Barkley House Gets A Temporary Home

An open house and ribbon cutting for Barkley House will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 14, 2009, at Stoney Creek Inn in Columbia. Barkley House is a venture to provide temporary lodging for families whose pets are receiving treatment at the University of Missouri Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH). The facility will allow pets to stay with their owners in a homelike setting, lessening anxiety for both the animals and their owners and helping to speed recovery.

The Barkley House room at Stoney Creek Inn will serve as an option for VMTH clients while the MU College of Veterinary Medicine continues fund raising efforts for a facility dedicated to the Barkley House concept. Members of the Barkley House advisory board have been working with the management at Stoney Creek Inn to set aside a room designed specifically for recovering pets. The room has been retrofitted with a non-slip, non-porous floor for easy clean-up, hypoallergenic bedding for pets and their owners, and supplies needed for animals undergoing long-term care. The room also includes a library that contains informational reading materials geared toward pet owners.

A portion of the nightly rate paid by guests to use the room will benefit Barkley House.

The open house will include food, music and comments from Dr. Neil C. Olson, College of Veterinary Medicine dean, and Dr. Carolyn Henry, a veterinary oncologist at the College who originally conceived the Barkley House concept. Stoney Creek Inn is located at 2601 Providence Road.

For additional information about the event, contact CVM Special Events Coordinator Gina Damico Landeck at 573-882-5972. For questions regarding Barkley House, contact CVM Development Officer Kelley Marchbanks at 583-882-3254.