Marion Man's Hound Daphnee Inspires Comfy Quarters for Critters

This is a piece about a dog named Daphnee, her love of birds, butterflies, bats and squirrels, and the dog owners impressive love of his pet.

You may recognize Larry and Sandy Earle, of Marion, from the Iowa City Farmers Market or the New Bo Market. They operate a booth called Backyard Habitat. 

Check out a video about their business, here. 

Larry makes houses out of cedar for critters. He makes bird houses, bat houses, squirrel houses, butterfly houses, Oriole houses, bee houses. You get the picture. 

Aside from the fact that cedar wood smells amazing, they are hand made and he prices them surprisingly low (I just bought to bird feeders at an unnamed big box store and they were twice the price and not near as nice), there's a great little story of how this business came about. 

The Earles are self-described animal lovers, and more specifically they love their Dachshund named Daphnee. The story is that Daphnee loves critters, particularly squirrels. Larry said the squirrels would come build nests in his backyard, but the wind would blow away the nests and the squirrels would leave.

All this left Daphnee depressed. She sit in the yard for hours waiting for the squirrels to return. The Earles decided to build a squirrel house to encourage the squirrels to come back, which they did, and then the Earles started building houses to invite other critters.

Larry eventually started drawing an interest in the critter houses and the business was born, all because of Daphnee's love of critters.

They don't appear to have a website, but you can email the Earles at backyardhabitat1@yahoo.com or call 319-447-2040 to place an order. If you buy directly, most prices range from $10 to $20.

They are also available at Paul's Discount in Iowa City, and Peck's Flower and Garden Shop, Frontier Garden Center and Wildlife Habitat in the Cedar Rapids and Marion area.