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“The floors are comfortable, and we’re able to keep the place immaculate,” Paul says. The only problem at this time is that the builder made the floors smaller than the rooms and temporary spacers have to be used so that the raised floors don’t fall down.

Dogs who weigh less than 15 pounds stay in a separate area called ‘The Toy Dog Room.’ In this area, the dogs are exercised outside several times a day, but are otherwise kept indoors in enclosures, where they can watch TV or play with ever-present attendants.

‘The Cat Hotel’ is completely separate from the Dog Hotel. Owners of cats can choose from one- to six-room condos. The rooms are nestled around a spacious living-room setting. The condos are custom-made.

”We try to have our employees take breaks in this area, so that the cats are always around people,” says Paul. Petro­polis can board 60 cats.

Designing the 4,000 square-foot hospital took more time than the rest of the facility put together.

“Our goal was for the hospital to pull in hotel clients as much as the hotel brought us hospital clients,” says Paul. Some of the equipment that makes Petropolis ”special” includes a 500ma X-ray machine, echocardiograph machine, ultrasound machine, neonatal incubator hematology analyzer and dry chemist? machine. A veterinarian is on call 24 hours a day.

The hospital will accommodate four veterinarians, although there are just two on the present staff.

“Since we kept the same location, we had no starting customer base at Petro­polis. The hospital began slowly, but ­now that we have been in operation for nine months – we have grown three times faster than the national average for a veterinary hospital. We are preparing for a very busy summer,” says Paul.

The grooming department at Petropolis includes five bathing stations, six trimming stations and six brushing stations . The staff will be building a bank of cage driers. ”We built that kind of unit at Silver Maple Farm.” says Paul, “and it doubled the number of pets that can be dried in one day.” The bank includes 16 units. A gas furnace can then be exhausted and rerouted to other areas of the facility.

“A dog can be dried in half the usual drying time,” says Paul, “but he also goes home more relaxed because of the lack of noise in this system.”

“We won’t be using all of the grooming stations for a couple of years,” says Paul, “but the last thing I wanted to think about was expanding!”

But service is the name of the game at Petropolis, and as Paul says, “We’ll do anything to accommodate our customers!” Special kinds of boarding are available. One of these is “Day care for pets.”

“For example, if a customer is cleaning carpets or fertilizing a lawn – situations when a dog might be uncomfortable or simply in the way – the dog can come to Petropolis and spend the day with friends!” Several customers regularly leave their dogs in the morning and pick them up at night after work. Another special service is the Petropolis summer camp “for pets and their kids.”

“This is Lorie’s department,” Paul says, “and we are in the introductory stages now, of course.”

“We will operate the summer camp one-and-a-half hours per day, five days a week.” says Paul, “and we will include training and lunch.”