I would like to introduce you to myself and my decision to open Mystic Mountain Retreat. After much soul searching, I decided to follow my passion to provide a custom and holistic boarding facility to assist people with a temporary loving home for their animal friends while on vacation or traveling.

Over the last 25 years I have taken care of my many animal friends and learned an enormous amount about the care of special needs, from puppies to the geriatric, rescued and traumatized, and the young and healthy. I believe that when an animal faces their later years they can do so with respect and grace, even with reduced activity and health.

I have learned from my own experiences that it’s hard to find the right place that will care for your animal companion in the individual way that most of us desire while you are out of town. I have many species sharing my life and as most are rescued they have special needs of different types. My Ridgeback, Zimbabwe, due to past traumas can only handle being around strange dogs for about 30 minutes so I cannot leave him at the new type of free range boarding services. My Cattle Dog, Herman, likes to tell others what to do so again I cannot place him in a free range environment. My past special needs older dog, Olaf, was unable to walk for 6 months then required special assistance until the age of 15, if I had not found Cindy Horsfall at La Paw Spa I may have missed my Sisters wedding. Then with a 20 year old cat, Whipple, who required special food and supplements many times a day it was hard to leave during his last years. And I will not consider leaving any of my animal friends at the large commercial boarding facilities. To top it off I follow a holistic vaccination program which restricts me from most facilitates. So in the past my husband Brad and I brought our dogs on trips, and found care for the cats, rabbits, ferrets, chickens, doves, llamas and horses with close friends.

A few years ago I was planning on opening an animal sanctuary when I retired from corporation life, but I determined that I could not wait an additional 15 years to work with animals full time (I had already worked 18 years in the engineering/IT area at Boeing and 5 years at Microsoft). I then decided that I could still follow my core vision with a custom boarding service that catered to the special needs animals, from dogs to cats to rabbits to ferrets. Summer of 2005, Brad and I finished fixing up our 5 acre ranch with a special facility that houses 11 dog suites, 2 cat suites and a space for small animals. As I care for the animals personally (with some help from assistants), the facility has been designed to limit the number of animals to ensure each one receives the best care.

Please review the web site and if you have any questions, would like to reserve or would like to have a tour of Mystic Mountain Retreat, please contact me.

Cindy J. Hill,
Owner and operator, Mystic Mountain Retreat
cindy@mysticmountainretreat.com | (360) 794-6388.