By Susan de Castro McCann

Redstone Review Editor

BOULDER – If you are thinking of getting your pet clipped for relief from the summer heat, save the fur.

You can be part of a gigantic plan headed up by the Camp Bow Wow outlets across the country, which are collecting all types of fur and even human hair to stuff into nylon stockings and be fastened together to form something called a boom. These booms will be floated out into the Gulf of Mexico to help mop up the oil spill.

Camp Bow Wow is a full-service pet care facility which offers boarding, trips to the vet or groomer, home care and many other amenities, owned by Heidi Ganahl, a CU Boulder grad. Her company is based in Boulder and she now has 108 camps nationwide.

“I started Camp Bow Wow ten years ago with one camp in downtown Denver,” said Ganahl. “We board and we also have day camp where dogs can come and play with other dogs, separated by size, all day. For boarding they stay in individual cabins. I loved dogs growing up and my first husband and I had two big mutts. We could never find good places to leave them. We started a business plan to open up dog camps and then my husband was killed in a plan crash. I was 27.”

Ganahl said she drifted for about five years until her brother talked her into looking over her business plan again. That was ten years ago. She will open 15 new camps this year along with 50 Home Buddies, where the staff members go to the pet’s home and attend to the animals. “We also have a Bark and Ride where we take pets to the groomer or the vet or to our day camps,” she said. “Our camp business is up by 26 percent this year. We have camps in 40 states.”

The Wall Street Journal and the Woman Presidents’ Organization named Ganahl one of the top 50 women in business. The Denver Business Journal named Ganahl one of the outstanding women in business. She was also named to Inc. 500 fastest growing private companies. Annual gross revenues for Camp Bow Wow were $4.5 million in 2009 for the actual franchise industry.

Camp Bow Wow sites are planning dates (to be announced) when a dog or cat can bring in pets to be combed with the Furminator, a hand-held tool that brushes off the undercoat. The booms will be made by Matter of Trust. “If Matter of Trust can’t handle the volume, we will make the mats at the camps,” said Ganahl.

For now you can bring your pet hair in plastic or paper bags to the Camp Bow Wow in Boulder, located at 3631 Pearl St. Owner is Sue Ryan can be reached at 303-442-2261. For more information on the camps go to www.CampBowWow.com/Boulder.

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