Very seldom have I ever written a poor review for anything, but due to our most recent bad experience with Memorial Drive Veterinary Clinic and Kennel, I felt it necessary to do so. As a businessman, reviews often help me in my corporate travels, purchases, as well as in my personal life and family decisions. When the owners of our long time Kennel retired and moved to Savannah, Georgia, we began to search for a new Kennel for our boxer, Capt. Jack. Boy, we were going to miss our kennel and friends there. We asked neighbors and friends. We read reviews, etc., and we decided to bring Capt. Jack to Memorial Drive. We were pleased with the initial welcome and visits. As a businessman who travels, I was glad to know that the clinic also had a kennel side to it. Initially, we were pleased. We left Jack several times, and each time we were told how much of a treat Capt. Jack was with everyone including the other dogs. We were told he was a great dog and that they had no troubles with him. We were always told, "See you guys next time!" This leads us to this past New Years Eve weekend. With confidence, we booked and left Capt Jack for the weekend as we traveled to St. Augustine, Fl for a long weekend celebration. We had an amazing time.
When we got home and picked up Jack, we were told by the staff that Jack did not do well on this visit, that he snapped at the staff, that they were heavily booked for the weekend with many dogs, etc. The staff stated that they had experienced some bad storms during the weekend, that a water pipe in the ceiling burst, and that it caused the ceiling to collapse in the veterinarian office. They stated it was a pretty traumatic event for dogs and staff alike.We were also told that Jack was a completely different dog once we were there. Needless to say, we were shocked at the news. Capt. Jack (if you know anything about classic boxers) is a great family dog, playful, loving, and his former kennel described him as "Mr. Social Butterfly" among the other dogs and staff. He had never responded bad to anyone or any other dog. I do know that dogs will communicate when treated well or poorly.
When we got home, we noticed Jack was very sick. Not just sick, but throwing up solid dog feces for two and a half hours. It was his own feces from his kennel stay. Boxers are very smart and clean dogs and he was basically left in his kennel where he ate his own feces in order to clean his area up. We're sure his experience those days were pretty traumatic. It was a perfect storm for Jack and I'm sure other dogs, pets, etc.
With an upcoming business trip, we didn't want to think poorly about Memorial Drive, and giving them the benefit of the doubt, we decided to drop by the clinic with Jack to book another stay. Upon arriving with Jack, one of the girls who works at the kennel came out from around the back, sat down on the floor in front of Jack, and preceded to love and pet Jack. Of course Jack was doing what boxers do. He was giving her kisses and being his typical boxer wiggle butt. After this fine welcome, we were told that Jack has been marked as a 'caution dog' and that they wouldn't allow him to stay at the kennel any more. Once again, we were shocked again, this friendly loving dog, greeted by one of their staff members sitting on the floor with him loving and kissing her was marked as a 'caution dog' and not allowed to stay there any longer. Our initial thoughts were ... why would a staff member go and sit, on the floor, in front of a 'caution dog'. This was a huge contradiction, but spoke volumes of the inconsistency of care from the clinic and kennel.
With all this being said, in good conscience, we can not, and will not recommend Memorial Drive Veterinary Clinic and kennel. Interesting enough, read some of the other reviews. In the mix of good reviews are similar bad stories that we overlooked attempting to think the best of these folks. It's nothing personal. We liked many of the staff, but the bottom line, it's about our pet and family member, Capt. Jack. I mark this business as 'A Caution'. read more