HEBRON — In the backyard, Sophie kept sticking her face in the snow. Maria McDonald brushed the ice off her muzzle, but the Labradoodle plunged right back in, head down, face buried up to her fuzzy ears.

Nearby, golden retriever Cedar wrestled with black Lab Bromley, pinned him to the ground, let him up at McDonald’s behest, then pinned him to the ground again. At the chain-link fence, Shetland sheepdog Moose barked because there were dogs playing in the other yard, too, and they looked like they were having fun without him.

It’s a pretty typical morning at Bed-n-Biscuit Kennels.

“They’re like children in a day care,” said McDonald, 49, who owns the day and boarding kennel. “I will tell you, these are toddlers with four legs.”

McDonald was drawn to animals from a young age.

“My parents loved them. They let us bring anything home and I did, including the neighbor’s dog one time, and hid it in the closet,” she said.

McDonald had planned to become a veterinarian. But while she was accepted to Mount Ida College in Massachusetts, she couldn’t handle the required tour through the euthanasia room.

So she went in a different direction. She ran a day care and worked as medical secretary, among other jobs. She worked for eight years as a 411 operator for a telephone company.

McDonald may not have had a career with animals, but she always had pets of her own. And she always had trouble finding a place for them to stay when she and her family went away.

“There are certain things I like. I like attention to detail. I like dogs to be comfortable. I like dogs to be treated like little people,” she said. “When you treat them as a number, like a profit, I don’t like that because that’s a feel they get and they’re not comfortable.”

After some searching, McDonald found a boarding kennel that she loved. But then two things happened: The kennel closed. And the phone company she worked for offered her an early buyout.

Suddenly, she had the time and the money to start her own business, and she had an idea to go with it.

In 2005, Bed-n-Biscuit was born.

Since then, the Hebron kennel has been open 50 weeks per year, catering to canines as well as some felines.

Cats have their own common room with a radio and a night light; each dog gets its own kennel with music to keep him or her company and all-natural treats to keep them happy. McDonald asks families to bring a few of the comforts of home, including food and bedding. 

But even with the familiar touches, dogs can get skittish about their new surroundings. McDonald likes to introduce them to the outside first — the fenced-in play yards with their snow in the winter and artificial turf in the summer — rather than just shoving them into a kennel.

“It’s more relaxing to get them acclimated out here,” she said. “What they do is, when they come out, they’re going to smell, and by smelling they’re gathering a lot of information. And dogs do much better in an open space. If I were to bring them in from the front door and put them right into a stall, that would create an experience for them which is not an experience I would like to create. I like dogs to have good memories.”

Over the years, McDonald has taken care of thousands of dogs, from a 3-pound puppy who squeezed her way under the fence to a 162-pound Newfoundland. Her own four — three Labs and her son’s Lab-great Dane mix — accompany her every day to join in on the fun. 

The dogs, whether there for day care or overnight, spend some time outside. McDonald works to match playmates, making sure that a shy pup doesn’t get put into a play group with a pushy one, that a loner dog doesn’t get overwhelmed by a dozen new friends. 

And once they’re outside, McDonald watches over them, making sure, for example, that Cedar gives Bromley a break and Sophie gets the snow out of her eyes. She tosses rubber toys and tells this dog she’s good, that dog he’s good.

It’s not all puppy playtime, though. There was the dog who bit McDonald so severely that she needed stitches, and the time McDonald gashed her head on the latch to the gate. There are dogs who get sick, dogs who destroy their beds and, sometimes, as she tries to run playtime, handle check-ins and answer the phone, there’s simply chaos.

McDonald does most of the work on her own. Her assistant, 19-year-old Cassidy Bedard, comes in for a few hours a few times a week.

“I love it,” said Bedard, who also owns a horse hoof-trimming business. “Just seeing the variety of dogs and getting to understand how they all have different personalities. It’s nice to be able to understand their behaviors.”

McDonald closes the kennel around 7:30 every night and heads home — though she doesn’t have to go very far. She and her husband own the house directly behind Bed-n-Biscuit. It’s close enough that she can hear the dogs bark if they need her.

“These guys are not just a number when they come through the door,” she said. 

Have an idea for Animal Tales? Contact Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or ltice@sunjournal.com.