Capital Connections
Capital Connections Podcast
Capital Connections
Ep #10 - From Ignored to Adored in the World of Cat Care
This episode dives into the importance of cat grooming and the misconceptions surrounding feline hygiene. Hosted by Samuel Low, we engage with Janet Wormitt of Cat's Pajamas Grooming as she shares insights into maintaining healthy and happy cats through regular grooming.
• The origins and mission behind Cat's Pajamas Grooming
• Myths about cats and water debunked
• The importance of regular grooming for indoor cats
• Differences in grooming practices across cultures
• Understanding cat behavior during grooming sessions
• The significance of a trained and certified grooming staff
• How to access resources and book appointments with Cat's Pajamas
Cat’s Pajamas Feline Grooming Studio
200 Kennevale Dr #202, Nepean, ON K2J 6B6
+16138989228
@catspajamasgrooming
#catspajamasgrooming
Established in 2013 in response to inadequate knowledge and services provided to Canada’s favorite and #1 pet, Cat’s Pajamas Feline Grooming grooms cats and only cats.
We provide sensible, compassionate solutions for cat owners without the use of force or fear. A scruff-free, tailor-made grooming studio, just for cats!
This is the Capital Connections Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Samuel Lowe.
Speaker 2:Yes, welcome to the Capital Connections Podcast. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Janet Wormit of Cat's Pajamas Grooming. Janet, thanks for joining us today. Well, thank you so much for having me today. Yeah, it's our pleasure. Janet, please tell us what's Cat's Pajamas all about.
Speaker 3:Well, cat's Pajamas came about in originally 2013 because there was a definite lack of any feline expertise in grooming, and by 2015, we moved to our current location, which is down in Barhaven, and so we've been grooming exclusively cats for over 12 years and, yeah, it's been fabulous. I mean, we have so many advocates and supporters, veterinarian recommended and so forth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could imagine having a cat in our family. We have both a cat and a dog in our family. I must confess. We bring our dog for grooming but we don't think about the cat like is there a lot of benefits on that side of things is uh and I should say that the cat doesn't come home matted and you know things like that.
Speaker 3:She seems pretty good, but well, you're lucky so far because that can change. Um, there's a lot of misinformation. I mean the whole pet pet grooming industry has grown up very dog-centric. So all the products, the equipment, the environments are designed for dogs. And you know, over 10 years ago, before we came along, any cat who ended up at a pet grooming place was really walking into a dog grooming place and it wasn't a suitable environment. I mean it was quite terrifying just the noise level itself. And to be honest, I mean I've been to some of the top grooming schools in the US, in Canada. I've competed grooming, I've shown championship dogs and so forth, and there's absolutely nothing at that point in time about cats.
Speaker 2:So a lot of things that. How interesting is that?
Speaker 3:nothing exactly and it is a totally different animal, sure. So normally when I cat was only coming to a dog grooming establishment in dire straits, basically it was a bad situation. The cat desperately needed help and it would be terrified and it would go home probably almost near as much a disaster as it arrived and it was very upsetting for me. I stopped grooming cats for many years. I was trying to find a cat mentor.
Speaker 3:Actually, much like I had grown up I actually grew up as a youth showing dogs and so I learned the craft, actually in the championship rings, so I was way ahead of the curve. So I was looking for the same thing for the cat groomers. But it was like a closed secret society with cat breeders about not sharing their special techniques of preparing cats for shows. So so it was a quite interesting experience. But what changed was I was invited to go to Kuwait and help start up um, a new pet care company, and in the middle East it's actually the opposite of here in North America it's almost all about cat grooming and only a little bit Wow.
Speaker 3:So I had to up my game quickly. So, and it turns out, we invited. So I had taken a five year hyenas for a while anyway, and in that time there was a woman named Daniel German and she's down in South Carolina. She started the National Cat Grooming Institute and she comes from a solely cat fancier background. She was basically exactly what I was looking for 20 years ago as a mentor.
Speaker 3:Right, and so I invited her to come to Kuwait and do some one-on-one training with me and I challenged the exam and I passed, and I've been doing cats ever since, and the cats in the Middle East were what really changed my point of view, because the cats there are absolutely stunning. They are clean, they are washed about every six to 12 weeks, they're groomed regularly and they were absolutely beautiful and it really opened my eyes as to how filthy actually the cats here in North America are. We have a lot of blind spots when it comes to cats.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can I ever see it? Because that's you know, what you're describing about being washed and groomed every six to eight weeks is what we do with dogs, yep, and we seem to forget all about the cats. And something you said earlier that really resonated is you know, know, consider ourselves kind of blessed at the moment with a cat that seems to be very little maintenance. Her, her name is Manu. I grew up, however, with a Himalayan that had really long fur, and this time of year in particular, when static electricity was up, she was an indoor exclusive cat. The mats really took hold.
Speaker 3:Actually, the whole key about mats is cleanliness. Clean cat hair doesn't bind. But we make a lot of assumptions. We have, as I said, blind spots. So think about this.
Speaker 3:First of all, I don't think we'd think dogs were all that clean if they covered themselves with saliva. Sure and good point. And also, as you said, like we now bathe our dogs regularly, 50 years ago you didn't, because they stayed outside and they weren't allowed in, you know, only certain parts of the house and they were certainly weren't allowed on your bed. And that changed. And as they became more indoor companions, then the need for hygiene went up. Well, cats are kind of like 50 years behind the dogs, because now we have more and more cats with a solely indoor environment.
Speaker 3:But people don't realize the cats still shed, dander and cover themselves spit and all this stuff builds up in their hair for years, months, whatever. And it has nowhere to go. Because in a natural environment a cat will actually go out and they'll swim, they'll sit under downspouts, they'll roll in the snow, they'll, you know, roll in the sand. Whatever environment they're in, they'll do more intensive self-grooming. But that doesn't happen for indoor cats. So all this gunk basically builds up in their hair, and then it becomes mats, which is felt, which means you can't untangle it.
Speaker 2:So it, which is painful for the cat as well it's very painful. Yeah, menu has the same coat as the himalayan, so long and fluffy, the distinction being is she does go outside, so she's got the natural bit happening.
Speaker 3:I'm not pro-outdoor cat because there's a lot of dangers there, but I think it's the recognition that you know. I mean we don't roll in the dirt and whatnot in our own house, but we obviously bathe our own hair, you know, a lot more often and regularly. So from a hygienic point of view, you know when you see that like white dried flakes all through the hair, that's actually not dry skin and also same thing with static it's actually telling you the hair is dirty because there's negative ions in the hair.
Speaker 2:Isn't that so so?
Speaker 3:when you see those flakes, that's actually dried saliva and sloughed off dead oily skin, Because dry skin is almost a never ever seen in a cat, unless it's a show cat being, you know, bathed twice a week.
Speaker 2:It certainly sounds like when you see that it's time for a bath. Oh, absolutely which brings me to at least one of those misconceptions is that cats don't like the water oh, absolutely. Which brings me to at least one of those misconceptions is that cats don't like the water. Oh no, totally false.
Speaker 3:Totally false.
Speaker 2:That is a huge misconception out there. I'm a believer of that, even being you know, we've had cats in our family. I've always had a cat in my family, so it's it's so. It is a misconception.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and cats are the number one pet in Canada actually. So when you look at wild cats, they very regularly go swimming. There's fishing cats in Kuwait. There are, you know, most of the different felines throughout the world are very avid swimmers. What they don't like is surprises, surprises, and they like to feel secure. So be going down into a slippery echo chamber like bathtub or being locked in a shower stall, it's not going to go well. Yeah, fair enough, yeah.
Speaker 3:And one of the things on our website. We do have a blog section where we give a lot of advice for people to groom their cats at home as well. So, but most of it, just having the right kind of setup, basically an understanding where a cat's hot buttons are and you can bring them through. Like you know, cats will react first and think later. Like you know, cats will react first and think later. So, knowing that there's about a 30-second lag, you know, we know where those humps are through the grooming process, so that we can bring them through that moment safely and sanely, and then they just settle right down and they absolutely love it, absolutely. They're total sensuists.
Speaker 2:Well, sounds amazing. Absolutely, they're total sensuists. Well, sounds amazing, and I'm pretty excited to look at your blog and pick up some skills and see what we could do with Manu, just on a personal level, or you know, ourselves or bring her to you.
Speaker 3:that uh sounds so interesting because again that that myth that they don't like water runs so deep in me it does along with cats you know, cats being clean is another one fair enough, because it's always they're washing with saliva and there's quite some very interesting, shall we say, types of bacteria in cat saliva and that's partly why well, that's not partly. That's the main reason why more people are allergic to cats than dogs, because they're not only shedding dander but they're combining it with the proteins from the saliva. So if you have an allergy problem, you can really get it in check by just having your cat bathed regularly.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, the uh let alone. So you're talking about saliva. It's uh, and this has always been a concern in our household is the cat is restricted to what surfaces? Uh, she could go on. Just the simple fact that it's never felt clean to me that she goes into a litter box and then there's no way I'm going to let her jump up onto our counter or kitchen.
Speaker 3:Or your pillows, you know.
Speaker 2:Fair enough yeah, yep.
Speaker 3:And I don't think anybody wants to live with a roommate who doesn't like shower at least once a season.
Speaker 2:That's so very true. Tell us, Janet, outside of work, how do you enjoy spending your time?
Speaker 3:Oh, I've got, I think, too many interests and not enough time, so I think my top three are I am a watercolor artist as well and I'm an avid amateur I'd say maybe intermediate genealogist, and I also do metal detecting.
Speaker 2:Metal detecting. Wow, that's amazing. Did you do that in Kuwait at all? I could just imagine metal detecting in the Persian Gulf. You could collect some treasures.
Speaker 3:No, that would not have gone over well. No, it's actually a little bit more recent. I'm fortunate to live in a more historical kind of part of southwest of Ottawa, so there's a lot of history here. So it's kind of fun to putter around and get permissions and dig up old relics.
Speaker 2:Sounds like fun. I live in south as well, 1850s home. You know it's interesting as you get closer.
Speaker 3:Hey, you should invite me over.
Speaker 2:When you get closer to the St Lawrence, things just get a lot older. Yeah, exactly, in some of the communities right, so it's, yeah, very cool. What's one thing you wish our?
Speaker 3:listeners knew about Cat's Pajamas. I would like people to know that our employees for one. They are actually hired employees. Most dog grooming establishments do work on subcontracted, more transient employees and all of our staff are certified feline groomers. We have an in-house training program. Now we have a couple who are also certified with the National Cat Grooming Institute and we believe that it's very important for positive grooming experiences for cats and an environment for that, because part of the situation previously is that you know cats go into a situation. It's very frightening. They're mishandled. There could be fear or pain, you know, or people doing silly things that you know diminish the dignity and the instinctive behavior and natural needs of cats and you need somebody who really understands cats as cats and not trying to treat them anything differently.
Speaker 2:They are so very different, doesn't it? They?
Speaker 3:are very different and, as I said, we have a nice big window in our reception that welcomes people and they can see everything that goes on in the workshop, because there's nothing to hide. They can watch their cat being groomed, start to finish, if they wanted to, and at the same time we have this lovely, beautiful cafe downstairs which is a great place to hang out for that hour-long groom Grooming's done in one hour straight start to finish, so the cats aren't left sitting around, you know, waiting their turn, or um, so we do an express service.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no it sounds amazing and I I can't wait to bring him a new. Actually, is it? Uh?
Speaker 3:I think she would be thrilled with that experience and oh well, you know, a lot of people ask us what did we do to their cat? Because the cat that comes home is a lot happier and more affectionate and outgoing, because they feel so much better. It's just like going to the spa for them.
Speaker 2:So very nice, very nice. Well uh, how can uh listeners learn more about uh you and the business and get in contact with you?
Speaker 3:well, there's a lot of information on our website, which is catspajamasgroomingca that's pajamas with a P-A-J, not P-Y-J, and, as I said, you'll see everything on there from our services offered pages, pricing, a blog page, question and answers, meet the team and you can also book your appointment 24-7 online, so you don't have to be going through reception or anything like that and play phone tag. You can go directly online and select the appointment that's best suited for you.
Speaker 2:Hey, excellent. Well, Janet, thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3:It was a pleasure. Thanks for inviting me again and we look forward to meeting Manu.
Speaker 2:Hey, and we look forward to meeting you out in the community as well. So it's uh, thanks again.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Capital Connections Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to CapitalConnectionsPodcastcom. That's CapitalConnectionsPodcastcom, or call 343-803-6268.