Hearth and Hound owner, Alexis Montgomery, left, manager and trainer Michelle Turner and employee Mackenzie Rathbun are ready to welcome dogs to the day care.
Some minor renovation work is being completed at the space. This room is used for the dogs.
Hearth and Hound also offers cat boarding with four indoor catios.
LEE, Mass. — Alexis Montgomery was disappointed on returning to the Berkshires to find the dog day-care she'd used was closing.
So she started her own.
Hearth and Hound opened at 915 Pleasant St., which used to house Love Us and Leave Us.
"My dog was a customer here and so I always thought about like what would it be like to work with animals, too," Montgomery said. "So I saw a Facebook post from the owner of Love Us and Leave Us saying that she was going to be selling the building and I called up Adams Bank."
She decided to take the jump to start her own pet day care, closing on the building on Feb. 13.
Montgomery said she has always had a love for animals and grew up volunteering at the local humane society and worked at a pet store after high school.
"When I was a little girl I always wanted to be a veterinarian. And I've always been obsessed with animals," she said. "I used to carry around books of different dog breeds and I would memorize them and just like tell people about dogs all the time."
Montgomery was a nurse at Berkshire Medical Center from 2008 through 2017 before moving to the state of Florida.
"My thought process is if the community trusted me because I worked at BMC for so long to care for their relatives when they were sick then hopefully they will trust me to care for their animals which are members of our family," she said.
Hearth and Hound held a soft opening on March 24. The building is still getting some minor renovations and painting, but it opened for day care and boarding.
The facility can take up to 20 dogs for overnight boarding and up to five cats unless two cats can stay in one catio with pet owners permission.
It has four big play areas and two small yards so that different dogs can be together or separated if needed when outside.
Hearth and Hound also offers wash and nail trim and Montgomery hopes to add grooming services in May once renovations are complete.
She has put much thought into the space, down to colors of the walls, making sure the animals can see those colors.
"The paint colors and everything that I picked out I put a lot of thought into what the animals like. Even the lighting, see how bright the lighting is, it's because dogs actually find daylight soothing," she explained. "The paint colors, too. We picked paint colors that dogs can see."
She also plans to add dog training and a puppy class and add weekends dedicated to one-on-one enrichment activities for reactive dogs.
"I was thinking of doing things specifically for the reactive dogs that can't be in day care," Montgomery said. "We don't offer day care on weekends, so on weekends, I would be able to have reactive dogs come in and do activities one at a time."
Her future goals are to partner with local businesses for events.
"I know someone else is opening up a Pilates studio and we are talking about doing yoga and puppies in this room," she said.
Pets are required to be up to date on all of their vaccinations, be on heartworm and flea preventatives, as well as a current dog license. Cats and dogs must be spayed/neutered to join day care.
Cats must be indoor only in response to avian flu risk.
Hearth and Hound's day care is open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and boarding is open seven days a week. More information and to book an appointments here.
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The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.
Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director.
Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.
The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.
"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.
Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.
"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."
One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.
Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.
"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.
They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.
"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.
The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.
Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.
"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said.
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