Stay Cards: the collectible goodbye

Every time I send a client an update from a stay, Houndtrust turns it into a Stay Card: the photo, a warm note in my own words, and my business name on the front. A whole stay becomes a little pack the owner opens with one tap, right in their browser. The one above is Poppy’s. Go ahead and open it, that’s exactly what a client sees.

I built these because the hardest part of this job is handing the dog back. A plain text update gets read once and forgotten. A card gets opened, tilted in the light, and screenshotted into a group chat. Owners share them because they’re genuinely fun to open and because they’re proud of their dog. For a solo boarder that sharing is the closest thing there is to free marketing, and it happens because the card feels like a keepsake, not a receipt.

Each card also rolls a pull number from 1 to 99 the moment I send it. Rare pulls turn the card gold, and a 1-in-500 Best in Show goes full holo. It’s pure delight and nothing else: the pull is always free to your client, it never costs anything, and it’s never tied to a booking, a payment, or anything anyone can buy. It’s just the little surprise that makes people want to open the next one.

Every card carries a quiet “Made with Houndtrust,” so when a client shares Poppy’s pack, the next dog owner sees where it came from. That’s the whole idea: do great work, send it as something worth keeping, and let the goodbye do a little of your growing for you.