About

History of A Pet Villa

Malka Nagel started A Pet Villa in 2007. With over 45 years of experience caring for dogs, Malka trained numerous dogs in obedience, schutzhund, and used to compete in showing.

Even with her small breeding program, she rose to become one of the USA’s top 10 breeders for German Shepherd dogs.

Malka retired in April, 2022. She sold the business to Garry and Sophia, whose family has been providing Veterinary Care in the Bay Area for generations.  

A Pet Villa
A Pet Villa

A Pet Villa Located in Santa Clara near the San Jose Airport.

The Story of Our Building Project

A Pet Villa

History of A Pet Villa

A Pet Villa is currently standing on the former JeNeill Kennels site. JeNeill kennels was built over 50 years ago before Hwy #101 was in existence and before Santa Clara became the Silicon Valley hub.

The former kennel served many hundreds of families and their dogs and cats. The first owner, June O’Neill bred poodles and Boston Terriers and was a professional dog handler.

She then passed on the business to Mike and Karen Kurtzner. The Kurtzner’s were also professional dog handlers.

A Pet Villa

Original kennel site circa 1950. Note the East Foothills in the background

A Pet Villa

“The “old” kennel building circa 1970”

A Pet Villa

Aerial view of the old kennel circa 1960

A Pet Villa Journal of our Remodel

A Pet Villa was built from the ground up, what follows is a description journal of our construction process.