Frank Ellington A career as a stockbroker was Frank Ellington's original intent as a finance major in college. But if architecture graduates can become journalists, finance majors can become hoteliers for pet dogs. Ellington owns and operates Camp Bow Wow on Taylor Street, a downtown hotel for dogs.

Ellington was born in Columbia's Providence Hospital. His father was a banker with First National, and he stayed with the bank as his operation became part of South Carolina National and later Wachovia. Ellington's younger brother, John Carter, works at Ferguson Enterprises, which is mostly plumbing supplies.

The family moved to Bennettsville when Ellington was a toddler. He attended kindergarten in Bennettsville, and he began elementary school there. After another family move to Florence, Ellington entered Marlboro Academy for the third grade.

In Florence, Ellington was an accomplished Boy Scout - an Eagle Scout who attended the 1985 Boy Scout National Jamboree.

Ellington was a member of the National Honor Society at South Florence High School, where he graduated.

After four years at Clemson, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, Ellington took his finance degree to work at Merrill Lynch. At age 25, he was the manager of their Florence office. In 2001, after Merrill Lynch closed its smaller offices across South Carolina, Ellington went to work for UBS PaineWebber.

During his stockbroker phase, Ellington met his wife Christine in Charleston. They have one daughter, Campbell Marie, a walker who is almost a talker at 15 months. Christine works part- time for Pearson Education, a major college textbook publisher.

By late 2006, Ellington was leaving finance for a franchise hunt. He decided on Camp Bow Wow and signed for the franchise in early 2008. When he opened the doors to the Taylor Street shop, Camp Bow Wow had 49 camps in the country. Now there are more than 80.

Occupying 7,200 square feet inside what used to be a blood bank office, Camp Bow Wow can accommodate a maximum of 100 dogs in day care and 70 in overnight boarding. The fees are part of a flexible payment structure that can depend on the time inhouse. Basically, the charge is $25 for day care and $35 for overnight boarding.

There is even a shared savings plan when an advance payment of $410 covers 20 individual day care visits, which could come to $500 if paid separately.

Depending on the size of the dog and sometimes the number - customers can leave two dogs together - the cabins vary in size: 4'X4', 4'X5', and 5'X10'.

There are additional charges for additional services, such as having nails clipped and coats shampooed.

The day care dogs run in the play yard all day from 7 am to 7 pm. The overnight boarding tenants get to the play yard from 8 am until 6:15 pm. If any dog appears aggressive upon arrival, the aggressive dog is refused entry. Camp Bow Wow takes all sizes, all shapes, and all kinds of dogs, except pit bulls.

Ellington's Camp Bow Wow is a good Columbia corporate citizen. Camp Bow Wow was a major sponsor of the annual Gay Pride Parade down Main Street. Camp Bow Wow contributes regularly to charity silent auctions, such as the March of Dimes, the Heart Ball, the Fairfield County Rescue, and many others. A typical auction item would be five days at Camp Bow Wow.

Happy with his decision to leave finance for Fido, Ellington still exercises his expertise in the stock market for his family's gain.

Ellington and his customers treat their dogs as high value.