When Kate McGregor walks into Crate Escape Pet Resort and Spa, she is entering more than another business venture. The Richmond, Virginia, facility is the brick-and-mortar realization of a goal she began pursuing more than a decade ago, when a hip replacement gave her the chance to return to the animal-care work she had once been forced to leave behind.
McGregor, an Adam & Eve franchise store owner, now divides her entrepreneurial attention between two industries that rarely overlap. One revolves around pleasure retail, while the other provides daycare, boarding and grooming for small dogs. The businesses may be different, but both have demanded resilience, careful leadership and an ability to earn customers’ trust.
Her interest in pet care began long before Crate Escape. McGregor grew up showing her dog through the 4-H youth program and worked at a veterinary center after college. She loved the field and was advancing in it, but hip dysplasia gradually made the physical demands of restraining and handling animals untenable. She earned a paralegal degree and spent several years working in law instead.
After receiving a hip replacement at age 30 in 2015, McGregor faced a choice: continue toward law school and an office-based career or return to the work she had missed. Three months later, she launched Crate Escape Pet Care, an in-home dog-walking and pet-sitting business in the Richmond area.
The company grew steadily until COVID-19 brought demand to an abrupt stop in 2020. With clients staying home, many no longer needed dog walkers or pet sitters. At the same time, McGregor’s father died and she inherited his Adam & Eve store in Massachusetts. She redirected her attention toward learning the retail business while the future of pet care remained uncertain.
Then a real estate agent called about an established small-dog facility in Richmond. McGregor had already planned to develop a physical location for her pet-care company before the pandemic, and the opportunity offered a way to revive that vision without starting a facility entirely from the ground up. She began the purchase process in 2021 and took ownership in February 2022. The business, founded as Petite Pet Inn in 2006, became Crate Escape Pet Resort and Spa.
Several employees who stayed during the ownership change remain with Crate Escape, as does the manager who moved over from McGregor’s original pet-care business. Key team members, including the manager, receptionist, chaperones and groomers, have years of experience with the company.
For McGregor, retention is not simply an operational metric. It is part of the service. Dogs benefit from continuity, and owners are more comfortable when familiar people care for their pets.
“The ability to read dog behavior and interact with the dogs is so important,” she stresses. “We want to make sure that when things do get stressful, they can still manage the dogs.”
The resort’s environment reflects the same individualized approach. Crate Escape caters exclusively to dogs weighing 25 pounds or less, or standing 13 inches or shorter. Its cage-free daycare includes a quiet “Couch Potato Lounge” for older or tired dogs, along with indoor and outdoor play areas equipped with ramps, stairs and toys. A bone-shaped splash pool, nicknamed Bone Lago, offers both water play and a gentle mist for dogs that prefer not to jump in.
“We try to accommodate all the personality types,” McGregor said. “They may want to play one minute and want a quiet space to recharge the next. We’re always paying attention to the dogs and what they’re telling us.”
Once Crate Escape was up and running under her ownership, McGregor and her team began making daycare feel like “summer camp all year long.” Activities include pet-safe paw paintings, pool parties, rotating photo booths, birthday portraits and visits with Santa.
Behind the playful extras is a serious commitment to value. McGregor recognizes that dog daycare is a discretionary expense, particularly when household budgets are tight. She wants owners to see that their pets receive enrichment, attentive care and a clean, welcoming environment in return. She applies the same thinking to employees by offering full-time staff health care, paid time off and a 401(k), along with what she describes as a living wage.
“I really believe in taking care of and supporting the staff,” she emphasizes. “That is why I have people who have been there for four and a half years or more.”
McGregor has looked for practical crossover between Crate Escape and Adam & Eve, but service and retail require very different operating models. The overlap instead emerges through humor, from sex toy-inspired dog toys displayed in her office to Tod, her adorable Pomeranian, charming Adam & Eve shoppers.
Looking ahead, McGregor would like to open a second facility for larger dogs while preserving Crate Escape’s small-dog exclusivity. Experience showed her the value of a dedicated environment for smaller animals, particularly those intimidated by bigger playmates. A separate location could extend the same daycare, boarding and grooming model without sacrificing that specialization.
For now, she is proud of how far the business has come. What began with a new hip and a dog-walking route survived a pandemic, a personal loss and a turbulent acquisition before becoming the stable resort she once imagined.
“I am happy and content with how far I've come, watching my business grow from starting a dog-walking business to opening a brick-and-mortar that's now 4-and-a-half years old,” McGregor reflects with pride.
