We went through a very harrowing experience with Top Dog Resort. Just two days after LOSING our dog, the owners CHARGED us for her stay - and even added a $100 surcharge!
Somehow our beloved Rosie, a small Yorkie-Shi-Tzu mix, escaped from Top Dog Resort on August 6, 2013 while we were away on a family vacation. When the owners called to tell us they had lost Rosie, we stopped our vacation immediately, packed up and drove nine hours from Michigan to Virginia to search for her.
Arriving that night, we listened to the owners' explanations that Rosie must have "climbed over a fence." But when pressed for details, they admitted they never actually saw how or where she escaped -- they weren't watching. And they didn't bother listening to their own telephone voicemails from earlier in the day, messages that the dog was seen running a few miles down the road - we were searching on their property but the dog was already gone!
Unfortunately, Top Dog had removed Rosie's collar and tags, as they do with the packs of small dogs in their care at any given time.
My wife and I spent two excruciating months searching for Rosie. We live 40 miles from Catlett and traveled there dozens of times, putting up posters, talking to residents, often staying into the evening. We were blessed to have support from Fauquier County Animal Control and the SPCA. Back at home we constantly made calls, posted messages on social media and put ads in the newspaper. Searching for Rosie became a full time job on top of my day job.
Top Dog's owners Don and Linda only made efforts during the first 36 - 48 hours to put up some posters, look around the area and make some calls. Incredibly, Linda expressed annoyance to me, saying it was our little dog's "fault" for escaping, and that this was turning into an "inconvenience" for them and "disrupting their routine."
It was awful as Linda "took control," insisting on doing things her way: she thought she would catch Rosie by banging on pots and pans, making loud noises and calling out for her. With an Animal Control officer's help, we realized that she knew NOTHING about how to deal with dogs when they escape and go into panic and "flight mode." We received expert guidance from Animal Control and SPCA about how to recover a dog in flight. The officer told us NOT to call out to Rosie, not to approach or chase after her, but to be quiet, still and neutral.
Linda also got into a shouting argument and botched things up with our microchip company and I had to call them to correct the situation.
I was stunned when I looked at Top Dog's $370 invoice for Rosie's five-day stay including an $100 extra fee tacked on (for their time putting up posters, making calls and looking around the immediate area for a day or two). Unfortunately we had given them a blank check when we first dropped Rosie off, and they cashed it only days after she was lost.
Everyone we have told about this incident is appalled that a boarding kennel would charge a grieving family after losing their dog. It's not the money that hurts, but the gesture itself.
Our story has a happy ending, but it does not involve Top Dog. Throughout August and September, there were sightings of Rosie reported every few weeks around five miles apart. Catlett is a rural area of farms, barns and woods -- we were looking for a needle in a haystack.
Wherever a sighting was reported, we would set our humane traps there -- catching only cats or possums. I was losing hope with October approaching and the weather turning colder. Still we never stopped searching and putting up Rosie Lost Dog posters on poles and stop signs all over the area.
On October 6th, I caught Rosie in a humane trap I borrowed from the SPCA and set in a place where a nice family had spotted her in a farmer's field on Shenandoah Path. We were blessed to bring our dog home two months to the day after she was lost.
She went through a huge ordeal surviving in the wild and her PTSD took months to subside, but she is remarkably healthy and transformed by the experience. We are amazed to have her back with us, and she is happy to be home.
I hated having to write a negative review, but many people urged us to share and help other dog owners avoid a similar calamity. Hopefully readers will recognize our efforts to be factual, but there is no way to hide all of the pain and distress.
We were told by several people this is not the first time Top Dog has lost a pet in their care. They are an elderly couple with no staff or back-up plan -- after two days, WE ended up carrying ALL of the responsibility for finding our lost pet, and were invoiced by them for our troubles.
P.S. There are "filtered" Yelp reviews by others for this establishment that you should check out as well. Scroll to bottom of all the reviews and look for the "Filtered" link. read more
