Vacation Fun Goes to Cats and Dogs Near Brush Prairie

Like everything at Susie’s Country Inn for Dogs and Cats near Brush Prairie, the holiday decorations are overdone.

They include a life-size Santa Claus, a reindeer-drawn sleigh, a dog and cat nursery, and dazzling white lights.

All of this is superimposed on year-round features that might be considered unusual for a kennel and dog obedience school, like the gazebo and the chapel replica.

“We thought we needed a country church to go with the country school,” Kennel owner Susie Osborn drawled.

Originally from Texas, Osborn opened the kennel with her husband, Bill, in 1993 after moving from Hillsboro, Oregon. Her son and daughter-in-law help her run the business. But there is no doubt that this is Susie’s place. Her influence touches every nook and cranny, often in the form of antiques and trinkets she’s collected.

Susie’s looks more like a motel than a kennel, right down to the private suites with dog TVs ($ 52 per night).

“I never wanted my place to feel like a kennel,” she said. “I wanted me to feel at home, like you were wrapped up in it. We do everything we can to make the dogs feel really comfortable.

During the summer, Osborn festoons Susie in red, white and blue. Then she decorates for Halloween. But it is the Christmas season that really attracts him. She spends the whole month of November unwrapping boxes of decorations, so many that she can’t name a favorite. As she showed visitors around, she pointed out one item after another – a dollhouse decorated in holiday style, a “Meowy Christmas” sign, a doo dog ornament on the Christmas tree just outside. inside the entrance to the kennel.

“I like the lights. I love my nursery, ”she said. “I like all of my stuff.”

Gail Gehrke and her husband, Richard, have trusted Susie anytime to board their Newfoundlander, Sadie, for the past nine years. Gehrke urged The Columbian to present Susie’s holiday decor.

“It brings us joy,” she said. “You feel like a child again. “

Gehrke said she marveled at the extensive and carefully arranged decorations. She pointed to “Mrs. Claus Bakery” Osborn display rack installed in the kitchen window of her house, which is at the front of the property with the kennel buildings behind.

Osborn said she wasn’t much of a baker, but she first hosted this exhibit last Christmas, when COVID-19 precautions prevented her from inviting customers to her home as she normally would.

“When COVID hit, I got scared,” she said.

Business has picked up, she said. Susie’s has eight places for cats and 53 for dogs.

“I never wanted to be big,” Osborn said. “I wanted to be good. I didn’t want to be so tall that I couldn’t be good.

You can’t see all the Christmas glitter just walking past Susie’s Country Inn for Dogs and Cats, 7418 NE 159th St., but Osborn said you’re welcome to drop by during office hours. Susie’s is closed on Wednesdays, but open 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.