(LEWES, Del.) -- You've heard of "all work and no play" but at one Sussex County pet kennel all play and no work makes for one happily ever after.
Never Neverland Kennel and Cattery, located in Lewes off Cedar Grove Road, is owned by Allen Quillen, Jr. He gave WRDE a grand tour around the 10-acre facility featuring several kennel areas suited for different pet needs.
"It's quite a lot of fun actually for the dogs," said Quillen Jr. as he presented outdoor kennels complete with roofs and windows so the dogs can see and chat with one another.
"Now they can see their neighbors and they'll bark and they'll go crazy."
Neverland Kennel is an old, homegrown Delawarean family business first launched by Quillen Jr.'s parents.
"I've owned this business since '99. And we established this place, my mother, [as] a family business, in 1975," Quillen Jr. said.
Dogs of different breeds, shapes and sizes housed in kennels made of concrete encased in the most durable kind of metal wire fencing barked and gruffed and sniffed in curious protest as the WRDE camera zoomed past down a narrow hallway.
"We run about 50 pens in here, indoor outdoor runs," said Quillen Jr as he walked us from an outdoor kennel space to an indoor one.
"This is where we like to keep our pets. It's air conditioned or heated in here. They eat and sleep and peace without their neighbors bothering them, then they have the doggie door in the wall and they go outside to the run," he said describing the boarding quarters.
"Even though they have the inside and the outside they come out here and it's just terrorizing. You know, and it's a lot of fun," Quillen added.
A childhood fascination with the fairytale of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, and the mystical far-off world he lived in is what Quillen credits as the namesake of the family business.
"When I was little, I used to listen to Peter Pan records and that's how it all started. It's Neverland. This is a place where the little dogs and cats can come and they never grow up and they play like kids."
As Quillen Jr. recalled the kennel's origins, he also recalled memories of his father who started the business for his mother, an avid animal lover.
"My late father who's passed," Quillen said, "he built this kennel for my mother to start housing dogs as the people came into town and they gave them a place for their pets. And it's a good thing though, so many people come to the beach and they don't know what to do with their dogs. And then they get caught up."
Quillen said using a kennel is a great, humane way for pet parents to enjoy a carefree day responsibly.
Quillen credits Neverland's success to the dedication of his staff.
"I have an excellent staff. If you can't find an employee, you look in one of the pens and that's where they're sitting," he said.
One of the kennel's youngest staff members happens to be Quillen's 11-year old daughter who's enjoying the last week of summer vacation before starting the sixth grade at Sussex Academy.
"She's learning all the tricks of the trade now. And it's just a matter of making pets comfortable," he said.
Athena tells WRDE about how she trains both the kennel guests and her own dog, a Maltese named Tingle.
"I trained her, when she was a little younger, to come. Right now we're trying to work on sit," said Athena.
So the sayings may go on as, "all play and no work," or "all bark and no bites," or something to that effect, but at the end of the day, the Neverland Kennel prides itself on one motto: a place where pets get to play like kids who never have to grow up.
