Cat's Meow Inn - Read All About It

Wally is pretty proud of his surroundings at the Cat's Meow, a luxury inn for felines in Perth.

Feature story from The Ottawa Citizen and the National Post

A perfect place to spend nine lives

Cats live in luxury at Perth inn, writes Gina Harris.

Perth has a five star luxury inn. The beds are soft, the music relaxing, and guests often fall asleep in the rocking chair by the fireplace.
But it's not for humans. To check in you need four legs and a tail. The Cat's Meow in Perth is a luxury inn for cats. You may be forgiven for thinking you've wandered into the family home by mistake. The chandelier in the foyer, double french doors and cathedral ceilings are not common sights at a kennel. Sandblasted lilies adorn the glass doors leading to the executive suite, already booked for next Christmas.

Outside, the inn overlooks a frozen duck marsh. Inside, warmth radiates as Doug Forde pokes the fire and Quincy the cat curls up in a patch of sunshine on the window-sill. The sound of purring rises above the strains of classical music. It's the perfect place to spend nine lives.

Mr. Forde took no shortcuts in designing this tranquil oasis on a picturesque hillside. Large windows let in the light, while feline eyes in various shades of amber, green and blue watch from cages framed in cherry, ash and oak.

Name tags identify each cat. There's "Trouble," who is anything but, and "Waldo," formerly known as "Wild Waldo" before the inn's tranquil atmosphere calmed him down. There's room for 30 cats. The idea for the kennel grew from Mr. Forde's lifelong love of animals, and his acquaintance with a cat kennel owner in Guelph. When his 15-year job as co-owner of a moulding business grew stale, he decided a change in lifestyle was in order.

"Some people thought we were crazy to have such a luxurious inn," says the soft-spoken man with cat hairs plastered on the front of his shirt. The opulent surroundings reflect his desire to have a nice place to work and to please his customers. He believes the care he puts into the inn reflects the care he gives the cats. "For me, it's a wonderful mirror. If I'm relaxed, the cats will be relaxed."

Customers say they were attracted not by the novelty of the inn, but by the personal attention Mr. Forde and his wife Mary show the animals. Courtney Garneau's old calico cat Abby jumped onto the rocking chair during her first visit. After that Mr. Forde would sit and rock with her. When the aging Abby grew too feeble to enjoy the outdoor runs, the Fordes cut a hole between two cages to create an indoor run.

Individual cedar runs surround the 700-square foot bungalow. Dogs are not allowed, and cats must be vaccinated, spayed and neutered. Cats can be boarded for as little as $11.75 a day for one cat, meals included, or $10.75 a day per cat, when two cats from the same family share a double. The Cat's Meow also has a number of luxury suites for multiple cat families. The largest suites can house as many as seven cats from the same family. Finicky felines can choose between 70 varieties of foods, including real tuna.

The concept of a luxury inn for cats is a rarity. Managing editor of Cats magazine, Christine Ford, says she hasn't heard of any kennels quite like it. The three-year-old inn is so popular Mr. Forde plans to build a second one this spring.

Doug and Mary Forde were cautiously optimistic when they opened their luxury inn for cats in the summer of '96. Now, three years later, the venture has been so successful they have just opened the doors of their second "home-away-from-home" for feline pets west of Perth on highway 7.

The beautifully appointed homes, one in Cape Cod style, the other Victorian, look more like upper scale homes for the rich and famous. The cat homes are as large as any other bungalow you might find in a new subdivision, but when you go through the beautiful glass and carved doorways, and see individual "rooms"

the size of a baby's large crib, you realize humans don't live here - but they could. An elegant crystal chandelier hangs in the hallway, the floors glisten, the woodwork throughout is solid oak, cherry and ash, and the "visitors" lounge in their individual pens on their favourite blankets ranging from quilts to sheepskin carpets. The kitchens are immaculate and could be the envy of any human who longs for a spacious work area in which to prepare the family meals.

Each "guest" has his name printed in elegant script over his doorway, and his runs take him outside to an area where he can walk on grass, or simply loll around looking at the beautiful marshland, or watch the multitude of birds on the heavily treed property, happily out of reach to the visiting cats.
Inside, classical music plays to soothe their souls, and the entire setup reeks of tranquillity and peace. A fireplace takes the chill off in the evening, and any guest who pines for his owners will be rocked in an old-fashioned rocking chair until he dozes off and is then put back in his own "room", contented and happy. The two cottages hold about 65 cats and, according to Doug, he has never had any anti-social behaviour when two guests meet.

So, who takes their pet cat to a place like The Cat's Meow? The Fordes have taken in guests for as long as 3 1/2 months as their owners moved to another country, or went on long extended vacations. They have taken in cats whose owners winter in the south, and when their owners were being transferred to an out-of-country posting, and even making sure the pet gets on the plane when the family gets settled in their new country.

"When they stay with us that long, they often don't want to go home," Doug says If a cat initially goes through a lonesome stage (which happens only at the outset of the visit), the Fordes spend a lot of time with the cat, holding him, talking to him, and rocking him until he feels totally at ease in his new surroundings. There are menus which the owners choose from when they drop off their cat, and The Cat's Meow offers seventy different kinds of food. "That's so we can give them exactly what they would get at home," Mary says, as she stood at the immaculate kitchen counter mixing up food in shiny stainless steel bowls for the evening meal. One visitor likes an egg broken over his meal. Another has a passion for canned asparagus. Each whim is catered to.

Is it any wonder some of the cats don't want to go home? "They often turn their nose up at their owners," Doug laughs.

They come to the Inn at all ages. The Fordes have taken in eight week old kittens, and have had a dowager cat of 21 years. And there have been cats with only three legs, and one with a form of palsy, but none of these limitations phase the Fordes.
The Inn is the Fordes' full time job, and so there is always one of them on the property. Their two daughters help as well, and are more than willing to help put the guests at ease when they come to the Inn. And there are no dogs taken on as paying guests to cause a feline's blood pressure to rise, and the houses are well away from the heavy traffic on highway 7, so that the sounds they hear are all comforting and soothing, found only in a country setting.

Like any five star hotel, prices are scaled according to the guest's needs. They get the same care and attention in the $11.75 per day room, as they would in the more spacious room priced at $14.50 a day. "The only difference is in the allotted space. The price has no reflection on the care and attention we give them," Doug explained.

I expected to be bowled over with what I call "cat odours," but even though the houses were operating at near capacity, the air inside was fresh. As the Fordes' daughter Devon rocked a guest in a rocking chair, you could hear it purring across the room. It was the picture of contentment.

There were those who thought the Fordes had taken leave of their senses when they opened the first Cat's Meow Inn, and thought it quite funny. "A hotel for cats? Are you kidding?" Well no one is questioning their sanity now. With some guests coming from as far away as Kingston, the Inn is obviously serving a need.
The whole Forde family obviously love cats. And when you hear a cat purring across the room, or see one playfully sparring with a visitor, it is very obvious The Cat's Meow is a purr-fect home away from home for these feline star boarders.

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Doug and Mary Forde

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The Cat's Meow
RR #2 Maberly
Ontario
K0H 2B0