Three months ago, I attempted to bathe my cat Dasha and ended up with a 2-inch scratch and a cat that was still dirty and woefully matted. That’s when I sought professional help.
Kitty Pride purports to be the city’s only dedicated, certified cat groomer. Married couple Carolyn and Erica Ayala started the business just over a year ago. They say any cat can benefit from regular grooming, and their clients include both long and short-haired kitties.
“There is a misconception that kitty grooming is just for fancy cat breeds, and that is not true,” says Carolyn, 42 and a former dog groomer. “People don’t know that cats have greasy skin and their skin is extremely weak. When a knot [of hair] forms, it can tear the skin.”
Since launching the business, the Ayalas have amassed about 100 customers. They currently operate without a storefront, making house calls to Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, but they hope to open a brick-and-mortar location in Greenpoint later this year.
A typical session includes a degreasing bath, a blow-dry, nail trimming, ear cleaning and a sanitary clip (around a cat’s nether regions) for $75.
The job is taxing. The Ayalas haul a heavy-duty grooming table, a cat hair-dryer the size of a small vacuum cleaner and various other tools to perform their duties in their clients’ homes. Their whole kit weighs close to 40 pounds.
But there is an upside to all the heavy lifting: They’ve both lost a significant amount of weight.
As for how they manage to get the average cat wet and lathered up, Erica says it’s mostly in their calm approach, no matter how intimidating the client.
“The cat feeds off our energy and the fact that we’re confident and not nervous,” Erica says. “Even though every groom is unique we are the same in our procedures. I think cats can tell that.”
They also sometimes put a headband on feline clients to keep the noisy blow-dryer from scaring them. Most importantly, Carolyn says, they do their job quickly.
“We don’t want to keep the cat longer than it needs,” she says.
Dasha’s first grooming wasn’t all that quick — it took nearly 2 ½ hours — but it was well worth it. She looked and smelled great, and no scratches were involved.