By Susan Bard Hall
Intimate country inns, quaint bed & breakfasts, and luxury hotels with resident cats are growing in numbers and gaining in popularity.
For traveling cat lovers, whether you love or loathe to travel, one of the most stressful aspects of the trip is leaving your cat at home. While more and more properties are becoming pet-friendly, bringing your cat(s) along is not always an option. Or, if you’re like me, I don’t want to take my cat to a strange place and leave him alone all day. And being the worry-wart that I am, I’d be concerned that my pet could wander out even when a well-meaning housekeeper came to make up the room.
For those traveling cat lovers like myself who prefer not to travel with their pet, staying at a lodging property with a resident is the purr-fect choice. When guests can talk to, pet, and occasionally cuddle someone else’s cat, it helps to reduce the withdrawal pangs and fill the void of being away from home and their furry friend.
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Joan Mahoney of Waltham, Massachusetts, a cat lover who is partial to Siamese, presently doesn’t have a pet because she and her husband, Jack, are retired and travel frequently. “Since we are out a lot, we don’t feel that it’s fair to leave a pet alone so much,” said Mahoney.
She said the three resident cats, Tigger, Kali and Dufus, at the Bay Street Villas and Resort Marina in St. Pete Beach, Florida, definitely helped them decide to return to the property for the second year in a row.
“The cats remind you of home. It’s reassuring to see them,” says Mahoney.
Indeed, having resident cats is a win-win situation for the guests, the lodging, and the cats themselves. For the guests, these properties seem cozier and more homelike, and this residential feel is a real business booster and the cats receive attention and affection from owners, employees and guests. Also many of these cats were former strays who were given a second chance.
Bay Street Villas co-owner Deborah Bell, is a pet-loving innkeeper who adopted former strays. Tigger, named for his stripes, was found abandoned at a property Bell was managing 12 years ago. When Tigger is not lounging in his favorite office chair where he meets and greets visitors, he’s likely to seek out return guests like Gail and Gene Krielow of New Bern, North Carolina. Finding their guestroom door ajar in anticipation of his visit, Tigger has been known to curl up on the sofa with the delightful couple.
For traveling cat lovers, whether you love or loathe to travel, one of the most stressful aspects of the trip is leaving your cat at home. While more and more properties are becoming pet-friendly, bringing your cat(s) along is not always an option. Or, if you’re like me, I don’t want to take my cat to a strange place and leave him alone all day. And being the worry-wart that I am, I’d be concerned that my pet could wander out even when a well-meaning housekeeper came to make up the room.
For those traveling cat lovers like myself who prefer not to travel with their pet, staying at a lodging property with a resident is the purr-fect choice. When guests can talk to, pet, and occasionally cuddle someone else’s cat, it helps to reduce the withdrawal pangs and fill the void of being away from home and their furry friend.
• • • •
Joan Mahoney of Waltham, Massachusetts, a cat lover who is partial to Siamese, presently doesn’t have a pet because she and her husband, Jack, are retired and travel frequently. “Since we are out a lot, we don’t feel that it’s fair to leave a pet alone so much,” said Mahoney.
She said the three resident cats, Tigger, Kali and Dufus, at the Bay Street Villas and Resort Marina in St. Pete Beach, Florida, definitely helped them decide to return to the property for the second year in a row.
“The cats remind you of home. It’s reassuring to see them,” says Mahoney.
Indeed, having resident cats is a win-win situation for the guests, the lodging, and the cats themselves. For the guests, these properties seem cozier and more homelike, and this residential feel is a real business booster and the cats receive attention and affection from owners, employees and guests. Also many of these cats were former strays who were given a second chance.
Bay Street Villas co-owner Deborah Bell, is a pet-loving innkeeper who adopted former strays. Tigger, named for his stripes, was found abandoned at a property Bell was managing 12 years ago. When Tigger is not lounging in his favorite office chair where he meets and greets visitors, he’s likely to seek out return guests like Gail and Gene Krielow of New Bern, North Carolina. Finding their guestroom door ajar in anticipation of his visit, Tigger has been known to curl up on the sofa with the delightful couple.
