Pampered pooches find
place for royal treatment

By LIZ GUTIERREZ HENSON
Citizen Staff

The Citizen, Wednesday, January 13, 1999

The Barkington Inn is the latest Clear Lake area hotel to offer its customers deluxe accommodations ranging from luxury suites, gourmet treats and spa treatments, with one catch -- no humans allowed.

The Barkington Inn is the first pet hotel and pet day care in the Clear Lake area. The inn offers dog and cat owners innovative options in their pets care including four luxury suites, on-line monitoring their pets during their stay, as well as all-natural spa treatments.

The inn is comprised of a 9,800 square foot indoor facility [with three outside play yards on 2.5 acres] located just north of Medical Center Boulevard and Highway 3 on Blossom Street.

“We saw a need in the area for a facility that would give the animals and their owners the quality care they need and deserve, that was not off the scales expensive, so we put our heads together and came up with The Barkington Inn,” said Reed.

Here dogs and cats are treated like guests at a real hotel. There are four luxury "suites" for dogs and cats, as well as individual indoor door runs for dogs.

The most unique feature of the inn is the on-line monitoring. Each customer is given a code through CyberPet. The pet owner can then monitor their pet at any given time via the Internet.

CyberPet is a great way to reduce some of the anxiety of leaving your pet, whether it's for the day, or longer.

Animals also receive a lot of in individual attention. There is no group play between animals, each dog and cat receives individual play time daily.

"You see so many organizations promoting group play between the animals, but what they don't show you is the injuries from the fights and the unwanted pregnancies that results when the pack mentality sets in," said Rosalie Murphy.

Murphy said that the group has succeeded in creating a full- service facility that includes geriatric care and special needs care for their animal guests.

"We print out run sheets daily for each animal that is put on their doors so that everyone here knows exactly what each animal is being fed, their likes and dislikes, any medicines they are taking and any special care they are receiving," said Murphy.

Murphy added that there is also an on-site apartment that is nearing completion that will ensure 24 hour care for the animals.

In addition to boarding, the inn also offers a full-service salon for dogs and cats that ranges from regular grooming and manicures to hot-oil treatments for their coats and massages.

Although the inn has been open for just a few short months, the inn had a waiting list of nearly 70 people over the Christmas holidays and that customers are already reserving, spots for their pets for Thanksgiving 1999.

People are really looking for quality care for their pets while they are gone, the kind of care that they would give them, and Barkington Inn provides that.