McAfee Animal Clinic Heading East

McAfee Animal Clinic Heading East

BY PHIL WIELAND

November 10, 2005

After about 63 years on LaPorte Avenue, the McAfee Animal Clinic is expanding and moving.

Dr. Lawrence McAfee said Tuesday he has agreed to sell the property on which the clinic and the adjacent pet hotel are located to Doppco Development Co. of Pepper Pike, Ohio. At noon on Monday, there will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the new clinic, to be located in Eastport Centre industrial park across from Ivy Tech.

"I've got real mixed feelings," McAfee said about the move. "I was born and raised there. I followed my dad around the clinic, and my daughter followed me around there. The clinic is 64 years old, so we could use a new one."

With the area surrounding the clinic enjoying a commercial development boom that started with Valparaiso Marketplace across the street from the clinic, developers are eager to buy up land to ride the coattails of such prosperity. As a result, McAfee said he "got an offer I couldn't refuse."

The current clinic was built by McAfee's father and opened in 1943. McAfee was born in the house two doors away, now occupied by Glenda Snyder's business, and the family lived next door in what is now the pet hotel for many years. McAfee's daughter is a senior studying to be a veterinarian and hopes to enter Purdue University's veterinary school next year.

The new clinic will be about twice the size of the existing one. It is being built by Chester Construction and is scheduled to open in April, he said.

"It will be state of the art, as long as the money holds out. It's going to have digital X-rays. It will be an AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) hospital, which means we will have a lot of additional standards to meet."

Doppco plans to build an 18,000-square-foot strip shopping center on the site. John Crook, architect for Doppco Development, told the city's Site Review Committee recently the one-story center probably would have five businesses.

One of the businesses probably will be a coffee shop with a drive-through window, and it might have a second restaurant, possibly a sub shop. The rest would be retail stores selling things like shoes or cell phones, based on the company's previous experience with similar shopping centers, he said.

McAfee said the larger facility will mean more exam rooms, bigger exam rooms and the need to hire more people. Although not excited to see another shopping center built, McAfee said he is excited about the prospects of having a new hospital. That feeling is tempered by his emotional attachment to the current site.

"It's hard," he said. "It's hard. The money is everything, but, from the heart, it is hard."

Luxurious pet hotel to open at Narita

A large pet hotel, with a capacity for holding 250 dogs, cats and other small animals, will open Thursday at the Terminal 2 car park building at Narita International Airport near Tokyo.

The Pet Inn Royal, which provided a preliminary viewing to news organizations, features air conditioning and air purifiers for all of the 170 "rooms" that range in price from 4,000 yen per night for a cage-type accommodation to 20,000 yen for a luxurious suite. Staff are on duty 24 hours to care for pets including cats, dogs, rabbits, and small pets like hamsters.

More info about pet, please visit The Times Online.