Hi, I am so pleased to meet you. My name is Anastasia, and I have the unique career of being a Cat Groomer. I have been in the pet care industry since 2005 when I started as a bather in a dog grooming salon, then worked my way up to dog groomer. I always said I would never groom cats because there are some larger risks with caring for them vs. caring for our dog friends. I have owned cats and helped care for cats throughout my dog grooming years, but no experience was encouraging enough to pursue grooming felines exclusively. Cat bites and scratches are very risky to anyone who handles them, but when you're introducing them to a new experience, like grooming, the risks of being bitten or scratched increase significantly.
Cats are in no less need of grooming services. In July 2023, I attended a virtual seminar with the National Cat Groomers Institute and started their syllabus and certification program. After just one day of learning, I became a Certified Feline Master Groomer in November 2024 after passing written and hands-on practical exams. The educators and students who were attending and sharing their knowledge were so fun, encouraging, and supportive that I felt like I was home. Cat groomers are my people; cat people have become my people. While learning handling and safe techniques, I slowly began offering house call grooming services in Tulsa, OK, and surrounding areas. In November 2023, I opened my first salon space in Broken Arrow, OK, due to the major increase in need. I had to make myself more accessible to my clients. Allowing them to come to me opened up a much larger range of availability to serve the cats in my area. We're now in February 2025, and I have a robust clientele I ADORE and will soon be offering cat boarding at my home until we can move everything under one roof in a properly zoned area in Broken Arrow, OK.
Now to address the normal surprise most people feel when I tell them what I do for a living. NO, cats do NOT groom themselves; they LICK themselves, which allows them to remove loose hair and debris from their coats, but it does NOT clean them. No one looks at their dogs licking themselves and thinks, "Yep, that's a clean dog," so why do we do this with cats? The regular age range I see my first cat clients can be anywhere from 7-11 years old. Most have never been groomed before, ever, and some have only been groomed in a fully sedated setting at their vet's office. The reason this age range seems to be the "problem" age range is because senior cats tend to mat a lot due to age, health, and desire to lick all that dead coat out of themselves. However, I try to encourage my clients to bring in their younger cats and let them have experience in being handled, the noises of the salon, and the feeling of clippers on their bodies. Going back to dogs for just a minute, they tend to start being groomed and handled from birth by responsible breeders. Their owners expose them to car rides, friends and family, other pets, and a multitude of errands and travel because they want their dog to be happy, confident, and healthy. Most cats? They only leave their homes for serious vet care. A lot of people believe indoor-only cats require little to no care, so these cats only have the experience of being taken out of the home under the worst conditions and to the vet that needs to poke and prod them in order to do testing and provide care.
Cats shed, they get oil buildup, flaky skin, feces stuck to their bums, excessive nail length, and mats JUST LIKE DOGS, yet their care is primarily only on a worst-case need basis. As a Certified Feline Master Groomer, I work daily to change this narrative of care for the cat community. Cats on a regular grooming schedule have less shedding, less matting, fewer hairballs, and their owners have less to maintain at home. A secondary perk for owners, if they are allergy sufferers who just can't say no to their love of felines, is that on a regular bathing schedule, the saliva and dander buildup on their cats is greatly reduced, making for a lot more snuggly time and less allergy suffering. Regular grooming looks different for every home and every cat, but the definition of regular for Toe Beans is a cat or cats on a 4 to 12-week recurring schedule. This type of appointment allows the cat time to realize we are part of their routine; cats thrive on routine. Anyone who's late to feed a cat knows they are creatures of habit. We see the best results in stress and behavior from the clients who maintain this type of standing appointment. Grooming is stressful for every pet to some degree, but accepting it as part of their routine allows for minimal stress and shorter appointment service time.
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