City helps plan dog park in memory of Brandi Crawford

A woman whose devotion to animals and their owners touched many lives over the years has inspired a group of Gallatin County residents to push for the establishment of a dog park in her honor.

Brandi Ann Crawford, who passed away in 2024 at age 44, was a vet tech, commercial pilot, and also founded Mutts in the Mountains in Belgrade, which morphed into 4 Paws Pet Resort before it was sold and become Summit Pet Resort. She also ran an emergency pet hospital.

"Brandi ran that [hospital] for us for a while all throughout her tenure of employment, even while she was doing her pilot’s training and everything,” said her former employer, veterinarian Gordon Hardaway. “She was committed to the dog community and the people that loved them. She would take, oh, anywhere from six to 12 or 14 dogs for, 5- to 10-mile hikes in the mountains almost on a daily basis. So she wasn’t one of those that says, ‘Let me get a bunch of dogs and put them in a kennel and feed them.’ Her mission was to get them out and have fun.”

Hardaway, who runs Hardaway Veterinary Hospital, was speaking before the board of the Belgrade Regional Park, Trails, and Recreation District on Jan. 9, 2025, along with other residents in support of establishing a dog park in Crawford’s honor.

More than a year later, the city has come closer to making it happen.

Officials have narrowed it down to an empty, city-owned field in the Henson Subdivision. The man spearheading the effort, William Feniger, has been working to secure funding to help move the project forward, according to Jordan Green, the new city parks director.

“We were able to pick that project back up with him,” Green told the Belgrade City Commission during a March 9 meeting.

Feniger met Crawford through Hardaway Veterinary Hospital many years ago.

“That’s where my wife and I and our dogs got to know her,” he recalled during the parks board meeting in 2025. “We became very close with her over the years. She was totally committed to the dogs and their owners.

Crawford, a 1997 graduate of Sheridan High School, in Wyoming, had a bachelor’s degree in zoology with a minor in park and recreation management from Northern Arizona University. She obtained an associate’s degree in applied science and veterinary technology from Front Range Community College, in Colorado, as well as an associate’s degree in applied science and aviation from MSU in Bozeman. She learned to fly at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport and worked as a bush pilot in Alaska., and she eventually embarked on the entrepreneurial journey, founding Mutts in the Mountains and later Four Paws, a pet boarding facilit

“Brandi's zest for life extended beyond the classroom, fueled by her love for travel and the outdoors,” reads her obituary. “She explored the beauty of Belize, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Scotland, and numerous other locations. Only a few months before she passed, she was planning a trip to Egypt, embracing the adventurous spirit that defined her to the end.”

Crawford was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and lived for about a year and a half after the diagnosis, according to Feniger. She passed away in January 2024. Her husband, Matt Kohl, died in 2019.

“She was the most positive, extraordinarily strong young woman I've ever seen go through something like she did,” Hardaway said. “She was positive to the very end and committed to her animals and her friends. She has a very wide reach through the community and particularly in the dog ownership population.”

Crawford was one of the best techs in the veterinary hospital’s history, according to Hardaway.

“She was exemplary,” he said. “Phenomenal young lady ... Her passion and commitment to animals was unparalleled.”

As Crawford endured pancreatic cancer, Feniger promised her that he would find a way to preserve her legacy.

“When I found out that Belgrade was looking at and focusing on possibly opening up some dog parks, I then approached [city staff], and we've been working on trying to see how Belgrade was going to do that, and that we could name one of these parks after Brandi Crawford. She was committed to the community ... and I want to make sure that her legacy can move on forward.”

There’s only one small dog park in town at the moment – at Jerry Askin Park, according to Green.

“I’m really excited to see one happen on the north end of town, too,” Green said. “I think it’s something that people are looking for.”

Feniger and his architect presented a proposed site plan to Green on March 6.

“I have a few comments to make on that one, send it back to them,” Green said. “We'll go back and forth a little bit before I kind of review that with the other departments in the city to make sure we're on board, take that back to the Parks Board, and he'll [Feniger] be working on his funding acquisition.”