Despite the eccentric lot dimensions of our new home (135 feet x 1321 feet), one of the things that attracted us to it was the 30 x 36 metal building erected on a concrete pad, ideal for a new kennel building.

Since they arrived here from Ohio in late May, the dogs have been housed in crates in the garage, an arrangement neither they nor us enjoyed at all. Young, energetic dogs need time and room to run and play and even the older ones like a chance to tear around for a while. Having them crated like that not only restricted their activity but it also took us an hour or more to exercise everyone in their social groups of two and three. Do that three times a day and that’s quite a bit of time taken up.

Well, our house in Ohio sold in late August after being on the market only 12 days, a testimony to my lovely bride’s labors and her taste in getting it ready. With the money from the sale, we could now go ahead and renovate our building to house the dogs. The idea was to insulate it, put in water, electricity and air conditioning, surround the building with a 10 foot apron of concrete, add dog doors and pens inside and runs outside for the critters.

There was one small problem. After a heavy Gulf Coast rain, the building looked like it was surrounded by a moat. Here’s what it looked like after getting six inches of rain in one afternoon.

Even though the water drained away in a couple of days, considering all the venemous and verminous creatures that could be living in the swamp we couldn’t have outside runs where the dogs could be exposed to them. So the entire area around the building had to be built up by about a foot. The soil for this came from the pond at the back of the property, which the contractors dug up and moved. Sure enough, our back yard ended up looking like the Western Front.

Eventually, even though it never seemed like it would, the job was finished. The dogs were moved out last week and are now happy to be out in the sunshine and free to move around. We’re delighted too, not only that the job is done but also at getting a few hours of our day back.

Who knows? Some day, grass may even grow out back again!