I know that no one can love and care for your cat as much as you do, but there are those select few who can come close and Barbara Bowman is one of them. Barbara is the owner of Catnap Quarters, a hotel service for your Kitty! She operates her cattery in her home in Meridian. Barbara was looking for a home business when she ran across the idea in Yankee Magazine.

"There was a cattery business for sale in Lincoln, Maine. I went to visit and fell in love with the idea," explains Barbara.

At the time she was working for Delta Air Lines, and the process of establishing her business took about three years, because Barbara and her husband lived in a town-home in Boise. They searched for a piece of property and specifically built their house around this new business venture.

Her primary goal is to please cats and to provide a comfortable and safe "home away from home" for them. Originally, the cat room was built to hold 22 kennels, but she stopped with only 12, because she wanted quality time with each cat.

Each kennel is a five-story cat condo. The bottom compartment is storage, the 2nd compartment is the "private bath for the guest and the upper 3 levels are screened lounge areas, which have a scratching post running vertically through them. Each condo is next to a window where the cat can view the pond and lots of birds, attracted to the numerous feeders; which Barbara has hanging outside the cattery.

Some of the condos have connecting doors for those guests who are related and wish to spend some of their time together. Barbara's office is right in the cat room, so that she can visit with the cats as she works.

She will open each "condo door" individually so that the cat can roam around the room while listening to the classical music being played in the back ground.

The cats are free to lounge on the couch or sit on the window sill and look out at the wildlife and waterfall.

The cats usually adjust to their new surroundings within 24 hours. Returning guests will often walk straight to their "old condo" upon their arrival; on more than one occasion Barbara has had a disappointed cat, when the condo it had occupied previously was now occupied by another guest.

"I love to watch them. I have learned so much about their behavior and personalities," says Barbara, "You learn from them what their desires are. They will tell you what they want (and don't want)."

People will bring their cats to Quarters for several reasons -vacation or long weekends are the most common, but there have been times when Barbara has had a guest for an extended time while their human is building a new home or remodeling their existing home. "I am not worried about competition from other cat boarding facilities. Cat-only boarding facilities are relatively new in this area. I'd like to see all of them full, because that means cats are being well cared for. I want people to love their cats!"

And that's exactly what she does-
she loves cats!