City has pet store, with more

Keith Thompson with his dog Koda in the fish section of his new pet shop, Barkleys On the River, in Whangarei. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Keith Thompson won't miss the occasional argy-bargy that came as a consequence of enforcing council bylaws in Whangarei and Kaipara districts for 24 years.

The former ENL Northland owner-operator, together with wife Carol and daughters Rebekah and Makayla (part-time), have started a new venture offering a unique service to pet owners in Whangarei.

The business is called Barkleys on the River, a mix of the traditional pet services with "add-ons".

ENL Northland's contract with the Whangarei and Kaipara district councils ended in September last year when Armourguard took over both councils' enforcement activities, including parking, animal control, noise control and swimming pool inspections.

ENL had held the contract for more than 20 years during which there had been, understandably, various challenges resulting from the business doing several thousand jobs a month.

Keith says the closing of that chapter and the start of a new one has been refreshing.

"I am really enjoying what I am doing, I am not in conflict with people when they break the law and I don't have to worry about the organisation I am contracted to not supporting us," he said.

The Thompsons have always been pet owners counting cats, dogs, rabbits, lizards, turtles and many different types of birds as extensions of the family.

Over the years, they visited many pet shops both in New Zealand and Australia.

Keith observed that during the past 25 years there had been a massive change in retail trading in general and the same was happening with pet supplies.

"They seem to have trended toward the huge chain stores and, as with many of these operations, they cannot have expertise on all the products they sell."

Keith says they thought getting get back to the basics as much as possible while still offering all the modern aspects could work.

"We wanted to mix animals (and products) for sale with display (not for sale) animals, reptiles and birds.

"We also wanted a large emphasis in education - how to care for your pets and to give them the best life, both mentally and physically.

"After a lot of thought and research we concluded that surviving with just a retail pet shop in Whangarei was not feasible and we needed some 'add-ons' to give value for money to the Whangarei public and to create a thriving and interesting business," he said.

Barkleys On the River was born.

Keith says the process of setting up Barkleys has taken about two years.

"It took about two months to find a suitable building that was in the right location and three months to clean and alter the building, build all the fittings from scratch."

There's still about three months work left, he says.

The business, located at 83 Port Rd, offers a mix of live animals and all the supplies people need to keep them. Barkleys will introduce a full dog (and cat) wash and grooming service on Monday, January 30.

Barkleys Bark Park will offer a supervised dog day care service from 6am-6pm Monday to Friday.

Another "add-on" is Barkleys End Of Life Services (cremation). There's also Pet Sitting for when people have to leave their pets behind when going on holiday or even just for a few hours while in town shopping. This includes bird, reptile and fish sitting.

Last but not least on the "add-ons" list is live food for reptiles, fish and birds - meal worms, crickets, slaters, grasshoppers.

Keith says he learnt a great deal from his time with ENL Northland and as an animal control officer with the council before then.

"I guess that if you do not learn and take from any business that you are in, you are not moving forward," he said. "I believe that I am not the same person who began working in Animal Control in 1993.

"I have learnt to think and to weigh up decisions, I have learnt to manage [up to 26] staff and not to over-react to a peculiar situation but to think it through, solve it and move on."