Treating Your Pet to the Good Life
Cats are supposed to be soft and fluffy. Not Mr. Delicious.
“It’s like a warm peach that kind of gives a little bit, that has extra skin,” Greg Bird, the New York Yankees’ starting first baseman, told The Times, about his hairless cat.
Mr. Bird adopted Mr. Delicious while recovering from surgery last year and posted a photograph of him on Instagram before spring training.
“At first, everyone’s kind of super-standoffish. But I tell everyone, ‘ You hang out with that cat for a day, you’ll want one,’ ” Mr. Bird said. “You won’t get one like him, but you’ll want one.”
The cat’s charm might be a product of its famous lineage. Mr. Delicious is the fourth-generation offspring of Mr. Bigglesworth (real name Ted Nude- Gent), the feline friend of Dr. Evil in the movie “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.”
Mr. Bird was going to send his cat back to his hometown in Colorado before the start of the season, but an animal of Mr. Delicious’s pedigree might desire a bit of relaxation before jet-setting across the country.
Mr. Delicious can find that at Kennedy International Airport in New York, which has a new facility dedicated to handling inbound and outbound pets, The Times reported. Called the Ark at JFK, the 7,000-square-meter facility, opening in stages, is dedicated to accommodating dogs, cats, horses, birds, fish and even sloths. While the Ark will include a veterinary hospital as well as quarantine center for foreign ani- mals, it will also have resort-like accommodations at Paradise 4 Paws.
The 150-room lodging, 130 for dogs and the rest for cats, will offer massages and nail treatments (dubbed “pawdicures”), along with a bone-shaped splashing pool for dogs and top- class amenities like the “Top Dog Suite,” which will contain a full-sized bed and 80- centimeter flat-screen TV.
Stay-at-home cats need not fret. Two American start-ups are offering a taste of the good life in the form of cat wine.
Brandon Zavala started Apollo Peak, which calls itself “the original cat winery,” two years ago with offerings like Catbernet and Pinot Meow. Last year, the company sold $500,000 worth of animal wine. Its competitor, Pet Winery, offers Meow & Chandon and Purrgandy.
“A pet is more like a friend, a roommate or a family member,” Mr. Zavala told The Times. “Why are we just feeding them water?”
The beverages are non-alcoholic and are really just catnip-infused water. Pet Winery has gotten creative in an effort to stand out.
“Apollo Peak doesn’t get to own the market,” Taryn Nahm, one of the company’s founders, told The Times. “We have our own viewpoints,” and their own recipes.
“We did salmon oil with catnip,” she added.
Whatever sort of catnip-infused turf wars break out, it will be good for consumers as well as their owners.
“We want to believe we’re making their lives more luxurious, however silly that seems,” said Nicole Gounalis, a student at Stanford University in California who attended a cat wine tasting. “You’re imagining this alternative universe, in which cats live miniature versions of what you do.”