Veterinarian Ken Schenck has examined "at least 50" animal hospitals across the country.

The one he's about to start building at Meadowview Road and Freeport Boulevard in south Sacramento, he says, could be leader of the pack.

"It won't look like an animal hospital," says Dr. Schenck, who has run Mueller Pet Medical Center near Sac Executive Airport for the past 30 years. "It will look more like a hotel."

Plans call for a Spanish-style 27,000-square-foot building with a portico entrance for easy drop-offs of pets needing medical care, as well as grooming, day care or boarding.

A 43-foot-high tower, decorated with the company's "paw heart" logo, will serve as a beacon, especially for nighttime emergency visitors, Schenck says.

Inside: animal run areas covered with artificial turf, "luxury suites" for animal guests and even a bedroom for anxious humans staying overnight with a beloved pet undergoing surgery.

The Mueller pet center outgrew its 5,000-square-foot current quarters on Freeport Boulevard long ago. When Schenck bought the business in 1978 from its founder, the late Robert Mueller, there were five employees; today there are 60.

Schenck, who recently closed escrow on the new site, expects to begin construction in the spring and be open for business by the end of 2009.

As for those 7-by-8-foot pet luxury suites, each will have a bed and a TV set tuned to "something like 'Animal Planet,' " the vet says.

The suites will be equipped with Web cameras so vacationing dog and cat owners can go online and watch their pets, day or night. Will they also be able to speak via the Web with their pets?

Schenck says some boarding facilities have tried that. But animals apparently don't like hearing their owners' disembodied voices.

"It makes them go a little crazy," he says.

One-stop shop

Call this a sign of the times.

A local law firm specializing in bankruptcies has merged with one focused on divorce.

"Sadly enough, divorce and bankruptcy go hand in hand," says Brandon Johnston, a partner in the newly formed Coggins, Johnston & Cianci firm.

Tough times lead to debts. Debts lead to divorce, Johnston says.

The combined firm will help folks start over, in both the economic and matrimonial sense.

TRI Commercial broker Tony Wood sees another "sign of the times" in the real estate deal he helped the new company arrange.

The law firm is moving into a 7,700-square-foot Roseville space on Lava Ridge Court that was recently vacated by Parkland Homes.

"The housing developer (struggled)," Wood says, "and here comes (someone) to meet the changing demands of the marketplace."

Contest gets iced

We were rooting for Ron and Melinda Rucker in their imaginative campaign to sell their Land Park ice cream shop via an essay contest.

The deadline arrived last week. But fewer than 100 people submitted essays – along with $150 – on why they'd like to own Here's the Scoop!

"We didn't get anywhere near what we needed," Ron tells us.

Those who applied will have their money refunded.

Rucker doesn't know why more people didn't take a $150 gamble to own a business with $225,000 in annual sales.

The contest drew widespread publicity locally – and even nationally.

Perhaps it was the delay in getting the contest Web site launched, he says. Maybe some people were scared off by a requirement that they have good credit. Maybe it's the economy.

What's next for the Ruckers? They'll list the property for sale, which they'd already tried once with a broker.

But there's no urgency.

"I don't have to go anywhere. I have a business that works," Ron says. "I'd like to move on. But it has to make sense."

Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit.