Board your pet with your vet

CHENNAI: Worried about ticks and doggie depression while you're away? For a good number of the city's pet owners, finding a place to leave their pets while travelling is perhaps a bigger challenge than raising their pet. Says M T Aditya Srinivasan, "We haven't taken a family vacation ever since we got our dachshund Pepper 10 years ago." He adds, "Even when we had a death in the family recently, we made it a point to take turns and have one person stay behind." While some owners admit to being too attached to their pets to leave, there is a large section of others that do not like the pet boarding options available. Dark cages, using sticks as punishment and serving small quantities of food have been the lament of pet owners who have attempted to place their dogs in the care of 'kennels' on an out-of-station trip.Thankfully though, in the last five years, a slow and steady trend of vet care-cum-pet boarding has taken flight. With no promotion or advertising except for good references from fellow pet owners, it seems doggie day care may have gotten a facelift. Says veterinarian S V Sujatha, who runs Sri Krishna Vet Clinic in Abhiramapuram, "Our pet boarding option actually started out as  an in-patient facility." She explains, "After a surgery we would have the pet stay the night with our attendants who are on call 24/7." The way it works is simple. Should you want to keep your dog or cat with the clinic, an authorisation letter is required to be signed by both owner and guardian (in case of an emergency). This way, there is no worry of theft if it is an expensive breed. Dr Sujatha states, "If a person walks in claiming to be the guardian, we can always compare signatures and, of course, see how friendly the dog is toward him."There is also a pet boarding form to be filled comprising details such as frequency of meals, what the animal is fed on a daily basis, his or her habits, birth marks for identification and so on. And it appears, this facility is not used only by owners who are going on a trip — there are software professionals who opt to use it as a doggie creche! "At our clinic, we've even had a dog stay with us for close to a year, " reveals veterinarian Paul Frederick, whose pet boarding in Guindy accommodates up to 30 pets. "When his owner came to take him home, he was actually a tad reluctant to leave the clinic," he smiles.