By JEFF MORRIS
After more than 90 years of operation, Spring Hill Kennels in Katonah has emptied its pens and shut its doors for good.
Owners Hank and Mary Tschorn decided it was time to retire from the business they have run together for 42 years. The kennel’s last day of operation was Tuesday. A contract with the town of Bedford to shelter dogs has now gone to the SPCA in Briarcliff.
It was not an easy decision, the Tschorns say, but one that made sense at this point in their lives.
“It was time,” said Hank, and Mary agreed that the demands of personally overseeing the kennel, with the day-to-day responsibilities of taking care of so many animals, had finally reached its limit. “It’s a seven-day-a-week job,” they noted.
The closure marks the end of a chapter of Katonah history. Hank Tschorn’s grandfather began the business in 1934, and it has been in the family ever since. After his grandfather retired, his mother ran the kennel, and Hank started working there when he was 8 years old.
Along the way, Hank got a degree in engineering from what was then called the State University College at Buffalo. It was there he met Mary, who grew up on a farm outside Albany and was obtaining a master’s in home economics, intending to become a teacher. But neither of them would pursue those vocations.
Like his grandfather, Hank’s mother decided to retire, and Hank and Mary wound up taking over the business and moving into the house on the property.
“We’ve always been successful because we lived here on the property,” said Mary.
Hank agreed. “What’s worked out for us is the house is here,” he said, noting that in a lot of instances they had to give dogs pills at odd hours.
The property’s history goes back much further into Katonah’s past. It had been a dairy farm at one time, and was later owned by a local veterinarian, Dr. Meyers, who had his practice in the barn and lived in the house. According to the Tschorns, the barn used to house the horses that drew the post office’s mail wagon down to White Plains, and Meyers took care of the horses.
“Meyers had a lot of property,” said Hank, “and he kept selling off pieces each time he had a balloon payment due on his mortgage.” So it was that Hank’s grandfather took ownership of the house and barn, though that transaction took place, said Hank, in exchange for his grandfather’s stamp collection.
The historical tidbits don’t stop there. According to Hank, his father, Robert Tschorn, started the Katonah Medical Group, and his grandfather raised and bred Scottish terriers, one of whom won a Best in Show award and subsequently appeared on the label of Black & White Scotch Whisky.
The largest number of dogs they’ve ever housed at once, Hank recalled, was 99, as a result of having a customer who had 33 dogs and boarded them all at Spring Hill. The Tschorns were reluctant to name-drop, but did note that Peter Frampton had his dog come in a few times when he lived in the area.
One dog who is particularly memorable has been coming in for three or four years: an English mastiff named Oso, who weighs in at 184 pounds.
“We’ve had really good customers over the years, who have been just lovely — and their dogs have been lovely, too,” said Mary. “I looked at it as we were providing a service, so people could go away, and feel comfortable leaving their pets.”
Customers were incredibly loyal, but perhaps none so much as one who retired and took the dog with him to Maine. “He tried to find someone up there to board it with,” said Hank, “but instead wound up driving six hours down here with the dog.”
Mary puts a damper on that story, saying it was probably because it was on the way to the airport, but Hank insists that loyalty played a big part.
“We’ve had a few dogs that stayed with us when the owners got sick and couldn’t care for them anymore,” recalled Hank. He also remembered one instance where the parents got divorced, each got remarried, and the dog didn’t like either of their new spouses.
There have been some customers who were less than ideal, though they are reluctant to talk about them.
“We had a problem with some people during COVID, who adopted dogs but didn’t know how to deal with them,” said Hank.
Mary said there are some dogs that are just not suited to family life. “We did interviews with some of them,” she said. “Hank is sort of like the dog whisperer.” In fact, they did interviews with every new customer, introducing the dog and letting it sniff around in advance of taking the dog in. “Some of the dogs are smarter than their owners,” said Mary. “I didn’t say that, Mary did,” Hank was quick to point out.
And it hasn’t all been dogs. They’ve also boarded cats for 30 years, and at various times have had pot-bellied pigs, guinea pigs, cows, turtles, rabbits and birds.
“We once had a llama that was going from a petting zoo at the Bazaar Mall in Mount Kisco to another petting zoo in New Jersey, so it stayed with us temporarily,” said Hank.
The couple raised two sons and a daughter in the house, and now have four grandchildren and another on the way. But the next generation did not have any interest in taking over the establishment, so there will no longer be any Tschorns running Spring Hill Kennels. They say while there had been some interest by others to buy the business, that was not practical — mainly because if it were to go to anyone not in the family, it would require obtaining new permits and approvals for a business that has long been grandfathered into a residential zone. Also complicating things is that they intend to keep living on the property, and will be kept busy going through everything they’ve accumulated over the decades.
Hank and Mary are not slowing down, however. “We’re going to travel and take care of our grandchildren,” they say. Hank has a bunch of hobbies, including flying kites and scuba diving. He has been a member of the Katonah Fire Department for 50 years, and was the winner of KFD’s 2013 Michael J. Vuotto Distinguished Service Award. He is also involved with the Katonah Bedford Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and has been a scoutmaster since 2008.
This Saturday, the Tschorns are having a retirement party, to which they’ve invited friends, customers, and many of those who worked at the kennels over the years.
“After 90 years, we’ve had close to 90 employees,” said Hank. He’s aware of a few who have even gone on to become veterinarians.