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A Germantown animal care center founded almost 50 years ago by one of Pennsylvania’s first Black veterinarians is still active in the community — thanks to dedication from its second-generation owner.
Over the last eight years, Greene Street Animal Care has gone through shifts in business model and branding, but the core of the business has always been focused on making every animal and owner that comes through the door feel at home, CEO Kathleen Walls told Technical.ly.
“Our motto is, we treat your pet like family,” Walls said.
This philosophy is inspired by Walls’ father, Orville R. Walls, who opened Greene Street Animal Clinic in Germantown in 1976 and provided community vet services for over 40 years.
After he died in 2017, it made sense for Walls and her family to keep the business going, especially because the clinic had become a community staple in the neighborhood.
“It was, how do we maintain this animal care in our own way,” Walls said, “yet continue the legacy that my father had set forth.”
Now, the business offers things like doggy day care and monthly wellness checks from a traveling vet, but the main focus is on boarding services.
The center prioritizes letting animals spend time outside their crates, with access to an enclosed dog park and the opportunity to roam around the building, Walls said.
“Normally there’s three or four [pets], whether they’re under the desk or behind,” she said. “We wanted to create that same type of home away from home space for them.”
Shifting the business model to meet neighborhood needs
After taking over the business, the biggest challenge for Walls and her team was to figure out what their niche was.
Walls, who is actually a clinical psychologist and not a veterinarian, decided to start by becoming a certified dog groomer. While the center no longer offers grooming, it helped introduce her to the world of animal care.
Walls’ father offered boarding services as part of his clinic, so it made sense for the business to continue that, she said.
There’s no shortage of pet care centers in Philadelphia, with 55 dog kennels in Philadelphia listed on care.com and over 200 listed on Yelp. An average night of pet boarding in Philly can cost anywhere from $50 to $70 per night, according to Rover.
However, Greene Street’s prices are purposefully lower than average, $35 per night for dogs and $30 per night for cats, to make care more accessible for its customers, Walls said.
They also had to figure out how to build their brand so they weren’t only seeing business during summer break and the December holidays.
The small business built on the community it already had in Germantown, a dedicated client base with most new business coming via word of mouth. But this new era of business also called for building relationships with other facilities, and getting referrals for animals that those other centers couldn’t take.
They also started tapping into other reasons people may need pet care, like if they experienced a medical event, traveled for work, or had an emergency and couldn’t keep their pet in their home, she said.
Some families have been with Greene Street since Walls’ father first started his clinic, she said.
“We’ve had people who even have us in their wills,” Walls said. “They’re like, if anything happens to us, they know to bring our animals to you until the family comes to get them.”
