When going on vacation, many pet owners are no longer content with leaving an extra heap of food or having a neighbor drop by to check up on their best friend. They want individualized quality care and attention for their furry friends.
Business owners are banking on this growing trend, bringing a spa-type atmosphere to otherwise average kennels. Amenities at boarding and grooming centers range from 24-hour Web cam viewing to suites equipped with individual air thermostats, television sets, music and even telephones.
“There’s been an evolution (over the past 40 years) in the way people handle animals,” said Sharon Hosea, who runs Clear Lake Pets, a pet sitting service. “(Pets) didn’t stay in the house. They stayed outside with farm animals. The dog went from the barnyard to the barn to the back porch to the bedroom to the bed.”
A One-stop Shop
Step into Kemah’s Bayside Bed and Biscuit, a boarding and grooming center with a seafaring theme where clients may purchase extra playtimes, nature walks, cuddle and brush times for $6 to $10.
Master suites, ranging from 6 feet by 3 feet to 16 feet by 16 feet, cost $30 to $34 a day. They showcase ports around the world, including Tulum, Thailand and Tortola.
A cattery is equipped with reverse airflow technology to keep air constantly fresh, and some cat condos — as the kennels are referred to — have their own porthole windows with a view of a 120-gallon fish tank.
Owner Trisha Murphy calls the site where the center sits, adjacent to a training facility and a veterinary clinic, “a one-stop shop.”
Tina Russell from Clear Lake Shores has been taking Mikolaydash, her 88-pound Lab/husky mix dog, to the kennel’s master suites since it opened about six years ago.
Russell, who is retired from the mortgage industry, said her 5-year-old dog runs toward staff members when she takes him there.
“He’s our baby,” Russell said. “He’s a prince among puppy princes.”
A Palace For Pets
Galveston resident Gary Strong boards his poodle, Chianti, at The Pet Palace.
The look of the south Houston center serving the Clear Lake area is complete with ornate gold-painted molding, a mahogany checkout counter with columns and faux marble floor.
Besides roomy dog runs — some with their own play yard — The Pet Palace also has VIP suites decorated with fish, space shuttles or horses. Some suites have their own private courtyard, and all are equipped with elevated beds and fresh linens. Prices range from $30 to $36 a visit.
Owner Darrell Bivens is also proud of the kennels’s Feline Chateau, a completely sound-insulated, castle-decorated cat cove featuring luxury condos.
Bivens advertises the place as a pet resort and spa that provides “royal treatment,” and a limousine parked out front proves that he is willing to go the extra mile to treat pets like celebrities.
Strong, who points out that although Chianti is an important part of the family he’s still a dog, describes the center as top notch. The dog’s veterinarian recommended the place.
“They have the best interest of dog at heart, not the owner,” said Strong, a retired airline pilot. “I don’t care so much about the physical facility but how (the staff) works with the dogs.”
Every pet that boards at The Pet Palace get an extra 15 minutes of one-on-one playtime with staff members.
“We look for cues for happiness,” Bivens said. “If I go over there and see your dog sitting in the corner, I’ll do something different. I know it makes all the difference in the world.”
Kennels With A Web Cam
Barkington Inn and Pet Resort in Webster offers Web cams in the $32-a-day suites that allow clients to view their pets 24 hours a day.
General manager Roberto De Echavarri said some clients go on cruises and monitor what the animals are doing.
“Pets have become more of a companion,” he said, adding that most of his customers are seniors.
The kennel’s suites are decorated in nautical, Victorian, country or oriental themes, complete with miniature beds and wall decorations. A special “geriatric ward” also serves older pets that need quiet or extra attention.
De Echevarri said customers feel safe leaving their pets there because they know he lives on site.
“To work in a place like Barkington, you need to love animals,” he said.
People Pay Top Dollar For Their Pet Care
Pet sitters’ salaries can range from one location to another, and they depend on the income of the clientele and what people are willing to pay.
For almost six years, people have paid Hosea of Clear Lake Pets to take care of dogs too elderly, sick or frightened to stay in kennels when the owners go on vacation. She has taken care of an epileptic Yorkshire terrier, and is often paid to live for days or weeks at a time in other people’s homes.
Hosea said most of her clients are single working professionals who don’t have children and are waiting longer to get married. She currently has 200 clients and serves upper-income clients in the Clear Lake, Friendswood, Seabrook, Kemah and Deer Park.
The former NASA technical lead now brings in a gross salary of $46,000 to $100,000 a pet sitting. The figure does not include expenses, such as insurance.
When asked about why her client’s care so much for their pets, she offered a simple answer.
“I think it’s a companion thing more than anything else,” she said.
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