Customer ReviewsforPonderosa Pet Resort

Our beautiful 9 1/2 month old ******** terrier perished in this kennel fire. It was his first night of his stay there that he died. We are still heartbroken. A young woman employee called the morning after the fire to tell us there had been an incident at the kennel. I thought maybe our dog had been injured or in a fight. Then she said there had been a fire. I asked if he or any of the dogs had been hurt. Then she told me all 75 dogs boarded there died. We were dumbstruck. I asked if they couldnt get them out of the building into the play yards, she then said no one was at the kennel to monitor them. The website told of 24/7 monitoring but running a camera with no one to monitor set up the disaster that occurred. The fire was reported after drivers on IH 35 saw the flames. I ended up consoling the crying young woman who had the hideous duty of calling pet owners. We were shocked not to get any info from the owner for several days then reading his cheery email about reopening- we were sickened by his attitude.

This establishment is no resort -- and the owner, is responsible for negligence, LACK OF KENNEL PERMIT CONFIRMED BY THE CITY, and the death of 75 precious dogs. He knowingly had shoddy electrical work, with multiple shocks and sparks the day before the fire. There was also NO ONE monitoring these animals overnight. This place is responsible for the largest animal fire in *****************. Why would you ever want to bring your animals here?? Please do not support this man or any "business" he claims to run. Just ****** "Ponderosa Pet Fire" if you have any doubts.

A couple of nights ago, 75 animals perished in a fire at this facility. There was no attendant on duty and no sprinkler system in the building.

We used Ponderosa a few times to board our dog. We never would have done that had we known that the owner does not care about the dogs that they supposedly care for. Their building burnt down after the owner and staff left the dogs locked in their kennels for 12 hours overnight. They did not have a kennel license, smoke alarms or sprinkler system. 75 dogs died to due to the owners negligence and he should never be able to work in the pet industry again.

People take and PAY large amounts for their babies "pets" to stay at places like this because they TRUST that they will be Cared for, SAFE, Supervised, and hopefully Loved. This places has proven that is not the case. 75 LIVES LOST! No ONE Onsite to Monitor, 7 pm until 7 a.m. Monday through Friday it is unmonitored, no humans; with the weekends even less onsite supervision; no one there to use a fire extinguisher, or Call 911, or Open up Kennels to release pets away from the smoke and fire. No Fire Alarms, or sprinkler systems, instead by-passers (after it was TOO late) who saw the flames coming out of the metal building called 911 for help! Obviously, no one monitoring video surveillance from afar (pathetic anyways). This owner knowingly was also operating without a Kennel permit which is Required here. The last time the building which held valuable lives was Inspected was in 2015 (according to records). Accountability must be Enforced. Unfortunately, the way this Kennel is set up, there are no indoor/outdoor kennels. If this were the case, doors could have been programmed to automatically open when the smoke/fire detector, that clearly did not exist went off. Instead, it is a LARGE metal box with no escape. Read the social media posts that are rapidly being removed of this owners distain for the clients/owners/pet families that he collects money from. He is rude and mocking them. Yes, I have the posts saved. He deli/gently along with his supporters removed all of the negative posts from ****** reviews directly after this tragedy happens. Anyone who says or writes anything about this is negatively struck out against, including myself in an attempts to shut us/me up.If he had nothing to hide or be ashamed or guilty for, he would have been standing next to me and my spouse when we arrived to try to help with these babies that very sad night. We stayed for hours....the next day, he would have been there to console the families of those who truly lost, the victims, the pets and their families. Instead, no where to be found. He would have called each and every one of them and told them what happened and shared his remorse. Instead, he had some of his young employees do this. He would have been present all of Sunday and Monday to console and care for these families, he was not. Unfortunately, he had some respectable employees and some Not so, at the gate where our community has set up a memorial (not for him, but for the pets that are lost). One of these employees/family members actually lashed out on the grieving parents, stating "You could have taken your dog somewhere else". How disgusting and insulting to revictimize the victim. This is some of what is going on there at his business. Someone from this facility "checked out" the dogs from their system and the families received auto generated emails from him, thanking them and reviewing what they should expect from their pets now that they are home only adding insult to injury. The pet families have been texting, emailing, reaching out on social media to this owner wanting to begin their closure to get their babies back in their arms so that they can make final arrangements. once again they are being denied this common courtesy of a response by this owner. Then he submits a letter to the media that acknowledges his own grief first in the evening of Monday, September 20th, 2021. I understand that despite how respectful I have been for ALL persons involved, including this owner (until now), that I have been suspended from social media comments due to this owners support in the community. MORE than ONE Police Officer was impacted by this! an ********* officer, the owner and a CURRENT OFFICER who just lost her life and battle with COVID and NOW her 2 precious babies. THIS EVENT WAS AVOIDABLE! BE the Change! Make and Enforce Legislation for ALL KENNELS and Vet Clinics that offer over night supervision actually have such in place. Stop victimizing the Victims! PET PARENTS, PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH. This is NOT the Only place like this! Don't just put your pet anywhere because that or the other. GOD BLESS EACH OF THESE SOULS, these Families, and the Staff that understand.

As owner of Ponderosa Pet Resort in ********** **, ******* Pariss inaction following the tragic fire at his boarding facility speaks volumes. His silence is deafening. What HAS he done? 1) Managed to find time to quickly take down the business ******** page.2) Let his young employees take the heat and make the tricky emotional calls to the pet owners of 75 animals that died in his care. Many members in the owners grief group on FB are asking why ***** did not call them personally.3) For 40 hours after the tragedy, ***** failed to make even the simplest of public statements about the ongoing investigation and express any grief or remorse for the families.4) He is, however, finding time to scrub his personal ******** page and ****** reviews.5) ***** finally found time to email the owners of the 75 pets who died in his care to notify them that he and The Ponderosa suffered a devastating fire, that the business is struggling to rebuild and will reopen - and a cryptic sorry about the dogs lost. His original notice on the Resort website shows that.6) Somehow, ***** failed to stop a followup aftercare email that went out to several of the owners of the dead animals, asking them for a review and if they enjoyed their stay at the Ponderosa. That had to hurt.******* ***** has been very busy since the tragic fire in his boarding facility, but very little of that has involved being supportive of his staff - or more importantly - the families of the 75 animals who died in his care.From lack of basic fire safety measures, to poor handling of clients post-tragedy, Mr. ***** has been a classic example of absolutely what NOT to do at every turn.

My daughter's two dogs were kept in the care of this facility for training. They are now dead. Someone needs to explain why. Supposedly there are "security systems and closed circuit video monitoring systems," yet a passerby called 911. There needs to be some explanation and responsibility taken here. Yet to hear from the owner. Tragic.