The Animal Keeper

AK broke my dog

BEWARE IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR PETS!!!

Here's our sad tale...

On Mar 5, 09 at about 1pm I got a call from the manager at Animal Keeper saying that my little 3.5 lb chihuahua had gone out to the potty yard and "came back in with a limp". She led us to believe that he was fine and it was nothing to worry about. She said that he must have 'slipped' out in the yard. When we picked up our dogs that eve at 7pm, the wawa was SCREAMING from pain. The staff person responsible for his injury became hysterical and confessed to dropping him while she was carrying BOTH of our small dogs (under 7 lbs) out to the yard. As far as I'm concerned, they have NO BUSINESS carrying ANY dogs EVER, let alone 2 dogs at the same time. That's what leashes are for. We rushed over to CVS Emergency (great people!) and found out our dog's leg was broken.

Our dog had surgery to fix his little leg on 3/7/09. I submitted the first round of medical bills (over $4500) via fax to the manager on Mon 3/9. She didn't respond IN ANY WAY. On 3/27, 2-1/2 weeks later, I faxed addit'l bills bringing the total to just under $5000. I was NOT happy, and still NO response from the Animal Keeper.

Someone eventually passed my faxes on to the CEO, because she was the person who finally called me back, almost a month AFTER the incident! She of course apologized profusely for the manager's behavior, said that person was no longer with the company, asked after my dog's health, and offered me a cash reimbursement OR A CREDIT to be used at the Keeper - AS IF!!! So they cut me a check for the current bills right away. She also gave me her direct numbers for the remaining medical bills, which were later paid in a timely manner.

Aside from their GROSS NEGLIGENCE in breaking my dog and doing nothing, what I am ALSO very unhappy about is that it wasn't just about the medical expenses. First of all, you can't compensate an owner and pet for the TRAUMA to the animal. Imagine a 3.5 lb dog getting dropped from waist height on a human. That's like 3 feet in the air! My wawa isn't even 6" tall! He also lost weight during this ordeal and went down to 3 lbs. My other problem with AK is that they couldn't care less about the time that I had to take away from my work to care for an animal that has to have a TWO MONTH recovery period CONFINED IN A CRATE. I went to the hospital 16 TIMES over the course of 3 months to get my dog fixed, at a MINimum of 1 hour each visit. We went thru a box (100 ct) of puppy pads while he was caged. I had to wash several loads of laundry due to accidents in the crates. I threw away towels and blankets when we were trying to adjust to our dog's potty/poop cycles while he was locked up. I had to POSTPONE 2 job installations during that period so that I could remain home with my dog. And nobody cared.

The insurance adjuster for AK called us afterwards - because AK didn't communicate with them either and she thought I hadn't been paid. I submitted a time and expense log to her for the addit'l costs I incurred, and do you know what they offered me??? $100. Woopee. I told her that was an insult and didn't want it. $100 barely covered the supplies we went thru. And AGAIN, my TIME and JOB and the animal meant NOTHING to them.

So I have given AK adequate opportunity to make things right. I didn't turn my case over to an attorney, but in hindsight, I should have. However, because of the terrible way in which they have handled this act of EXTREME NEGLIGENCE, right from the beginning, I will make sure that as many pet owners as possible know what they might be getting by leaving their furkids at the Keeper.

We have not had the trust to leave our animals at another boarding facility since this happened. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that again. I definitely wouldn't have gone to the Keeper if I had read a review like this one.