03/07/2021
We have some great news - Kirsty is expecting a baby in early December. It’s come as a bit of a surprise for all of us as she’s always professed she preferred the 4 legged species. I’m sure you would all like to join us in offering our heartfelt congratulations.
Now onto some not so great news - we have been toying for quite a while about when would be the right time for us to retire. We are both 70 now and as you all know the job here is 7 days a week. J is on the go from 7.30 am & doesn’t finish until after the 9 pm toilet break, it’s time at our stage to take life a bit easier. Kirsty’s news has just prompted us to make the decision to stop at the end of this year.
Like many businesses COVID has taken its toll, its been very difficult for us, even yet we are getting cancellations left, right & centre, & when the girls are furloughed it has been a lot of work for John. Of course furlough is finishing in September & bookings aren’t looking enough to sustain the business through the winter.
Kirsty & Fiona have been an integral part of the Goshielaw team & they have been a joy to work with. It’s been a privilege to have them here, they are so good at what they do & we depend on them totally, we have always been more than happy to trust them to look after your fur babies. The care they showed towards the many different characters (no favourites of course) with their very varied needs has been exemplary, avoiding doggy confrontations, administering medications & even injecting diabetic Jess twice a day. It’s not as easy a job as they make it look, & we can’t imagine at our stage of life ever training someone else up to their standard or replacing either of them & have no inclination to even try.
Another member of our integral team was Susan McKay (Auntie Susan’s Pet Services). Any time we were away Susan house sat, answered the phone to take enquiries & bookings, coped with the drop off’s & pick up’s & did the 9 pm p*e ( a job that is not as easy as it sounds, letting out sometimes up to 20 dogs you’ve never met before & expecting them to come back into their kennel when it’s dark & often in all weathers). Even when we went to New Zealand for 6 weeks the 3 girls ran the business admirably, we knew it was in safe hands and they coped with any problem as it arose.
We hope to honour the bookings we have and are still accepting new bookings up to the end of October thereafter we are going to work in a reduced capacity until the end of March when we will stop completely. We will contact you shortly if we can’t honour your booking & apologise in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. We totally understand if you wish to cancel any bookings you may have with us.
We have a lovely house in Birgham, which has great tenants in it until the end of the year. It is our intention to eventually downsize there & put Goshielaw on the market at some point in the near future. Our next big decision will be when? It really will be extremely hard to walk away from here. You never know though whoever buys it might want to run kennels.
We’d like to thank the thousands of customers both 2 legged & 4 legged that have come to us over the past 11 years, it has been a pleasure meeting you all & a joy to care for your lovely dogs. J did enjoy chatting to you when you were dropping off your dogs but was often a little bit envious to hear where you were popping off to & now we feel its our turn to do the same, while we are still fit enough. If anything good has come out of Covid it has made many people question their work/life balance.
What started out as a little paying hobby for us when John took semi retirement grew into a great wee business. We’ve always been delighted by your kind comments & positive feed back. It’s a big responsibility to look after someone else’s beloved pet & we appreciate the trust you put in us to do this. The pleasure we got from how happy your dogs were to come on their holidays was often humbling, but we certainly got a lot of pleasure back from them as well. It was never a chore & Kirsty & Fiona often commented on how they couldn’t believe they were being paid to do something they enjoyed so much (well maybe when the sun was shining, not on the wet muddy days or in a foot of snow)
If we’d been 10 years younger we would have weathered this storm & branched out into other areas ie doggie day care like a lot of other kennels locally, we wish it was different but age catches up with us all eventually.
We are so sorry to be giving you this sad news but want to thank you again for your loyal custom, we’ll miss you, the girls & of course your dogs.
With best wishes John, Elaine, Eva & of course Noodle
