Find out what sets us apart!
Shawn Lioyryan, CTCG, MSW & Dr. Daniel T. Lioryan, CTCG, Ph.D.
At the heart of Cats in the City is an uncommon partnership: two co-founders—one trained in clinical social work, the other in behavioral neuroscience—who came together to build something no grooming school, vet clinic, or training manual had ever made space for.
TANDEM Cat® Grooming wasn’t created to be a grooming business. It was built as a care model.
Shawn and Dr. Dan didn’t set out to make things fancier. They set out to make things safer—for cats, for guardians, and for the people trying to help them. They developed a trauma-informed, science-rooted method of feline care that holds cats in alertness, respects somatic thresholds, and treats grooming as a clinical act of wellness—not a cosmetic procedure.
With a 99.99% success rate across thousands of sessions, TANDEM Cat® now stands as the gold standard in trauma-aware feline grooming and clinical claw care.
As a trauma specialist, feline behaviorist, and co-founder of Cats in the City, Shawn brings an unmatched blend of emotional intelligence and behavioral precision to the field of feline care.
With a Master’s in Social Work and years of training in stress reduction, therapeutic intervention, and trauma-responsive caregiving, Shawn has applied human clinical principles directly to feline handling. His work bridges the gap between grooming, behavioral science, and emotional repair—helping both cats and guardians rebuild trust and safety at the point of care.
Shawn pioneered the concept of cooperative, consent-based grooming, designing the TANDEM Cat® Touch method, clinical charting standards, and the structural fluency model now used across all TANDEM Cat®-certified services. As co-architect of the TANDEM Cat® Grooming Program, he trains handlers to become readers of the body—not just operators of tools.
At the heart of his work is a radical belief: that cats deserve to feel safe in their bodies, and that grooming, when done right, can become a quiet act of restoration.
A neuroscientist by training and co-founder of Cats in the City, Dr. Dan leads with a rare combination of academic rigor and feline empathy.
After earning his Ph.D. from OHSU and leading research at the Vollum Institute, Dr. Lioryan helped define foundational understanding in neurodevelopment, stress physiology, and glial function in Rett Syndrome. His work has appeared in top-tier journals like Nature, PNAS, and The Journal of Neuroscience—but his most meaningful application of that knowledge came outside the lab.
At TANDEM Cat®, Dr. Lioryan has turned his scientific training into a clinical grooming protocol: one that treats stress as measurable, handling as modifiable, and grooming as an opportunity for nervous system repair. He co-developed the TANDEM Cat® Tier system, embeds clinical protocols across locations, and mentors staff in observation-based intervention and emotional neutrality.
What sets him apart isn’t just his science—it’s how he uses it: to rehumanize animal care, retrain perception, and restore dignity to cats often dismissed, misread, or sedated.
Cats in the City wasn’t built overnight—and it certainly wasn’t built just to turn a profit. It was built on sacrifice, conviction, and a relentless, day-in, day-out commitment to Better Care for Cats.
From the beginning, we knew that excellence couldn’t be rushed. We weren’t following a model. We were building a new one.
For the first thirteen years, we worked every single day. That’s not a turn of phrase—no weekends, no holidays, no sick days. Because when you’re responsible for lives—especially lives that depend on routine, patience, and emotional safety—there are no shortcuts. Cats don’t take days off from their needs, so neither did we.
We lived inside the business. Quite literally. We slept in what are now boarding suites for over a decade to fund our future. We turned away instant profits in favor of long-term reputation. We didn’t just offer grooming—we invested thousands of hours building a new method: TANDEM™ Grooming, a trauma-informed, medically aware, behaviorally sensitive approach to grooming cats in a way the industry had never seen.
We developed six levels of care for boarding—not because anyone asked for them, but because cats needed them.
We sat at the vet. We watched. We asked questions. We stayed up at night tracking subtle behavior shifts in diabetic boarders and elderly cats in recovery. We earned our authority by living every layer of what it means to truly care.
In 2017, we attempted our first local staycation. It was a trial run—just a few days, close to home, phones still on. In 2018, we closed our original Sellwood location for a month to take a proper break. When we returned, we gave our staff a month off, too. Because if we were going to build something real, we had to build it sustainably—not just for us, but for the people who would carry this forward.
That became the rhythm: a season of deep work, a season of rest, and a team that grew with us.
By 2025, for the first time in our company’s history, all four Cats in the City locations were fully operational, fully staffed, and thriving—and we took our first real vacation. Not a staycation. Not a test. A true exhale.
I was 45 years old. We started this when I was 26.
One that says cats deserve more than cages. More than conveyor belts. More than being an afterthought in a dog-dominated world.
We built Cats in the City to be a place where:
Cats are seen, understood, and respected.
Behavior and wellness are inseparable.
Grooming is trauma-informed.
Boarding is care-first, not cage-first.
And every team member is trained in science, observation, and empathy.
That’s what it took to build Cats in the City.
And that’s what it takes—every day—to keep it worthy of its name.
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We highly recommend Cats in the City to any cat parent seeking reliable, professional, and caring cat sitting or boarding services. It's reassuring to know that our cats are in such capable and loving hands when we're away. We recently switched from boarding services to their in-home cat sitting service. Mary S. did a terrific job. We received daily updates with adorable pictures.
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It was our first time using a cat hotel for Moxie. We did a lot of research and selected Cats in The City. The house is clean, cheerful with lots of natural light. The staff genuinely cares for their feline lodgers. The interactive program reduced any separation anxiety our cat might have had. We really appreciated the daily meow messages. We would recommend this hotel for any cat owners.
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Do you want your cat taken care of by the kindest, sweetest, most thoughtful humans imaginable? Do you want your trips away to be filled with thoughts of how well your cats are taken care of rather than how mad they must be? Cats in the City is all of that and more! Honestly, they take better care of my cat than I do, reducing the stress of travel for me and my fur dude. Cannot recommend them enough!
We measure our love of cats by how much we are loved by them.
Have questions or need to arrange care for your feline friend? We’re here to help! Reach out to us for any inquiries or to schedule our services.
For more immediate assistance, feel free to call us. We look forward to hearing from you and providing the best care for your cat!
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