FAIRFAX CITY, VA — A new hotel and grooming business created exclusively for cats will hold its grand opening Saturday in Fairfax City, offering tours, family activities and a cat adoption event.
The Happy Cat Hotel & Spa's celebration is scheduled from 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday, at 3220 Blenheim Blvd. Visitors will be able to tour the hotel's themed rooms and learn about its boarding and grooming services.
The event will also feature Kona Ice, face painting, cat caricatures, giveaways and raffles. Pets Bring Joy, a cat rescue, is expected to hold an adoption event during the celebration.
The Fairfax business has 31 individually themed rooms for cats, according to co-owner Brittini Loutzenheiser. Each room has at least 40 square feet of space, 8-foot ceilings, wall-mounted perches and enclosed areas where cats can hide or rest.
Standard rooms can accommodate as many as three cats from the same household, while larger rooms can hold as many as five, Loutzenheiser said. Cats from different families are not placed together.
The rooms' soft surfaces can be removed and washed, allowing staff members to disinfect the spaces between stays. Because the facility accepts only cats, guests are not exposed to barking dogs or other potential sources of stress found in facilities serving multiple types of animals.
"Cat-exclusive boarding with a whole suite is a new concept to a lot of people," Loutzenheiser said. "Your normal cat boarding is in a tiny condo or a cage."
Loutzenheiser said the grand-opening tours are intended to help cat owners understand how the hotel differs from traditional boarding arrangements.
"Come experience it, come see it, because once you see it, you get it," she said.
Loutzenheiser and her family previously used The Happy Cat Hotel's Alexandria location for their own cat. Before finding that business, she said, their cat would return home stressed after staying in facilities where he was kept near unfamiliar cats or dogs.
The Alexandria hotel cared for the family's cat during a trip near the end of his life, Loutzenheiser said. He lived to be 20.
"It was just such a different experience that we loved it and wanted to do this," she said.
The Fairfax hotel is independently owned and operated and is the company's 12th location nationwide, Loutzenheiser said. The Alexandria hotel, which opened about five years ago, was the first location in Northern Virginia.
Loutzenheiser said she and her husband moved to Northern Virginia in 2018 while he was serving in the Army. They decided to remain in the area after his retirement.
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She said they selected Fairfax City because of its community atmosphere and a perceived need for cat-exclusive boarding serving Fairfax, Chantilly, Manassas and surrounding communities.
The business currently has five staff members, including Loutzenheiser, with plans to add employees as reservations increase.
The hotel's spa is a cat-only grooming facility offering services for short-haired and long-haired cats. Available options include baths and blow-drying, plush trims, lion cuts, belly shaves, nail trims, nail caps, sanitary trims, dematting and deshedding.
The business describes its grooming approach as focused on one cat at a time in a low-stress environment without dogs. Tours are also available outside the grand-opening event for people considering a future stay for their cats.
Reservations for boarding, grooming and store visits can be made through the Happy Cat Hotel & Spa's Fairfax website or by calling 703-705-9746.
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