Built for cats because nowhere else was

A veterinary assistant who kept seeing the same problem

Allennia Voerster has been a veterinary assistant since 1981, and she owns and shows pedigree cats. Over those years she watched a specific gap open up in the Oklahoma City metro. Experienced cat grooming was hard to find, and grooming that did not start with sedation was harder still.

Many veterinary clinics automatically sedate every cat that comes in for grooming, particularly anything that needs shaving, because it is quicker and their staff are set up for medicine. Most grooming shops accept only dogs, and a good number of the ones that do take cats would rather be working on dogs. That leaves an owner with a matted long haired cat choosing between an anesthetic and a shop that does not really want the job.

She also knew the part that is easy to miss from behind a counter: cats are more relaxed and comfortable without the sight, sound and smell of dogs, and that goes double for cats who are not used to them. A wall between species does not fix any of those three. Only a building that never admits the other species does.

So Aristocats opened in 2008 as an all suites hotel for cats and nothing else, with a grooming room inside it. It is still family owned, and the grooming is done by a Certified Feline Master Groomer who is a member of the National Cat Groomers Institute.