Is something actually wrong with your pet? Grooming is not the right answer to a medical problem. If your pet has a wound, a hot spot, an ear that smells or is painful, a lump, a limp, a rash that is spreading, is scratching itself raw, or is in any distress, see a veterinarian first and come to us afterwards. We will happily groom around a healing problem once a vet has seen it, and we will tell you honestly when we think something needs a veterinarian rather than a bath.
Cat grooming in Woodside, NY takes place in its own room, behind its own door, away from every dog on the main floor and every dryer running out there. Nothing carries through the wall, and only one cat is ever in the room at a time. The appointment is $110 for a full bath, a complete hand-dry, a comb-out to the skin and a nail trim, and it is booked at roughly twice the length the same list of jobs would take a dog, because a cat that is not rushed is a cat we can actually finish in one piece.
There is one thing we will not do here, for any cat, at any price: sedate it. Sedation is a veterinary decision, made by a veterinarian who has examined the animal and can monitor it properly while it is under, not a grooming shortcut for a coat that is proving slow or difficult. A salon that offers to sedate your cat so a haircut goes more smoothly is offering something that is simply not its business to offer, whatever it is called on the price list, and we think a good deal less of the trade for how often it happens.
What we do instead is give the appointment more time than the job needs, not more drugs than the animal needs. A nervous or older cat gets short working stretches with a real rest in between, and if the coat honestly cannot be finished today, it gets finished on a second or third visit rather than forced through in one sitting, at no extra charge for the extra time. Mei-Lin, who grooms only cats here and only in this room, would rather hand you back a half-finished cat today than a fully groomed one who has had a frightening afternoon. See /team.html and /first-visit.html.
A room built for a cat, not a small dog
Cats are not groomed on the main floor, and the room they are groomed in reflects that.
Its own door
The quiet room has a door that actually closes, so the noise of a dryer running on the main floor, a dog barking in reception or a nail grinder at the next station simply does not reach the cat inside. Sound is very often what unsettles a cat long before handling does, and a closed door removes most of it before your cat has even been lifted onto the table.
One cat at a time
Only one animal is ever in the quiet room at once, so your cat is never sharing the space, the air or the attention of the groomer with another animal, however calm that other animal might be. It is a deliberate limit on how many cats we can see in a day, and we would rather see fewer cats properly than more of them badly.
Booked at twice the length
A dog's full groom and a cat's full groom involve roughly the same list of jobs — a bath, a dry, a comb-out, nails — but the cat's appointment is booked at close to double the time, because rushing any part of it is how a groom gets abandoned halfway through. The extra time is not billed as extra; it is simply how a cat appointment is built from the start.
A window rather than a cage
The room has natural light and a window rather than a bank of wire crates, because a cat waiting its turn does noticeably better when it can see outside and follow a sunbeam across the floor than when it is shut inside a metal box. It is a small detail that has more effect on how a nervous cat behaves than almost anything we do with our hands.
Who actually grooms your cat
Every cat groomed here is groomed by Mei-Lin, who grooms cats and only cats, and has done so since 2011. She is the person who decides, on the day, whether your cat can be finished in one sitting or needs to come back, and that judgment is hers to make rather than the book's. She works from the same quiet room every day, so a returning cat meets the same hands and the same smells each time rather than starting over with somebody new.
What the $110 groom actually covers
Four jobs, done in a fixed order, every time.
The bath
Warm water, checked against a wrist before your cat goes anywhere near it, delivered through a low-pressure sprayer rather than anything that feels like a fire hose. Most cats are washed once rather than twice, because a second full wash on top of an already stressful bath rarely adds enough to the coat to be worth doing to a cat who would rather it were over.
The hand-dry
Dried by hand by the same person who bathed your cat, at a temperature checked against the back of a hand throughout, never left running on its own. There is no cage dryer anywhere in this building, for a cat or for anything else, and a cat is never dried unattended even for a minute. Long-haired cats take considerably longer to dry properly than they look like they should, and rushing the coat before it is fully dry is exactly how it goes on to mat within days.
The comb-out
A steel comb worked all the way to the skin, section by section, which is the only way to tell what a coat actually looks like underneath the top layer. If the comb will not pass through a section without pulling, that is matting rather than a knot, and it becomes a conversation about /cat-lion-cut.html rather than more time spent with the comb.
Nails
Trimmed with a small clipper sized for a cat rather than a dog, taking account of how thin and easily nicked a cat's nail bed is compared with a dog's. If your cat will not tolerate all four paws in one sitting, we do what we can and finish the rest another day rather than hold a struggling cat down to complete it.
What is not included
Ears are not part of the $110 groom, because a cat's ear is small and most cats tolerate a bath and a comb far better than having their ears handled on the same visit. A separate short visit for nails and ears together is $30, and ear cleaning alone, when it is genuinely needed, is $15. Tell us at booking if you would like ears looked at the same day, and we will confirm one combined price before anything starts rather than add it on afterwards.
No sedation, and what we do instead
This is the one rule on this page we will not bend, for any cat, at any price.
Sedation is a veterinary decision
Sedating an animal safely means knowing its health history, examining it beforehand, choosing a drug and a dose suited to that specific animal, and monitoring it properly while it is under and afterwards. That is veterinary medicine, done by a veterinarian, and no part of it belongs in a grooming salon, however difficult the coat in front of us happens to be.
Why we will not offer it
A groomer who sedates a cat to get through a haircut is treating a shortcut as a service, offering something it has no training, equipment or standing to offer. We would rather tell you honestly that today's appointment did not finish than solve that problem with a drug we are not qualified to give. It is also, in our view, a genuine welfare risk rather than a convenience, since an unmonitored or badly judged dose can hurt an animal in ways a haircut never could.
Longer slots instead of drugs
Every cat appointment is already booked at close to double the length a dog's equivalent groom would take, precisely so that time does the job a sedative would otherwise be asked to do. A slower pace, more pauses and a groomer who is not watching the clock account for most of what a difficult cat actually needs. That extra time is planned into the day from the start, not squeezed in as an afterthought, so a cat who needs it does not cost the appointment after hers a late start.
Short sessions, real breaks
If your cat tells us clearly it has had enough — struggling, growling, trying repeatedly to leave — we stop, let it settle in the resting bay, and come back to it rather than pushing through to a finished result. A cat that is calm for the last five minutes of a session is easier to book again than one that was held through all of it.
Finishing across two or three visits
A coat that cannot honestly be finished in one sitting is finished across a second or third visit instead, at no extra charge beyond the original $110, because the extra visits are our decision about pace rather than a service you asked for twice. Most cats that start this way are fully groomed within two to three weeks. You are told at the first visit, honestly, roughly how many more sittings we expect it to take, so there are no surprises about how long the whole thing runs.
Cat grooming in western Queens
A full cat groom — bath, hand-dry, comb-out and nails — in a separate quiet room with its own door, booked at roughly twice the length the job needs, with no sedation, ever.
It starts the same way whatever you have booked: both hands over the whole animal before anything is switched on, so we find what is under the top layer rather than discover it halfway through. Then you are told the price and the finish time out loud, before you leave the building. If the coat turns out to be worse than it looked, we stop and call you, and you decide what happens next rather than finding out at collection.
Grooming is not veterinary care. Grooming is grooming, not veterinary care. This page describes a service we offer. It is general information, and it is not a diagnosis, a treatment or veterinary advice for any particular animal. We are groomers, not veterinarians — we do not diagnose, we do not prescribe and we do not treat medical conditions. If your pet has a wound, a lump, an ear or skin problem, a limp or anything that worries you, speak to a licensed veterinarian who can actually examine it.
How we handle your animal. We do not sedate animals and we never will — sedation is a veterinary decision made by a veterinarian, not a grooming shortcut. We use no heated cage dryers of any kind, and no animal is ever left alone with a dryer running. Every pet is hand-dried by the person grooming it. If your animal tells us clearly that it has had enough, we stop, and you get an honest conversation instead of a finished haircut.
Questions
Cat grooming — the questions we are asked most
Do you sedate cats for grooming?
No, and we never will. Sedation is a veterinary decision, made by a veterinarian who has examined your cat and can monitor it safely while it is under — it is not something a grooming salon is trained, equipped or entitled to offer. What we do instead is book your cat's appointment at close to twice the length a dog's equivalent groom would take, work in short sessions with real breaks, and finish across two or three visits if that is what your cat genuinely needs.
Will my cat be near any dogs?
No. Cats are groomed in a separate room with its own door, reached without walking through the main floor where the dogs are, and only one cat is ever in that room at a time. Dryer noise from the main floor does not carry through, and your cat will not see, hear closely, or share space with a dog at any point during the visit.
How long will my cat's appointment take?
Longer than you might expect for what sounds like a short list of jobs. A full groom — bath, dry, comb-out and nails — is booked at roughly twice the length the same jobs would take a dog, because rushing any part of it is how an appointment gets abandoned halfway through. Most cats are with us for around two hours, and a nervous or older cat may need more.
My cat hates being brushed at home. Will you be able to comb her out?
Often, yes, if the coat has not gone past what a comb can manage — that is exactly what the quiet room, the extra time and a groomer who only works with cats are for. If the comb will not pass to the skin without pulling, that is matting rather than a knot we can work through gently, and we will talk to you honestly about a lion or comb cut instead. See /cat-lion-cut.html and /matting-policy.html.
What if my cat will not tolerate the whole groom in one visit?
Then we stop and finish it another day. If your cat is struggling, growling or repeatedly trying to leave, we let it settle in the resting bay and pick up where we left off, sometimes on a second or third visit, rather than holding it through to a finished result. There is no extra charge for the extra visits — that pacing is our decision, not a service you booked twice.
How much does a full cat groom cost, and what does it include?
A full cat groom is $110 and includes a bath, a complete hand-dry, a comb-out to the skin and a nail trim, done in that order in the quiet room. Ears are not part of that price — a short visit for nails and ears together is $30, and ear cleaning alone, when it is actually needed, is $15.
My cat is elderly and has arthritis. Can you still groom her?
Yes, and it is worth telling us before you book, because it changes how we work rather than whether we can help. An older or stiff cat gets a slower pace, more breaks and, if needed, an appointment split across two visits so she is never asked to hold an awkward position longer than is comfortable. If a veterinarian is treating a specific condition, tell us what it is — we will not diagnose or advise on it, but it helps us plan the visit.
Do you use a cage dryer on cats?
No. There is no heated cage dryer anywhere in this building, for a cat or for anything else, and no animal is ever left drying unattended. Your cat is hand-dried by the person who bathed her, at a temperature checked by hand throughout, which takes longer than a cage dryer would but means somebody is actually paying attention to her the entire time.
Related
Usually booked alongside this
Cat & Small Pet
Cat lion cut
The full clip for a long-haired cat whose coat has gone past what combing can manage, done slowly on skin that nicks easily, with the reasons behind it pointed at a veterinarian rather than guessed at here.
Read more
Cat & Small Pet
Rabbits & small pets
Combing, nails and a coat check for rabbits and guinea pigs, done in short sittings — often on your lap rather than a table — with no bath, because bathing a rabbit is genuinely dangerous to it.
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Cat & Small Pet
Senior & special needs
Grooming for senior and special-needs animals: low tables dropped to the floor, appointments split across two visits where that helps, frequent breaks, and no extra charge for any of the extra time it takes.
Read moreA price agreed before the clippers come out
Book an appointment
Call the salon with your pet's breed, weight and roughly when it was last groomed, and we will give you the price and the honest timing on the phone. Nails, ears and sanitary tidies are walk-in whenever we are quiet, and Saturday morning is a dedicated walk-in nail clinic.