A dog’s death at a Robstown boarding lodge has a newlywed couple warning pet owners ahead of the holidays to verify reviews and vet boarding businesses closely.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — What should have been the happiest week of Tyler and Ashlynn Pease’s lives instead became one marked by heartbreak, after one of their dogs was fatally injured at a Calallen boarding facility on the morning of their destination wedding.
The couple had never boarded their two doodles before, but with family and friends traveling out of the country for the ceremony, they said it felt like their only option. One of their toughest wedding-planning decisions became choosing where to leave their pets.
“This was our wedding cake topper actually,” Tyler said as he showed a figurine of their dogs.
Ashlynn said even drop-off day was emotional.
“I cried when I dropped off our pets because I’ve never dropped off our babies. We are a newlywed couple, these are like our children.”
The Peases selected Ruff Inn Lodge in Robstown and expected a safe, temporary stay. But on the morning of their wedding, their one-year-old doodle, Bailey, was severely injured.
“I was getting ready as a bride does,” Ashlynn said. “They messaged me but I never saw it.”
“He told me after our ceremony and we just cried and cried,” she added.
Bailey was rushed to Oso Creek Animal Hospital for emergency care, but she did not survive.
“They shaved her all down to see the extent of her injuries,” Tyler said. “After I saw those photos I immediately broke down.”
To this day, the couple says they still do not know what happened inside the lodge. They filed an incident report with a sheriff’s deputy. 3NEWS reached out to the boarding facility, which declined to comment.
“Was it a split second or twenty to thirty minutes? We have no idea,” Tyler said.
The Peases said the facility covered all medical expenses and did not charge them for the boarding stay, but they have received no cooperation or clarity during the investigation.
With the busy holiday travel season approaching, the couple said they are speaking out so other pet owners can take precautions. They emphasized that even highly rated businesses can make mistakes and that online reviews alone may not show the full picture.
“We would encourage people to look at the comprehensive pictures,” said Katie Galan with the Better Business Bureau.
Galan said the key to vetting a boarding business is checking multiple sources. “Don’t just go to one source to look at those reviews because you don’t know — you might have some adjustments to those reviews. You might have some people who are persuaded to make positive reviews,” she said.
She noted that Google and Yelp reviews generally remain public, while Facebook pages can curate what appears on their profiles. Galan added that customers who want to warn others or hold a business accountable can file a verified complaint with the BBB.
“We actually scrub those complaints and make sure they are legitimate marketplace complaints,” Galan said. “And once those complaints are addressed by the business owner or not, they stay up for two years.”
She said a business’s responsiveness to complaints affects its BBB rating — a factor in building consumer trust.
For the Pease family, the message is simple: do your research, understand the risks and remember that tragedy can happen even when you believe you’re choosing the safest option.
“This wasn’t the dog we dropped off,” Tyler said.
