This is Carol Nelson, former owner of Snuggle 'n Snooze Inn, as I finally decided to retire.
On June 2, my beloved pet boarding facility was purchased by Bo & Co. They will continue operating in the same beautiful location in the woods just 5 miles East of Park Rapids at Dorset Corner. Please contact them at:
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Email: Info@bocopr.com
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Website: bocopr.com
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Phone: 218-207-1427
For my friends and pet families, I wanted to share the following message with you:
I moved to the Park Rapids area in 2003. In 2010, I decided it was time for a new home for my pets as well as a new career. I needed to move forward; yet still be able to keep my beloved dogs, cats, rabbit, ducks and chickens: my best friends and rescuers. After a great deal of thought, I came up with the idea to create my own pet care facility.
After researching other boarding facilities I decided I wanted to take a different approach to what I found was the traditional way of pet boarding.
Most facilities typically consisted of dogs being kept indoors in rooms, or in dog crates/kennels, where they were taken outside a few times each day to relieve themselves. My past experience with that kind of a boarding environment was that it created a lot of anxiety in the dogs (as well as the caregivers), excessive pent up energy in the pets and a lot of indoor accidents.
Upon watching my pet ducks go in and out of their duck house at their leisure through little "duckie doors" a thought occurred:
Why not build a facility for pets that allowed dogs the same luxury of going inside and outside from their private indoor room through a doggy door, to the safety of their private outdoor dog run, whenever they wanted? By doing so they had the freedom and luxury of leisurely enjoying the scenery of the beautiful wooded area outside surrounding their "home away from home" while allowing them to relieve themselves when they needed to, not when they were allowed to. A setting like this meant dogs not having to "hold it" waiting their turn while other barking dogs were being let outside. And BONUS! By being able to go outside whenever they wanted to, they were able to burn off excess energy as they were able to run back and forth whenever they wanted!
I also decided that instead of putting smaller pets such as cats, rats, birds, tortoises, frogs, ferrets, bunnies, reptiles, hedgehogs, turtles, fish (yes, fish) etc. into cages or pet "condos", why not give them private rooms with windows instead?! I knew cats would love jumping up into their window perch to watch the outside wildlife, or just take a nap, all from the safety of their private room. Meanwhile, the smaller creatures (like bunnies and guinea pigs) would be able to enjoy the sunshine streaming into their room while they scampered around on the floor in the safety of their rooms.
During my research of various pet facilities I discovered, and subsequently enrolled in, a National Pet Expo being held in Chicago, Illinois in September of 2010 to learn still more about pet boarding. Following that, my journey began!
Starting with my first sketches of the buildings that I personally laid out and designed, I was involved with every step of building the safest pet care facility possible! From having all electric energy with in-floor heat (no risk of CO2 poisoning while pets could lie on a heated floor in the cold of winter) and split AC (no risk of disease causing contaminates blowing through vents), to the secured outside fenced-in area protecting and surrounding all of the outside dog runs, every facet of pet comfort and safety was considered in my building design.
In addition to designing a comfortable and safe environment I was also the General Contractor during all phases of construction. I chose the building materials and selected and consulted with my contractors. I did as much of the manual labor I was able to do myself, from epoxying the cement floors, to staining, sealing and painting, not to mention the installation of the dog runs and fencing, burying hardware cloth and laying blocks in the outside runs to prevent dogs from digging out (and predators from digging in), etc.
It never stopped being a work in progress as I continually strived to improve outdoor runs and indoor rooms over the years. I put the health, safety and comfort of each pet under my care above my own wants and needs because that was the right way to take care of other owners’ beloved pets/family members! It was truly a labor of love, always keeping the comfort and safety of the many wonderful pets I cared for and loved over the years as my foremost goal!
My sixteen years of planning and building (from the ground up) in a forest setting chosen for not only for its beauty but as an environment for pets of all kinds as well, however, went by all too quickly! As my many years of building, growing and nurturing an amazing pet care business passed, I found myself well past retirement age. Thus I had to make the decision that it was time to hand over the reigns of ownership of my beloved Snuggle 'n Snooze Inn to a new buyer/owner.
A few short months later, along came the new owner of my beloved pet boarding facility, formerly known as "Snuggle 'n Snooze Inn". The official closing was June 2, 2026.
Located at the same beautiful wooded location:
20151 Eddie Baxter Drive, just 5 miles East of Park Rapids, Minnesota
Bo & Co. is now the place to contact for pet boarding in the beautiful Park Rapids, Minnesota area.
I want to extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to all of my (former) customers for their continued patronage over the years! I am touched and sincerely overwhelmed by past (and new) customers' wishes and heartfelt acts of kindness to me as I enter my next new life adventure.
I will miss my regular pets and their people and hope they all know how grateful I am to have met them, and had the privilege of caring for their sweet pets over the years!
With love and well wishes to all!
Carol Nelson
Snuggle 'n Snooze Inn
