At Cats in the City, we love cats. Everything we do is aimed at better care for cats. Our team is led by two animal behaviorists and expert handlers with 36 years of combined cat-only grooming experience. Because of this we invented and perfected Tandem Cat Grooming™. This is a team grooming model where one to two groomers support and postures the kitty, while the master groomer tends to the coat. It is safer for the cat, reduces their stress level, is more efficient, and more effective. It is a much kinder and most complete grooming experience for the cat– especially alert cats. Even with the best intentions, a groomer working alone is eventually rougher with an alert cat than they would be if there was a grooming team, and at Cats in the City, this is unacceptable. When a groomer works alone, a cat’s resistance and struggle is much greater during the grooming process, which is not appropriate for most cats. When a groomer does their own intakes and answers their own phone, the groomer is actually separated from the kitty during those periods, which is dangerous. When a groomer handles their own intakes, they’re having to track the details and needs of the family that just departed, the family that just arrived, and the cat that is perhaps already there. That situation is a recipe for confusion, miscommunication, and injury. That situation is not respectful to cats. We have indeed eliminated the opportunities for the direct grooming team to have to multitask to maintain continuity of our tandem grooming team, avoiding distractions, and allowing the grooming team to stay focused on the kitty in their hands. Since our groomer’s skills are highly specialized, utilizing a frontend team of skilled greeters and educators is our answer to keeping our grooming team fully focused at all times. Our frontend solutions team is available seven days a week, even on days that we’re not grooming, they go through at least 160 hours of cat grooming training, becoming highly skilled and knowledgeable at providing the best care for the cats in our care. We’ve successfully used this model for more than a decade with the highest quality outcomes. We’re aided by an advanced ticketing system that tracks all notes, changes, and vital information throughout the lifecycle of a grooming appointment, and those records are always available to you in your pet portal. We love that we’ve been able to build a team focused solely on solving problems for cats, we know that miscommunications can be unpleasant, and we take each instance very seriously. We are also very conscious of the costs associated with the appropriate level of resources required for proper care, and to provide an experienced team of groomers to service an individual cat in the city of Portland. It’s true that a groomer who only has themselves to pay can charge a lower fee, because fewer resources are returned to the cat in the form of support and care, but the lower cost is at the expense of the cat’s comfort and safety. We reject that model. We take what we do very seriously, and we know having appropriate support is certainly much safer for cats and creates highest quality outcomes. Our love for cats and treating each one safely and kindly is why we created and continually improve our grooming services. Learn about Tandem Cat Grooming for the safest and kindest cat care at Cats in the City.
