No community is more attached to its animal companions than the LGBT community—the unconditional love and companionship our pets give us in a world so full of rejection have left many of us fonder of them than of our fellow humans.
Have you ever worried so much about who was going to take care of your pets that you couldn’t really enjoy your vacation, or focus on work? Enter Ann and Darlene Jacobs-Anderson, who are opening a pet boarding service called Peace Love and Paws—complete with a “brand-new, 8,500-square-foot facility offering a loving home-away-from-home for your beloved fur babies.”
Ann and Darlene have been pet sitting—in their home and in the homes of their clients—for over five years. “We kind of started out by going into homes,” Ann said. “And we still do—we get that with a lot with elderly dogs. People don’t want to put them somewhere, so we go however many times a day they want us to.”
Their move to East Nashville accelerated their turn toward opening their own pet care facility. “That’s when our dream really started to become more,” Darlene said. “We started doing it more and more. I started our Facebook page and tried to reach more people through social media.”
“So my cousin and his husband are builders here in Nashville, and they just kind of came to us one day and said, ‘We have a piece of property: what do you think about us building y’all a kennel?’ That was truly a lifelong dream for both of us,” Darlene said.
The location of the new facility is just off Trinity Lane, and is slated to open soon. “We don’t have an official opening date—it’s still being built and rain has put us behind,” Darlene said. “Reasonably we hope to be open by the end of June. And of course we’re still taking dogs in our home, including some extended stays.”
“We designed this place with how we’d want our animals treated in mind. I don’t want to take my dog to a kennel where they’re going to be alone for twelve hours! So we’ve taken our experience—and I’m a nut about my animals and who takes care of them,” Ann admitted, “and turned it into, ‘Well what can we do to make it better?’”
The facility will have regular employees in the building 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. This was important to them because, as Ann said. “We’ve done our research and so many of the places keep them in for twelve or so hours.” In addition the facility will have a live-in, onsite manager.
The size of the facility allows them to accommodate many different sizes, ages, and breeds safely. ”We have our indoor playroom and three separate play areas outside, so we can keep large dogs and smaller dogs apart—they’ll never overlap… We also have indoor-outdoor kennels for the ‘misunderstoods’,” Ann added. “We aren’t gonna turn anyone away or discriminate against breeds.”
“Like I said,” Ann said, “we are just making it how we would want it for our animals. We did a lot of research and found a lot of places left the animals for a long time overnight, and with no one on site… I mean what if a fire breaks out? They have an alarm to call someone but we have someone there to evacuate the animals. We have a whole evacuation plan. Again, this is just what we’d want for our animals.”
So if you’re still looking for that perfect place to take care of your precious pets, have a chat with Ann, Darlene or the staff of Peace Love and Paws—no doubt your animals will love them. For more information visit peacelovepawsnashville.com or the company Facebook page.
Photo at top by Laurie Holloway