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Photos by Ron Burkett.
Gail Weiss, a former Deputy U.S. Marshal and longtime canine lover and rescuer, is channeling her passion for animals to open a dog day care center in Trussville.
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The Dog Stop is expected to open in January and will be located at 3227 Mary Taylor Road in Trussville. The dog day care will feature luxury boarding accommodations, an interactive and social play time experience and a retail store with food and treats.
Since 1993, Gail Weiss’ career path has been clear: protecting the judicial process. Her work as a deputy U.S. marshal, sometimes requiring travel for several weeks at a time, was full of secretive assignments leaving her favorite four-legged companion, a dachshund named Gretchen, at home in the care of her father.
Important tasks, sometimes dangerous, required Weiss to protect the federal judiciary, serve the agency and even transport dangerous fugitives, such as Atlanta Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, when she was assigned as the deputy in charge. Most importantly, Weiss lived by the agency’s core values: justice, integrity and service. It was life she knew well.
While fulfilling her responsibilities, Weiss always managed to protect and serve her fellow four-legged friends. Similar to her work, Weiss always seemed to put the needs of her furry friends before herself.
“We went to make an arrest for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) at a halfway house in downtown Birmingham,” Weiss said. “There was a little dog lying underneath a car. I saw it. It was emaciated, no hair, and it had motor oil all over it.”
Weiss said once she saw the dog, she picked it up and asked a worker at the halfway house if they would look after it until she got off work to pick it up. They agreed to look after the dog until she returned. “I brought it home, and that’s where it began,” Weiss said, referring to her rescue mission for dogs.
“Her name was Barkley,” Weiss said. “I took her to the vet and was able to give her a home right away to someone who worked at the vet.”
About a month later, Weiss went back to the halfway house on an assignment and discovered another stray dog. “I found Bentley,” Weiss said. “She had a broken tail. Someone had put a rubber-band on the end of her tail to try to get the tail to fall off.”
“I ended up keeping her along with my three other dogs,” she said. “I named her Bentley because of her tail. Best dog I ever had.”
This is where Weiss’ passion of canine rescue began. “I would find dogs on the street while I was working,” Weiss said. “I tried to focus on the ones that really needed help.” She points out that she once had 15 pups of her own.
Nine months ago, Weiss began to think of a different career path after a fellow deputy marshal was killed in the line of duty. “It just stopped making sense,” she said. After serving more than 24 years with the U.S. Marshall Service, Weiss retired in May.
Weiss had been kicking around the idea of a dog sitter business for years. In fact, a fellow deputy, now a supervisor deputy in Colorado, knew her passion and helped Weiss locate the Dog Stop franchise online. “He is always 10 steps ahead,” Weiss said. “He said, ‘Look at this.’”
With a love for animals and fostering dogs, Weiss saw an opportunity and took that first step into a new business accepting a challenge. “To me, this business venture makes more sense than anything in the world now,” she said.
“This is kind of befitting because everyone has said that my whole world revolves around dogs, and now it will revolve around dogs in a good way,” she said. “This time it’s not going to bad and sad, it’s going to be happy, and it will be my livelihood. Plus, I will continue fostering.”
The Dog Stop, expected to open in January, will feature luxury boarding accommodations, an interactive and social day care experience and a retail store with food and treats.
“My goal is to provide a service and accommodate the needs of the people of Trussville,” said Weiss, who aims to provide services 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Weiss, a longtime volunteer with Cleveland’s Paths Animal Rescue, said the key to a successful experience for the dogs is to let them play outside instead of staying confined in kennels.
Located in a two-story former office building, the brick building is 8,250 square feet of office and warehouse space with plans of boarding, kennels, day care, grooming, rollup doors for inside/outside run time and play areas.
“I want to make sure they have a great time here and have enough energy to play when they get home to love on you,” Weiss said.
Look for the Dog Stop at 3227 Mary Taylor Road.
