Yokosuka’s Navy Exchange, or NEX, hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the NEX Kennel's Grand Re-Opening Paw-ty on Main Base July 17.
The facility boasts an outdoor dog run, 40 new boarding kennels – including a cat room and three large dog kennels – and pet grooming services.
Jimmy Green is the NEX Services Manager. He said the NEX Kennel can also board up to three animals for quarantine. Later this summer, the facility will be “expanding to at least 18 quarantine kennels,” he said. “We have a vendor in Saitama [Prefecture] who will be bringing the gear and completing the installation themselves in the next few weeks,” Green said.
The kennel’s quarantine expansion project will provide more pet owning families the option to bring their furry family members to Japan and be able to finish the Government of Japan’s animal quarantine requirements once complete.
The kennel had temporarily closed it’s doors in January this year for it’s planned overhaul.
“The Navy Exchange took over the kennel from MWR many moons ago, but didn’t have the opportunity to renovate the building then or in the years that followed,” Navy Exchange Yokosuka general manager, Charlene DuBose, said before the ribbon cutting. “Everyone involved in this project did an incredible job and I know the community will love the work they accomplished once they step inside.”
The nearly six-month project temporarily halted the Yokosuka kennel from offering boarding services, including those required for animal quarantine, and had temporarily shifted pet grooming services to Ikego Heights Family Housing.
Ikego community members will see “the NEX Beauty Salon re-opening soon,” Green said. “We’re currently sanitizing the space now and will be moving equipment in for it’s scheduled August 2 re-opening.”
The kennel renovation is part of the installation’s “commitment to our pet-loving families,” Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY), Capt. Les Sobol, said. “When the Navy Exchange is involved, good things happen. We’re very fortunate to have such a caring and amazing group of people working here.”
In addition to the kennel, the installation also hosts three dog parks shared between Main Base and Ikego Heights, multiple dog waste plastic bag stations maintained by the base’s Girls Scouts troop, the U.S. Army’s Yokosuka Veterinary Treatment Facility (VTF), an all-volunteer animal shelter named Pets Are Worth Saving (PAWS), pet-friendly rooms at the Navy Lodge and Navy Gateway Inns & Suites, pet-friendly Navy Housing assignments, and a full “PCSing with Pets” series going over the animal quarantine process to preparing pets for international travel as part of the #WelcomeAboardYokosuka campaign.
In Fall 2022, Seabees from CFAY Public Works used on-hand and salvaged materials to construct an emergent dog park just south of Berkey Field. It's construction took less than 30 days to complete and ensured the base community would have continued support when construction of the new Nile C. Kinnick High School began. A few months later in Spring 2023, Public Works designed and constructed two new dog parks sharing a fence line with the previous constructed park. One is for large dogs and the other for small dogs. The parks are unofficially nicknamed Barkey Field. Another dog park is located just inside Ikego Gate in Ikego Heights Family Housing.
The NEX Kennel is next to the Yokosuka VTF and conveniently located for incoming pet owners to register their pets at the VTF in accordance with installation and local policies and regulations.
For more information or to make an appointment at the NEX Kennel, please contact them at 243-4530 by DSN or 046-816-4530 by mobile phone.
Date Taken: | 07.17.2024 |
Date Posted: | 07.23.2024 06:44 |
Story ID: | 476385 |
Location: | YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JP |
Web Views: | 228 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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