduated from East Bladen High School in 1975. She then went on to Peace College in Raleigh (now William Peace University) which was a two-year all-girl college at the time. She earned her associate degree and went on to East Carolina and finished with a major in English and a minor in journalism. She also had a concentration in professional writing. She worked for a short time in Raleigh but soon grew homesick and looked homeward for her profession.

In the early 80s the transition due to her writing and background in journalism was seamless and she began to work for the Bladen Journal which at the time was a weekly paper. She grew with the paper that went to twice a week and then into a weekly paper that had trouble finding enough news and she said it was sometimes stressful competing with other newspapers in the area.

“I was in publishing, but stress at that time was a daily regimen. My husband came home one day and said that Bladen Community College was offering a pet grooming class and he said, ‘You ought to learn to groom our poodles,’ and I said, ‘hey, that’s an idea.’”

From that class, Cross said that she just fell in love with it. She has had dogs all of her life and at one time her and her husband had 17. Cross remembers that growing up, her first pet was a Chiwawa named Trixie and she had her “pillow trained” to jump into the bathtub to escape the “nipping” at her ankles. Back in the day post-Trixie, her favorite pet was a German Shepherd named “Dutchess” who was kind of rehomed from a former North Carolina Highway Patrol officer and was very protective of Cross and her sister.

“I always liked dogs, always had dogs,” she said. “I started a little shop on Gillespie Street in Elizabethtown and we worked Thursday, Fridays and some Saturdays. It was just grooming and building. Then the community expressed an interest for a boarding facility. We call it a vacation spot, because if you go on vacation, your pet needs to go on vacation.”

The move to the location at 5054 US-701 Highway came in 2006 to a building that was originally spoken for, but that deal didn’t go through and Cross said that the transition was relatively easy.

“It’s a beautiful spot and we really enjoy it,” she said. “A lot of people ask me what my business plan was, and really, there wasn’t one. It just came from my heart.”

Cross said that common sense asked her, “how would I want my dogs to be treated and what have I seen at my groomer who was out of town.”

The business features not only pet boarding, but what is called “day boarding” where people who work during the day, drop their dog off in the morning and pick them up after work.

“They get the same care as we do in our kennel,” she said. “The babies are walked on a schedule along with all the grooming dogs. Someone is usually here until 7 or 8 p.m. at night and if necessary, we’ll have a night walker. Someone who will come back specifically to walk and check on the dogs.”

There is a protocol for new people who may be leery of leaving their babies with a groomer for a longer period of time.

“It is normal for us to tell the owners to bring that baby in,” she said. “Let’s let it get used to and see what is going on. We let it stay for three hours at no fee. That’s fine with us. For instance, with our second building we have a garage door and another door and it’s away from all the other dogs and we can let it go outside without a leash which is important because some dogs have never been leashed. Now, as we evaluate your pet, we may sometimes find out that they would be better off with a pet sitter. I mean, we don’t want to hurt our business, but here the top priority is what’s most important and what is a right fit for a member of your family. I would rather you come back to a happy dog.”

When a dog first comes into Barking Lot, Cross said that the communication is thorough. The staff will ask a lot of questions.

“We want the pets and their owners to be able to come in and feel like this an extension of their home,” Cross said. “Not just a place where you bring your dog and it gets pretty. There’s a lot of other things that are going on at that time. So, I think, asking the right questions, making sure and having a system in place where all the vaccines that we require are documented are important. You must have rabies of course, which is a state requirement and all vaccines have to be done by a vet. It’s a courtesy that we provide – that we will call the vet and find out all the information for the family.”

The office manager, Jennifer Inman who has worked at Barking Lot for 11 years wears many hats. She grooms, does “chaos coordinating,” takes appointments, scheduling, supervising employees, ordering, boarding, check-ins and outs and pretty much helps Cross with whatever she needs. She is also an employee who is able to bring her dog with her to work each day. Those are the “regular dog crew” with the dogs who belong to other employees and generally make the newbies who come in feel comfortable with their presence.

“Working with these amazing animals every day is my favorite part of the job,” Inman said. “It’s like they become ours. They are yours, but they are mine as well. I also have one of my poodles here. I’m going to treat your kids like my kids and that means they are going to be spoiled rotten.”

The complex is completely outfitted with air filtration systems for health reasons and also to filter out the unwanted pet odors. For a business that has heavy pet traffic each day, it’s quite surprisingly pleasant to walk in and have a clean-scented facility. Almost like walking into your own living room. Their outside “potty” areas are also cleaned and disinfected daily.

The North Carolina State Department of Agriculture comes in on both scheduled and unscheduled visits to make sure that all operations are aboveboard.

“They look at everything,” Cross said. “They check our records to make sure that rabies has been verified. They look at the cleanliness of the building as well as the maintenance.”

A visit to the Barking Lot website will provide all the information that you will need to decide whether you want to pamper your pet at a very honest price. The amenities and services will amaze and again, to see the kind of love and caring that the Barking Lot staff provides, a visit is recommended. Most times and in most cases, you will fall in love with them as much as they fall in love with your family.

That’s the key. It’s not an oil change at a car dealership. You don’t take a number and get your driver’s license. You are not only a name, but you become a part of a caring family as they become a part of yours. They go the extra mile – from feeding options of top-of-the-line food, treats and suites complete with music, television and one-on-one handler care. It’s luxury pet care in Bladen County.

“The dogs like easy listening music,” she said. “Have you ever seen the little sign that says, ‘I’m the crazy dog lady and that’s OK?’ And it is. And I am. We used to play DVD movies during their rest time and everyone would knock out on the Lion King. I really think it was the music. As things have changed and how science and new learning has provided, we’ve learned so much more about pets.”