DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
It’s all about pets this week…
LOOKING FORWARD TO SOME LUXURY?: Potential patrons of Beau’s Pet Hotel. PICTURE: Anoir Chafik/Unsplash
• A five star, state-of-the-art ‘pet hotel’ is slated to open at Adelaide Airport next week complete with luxury accommodation including penthouse condos for cats and suites for dogs, indoor and outdoor play areas and even the option for owners to catch up with their pets via Skype. The $9 million ‘Beau’s Pet Hotel‘ – named after the first officially trained Guide Dog in Australia – is the brainchild of Guide Dogs SA/NT and features 262 standard and luxury rooms with three choices for dogs – classic, deluxe or premier – and two for cats – loft or penthouse condos. The premier suites for dogs come with a private covered and enclosed courtyard and access to an outdoor play yard with water feature while cat accomodations come with a private litter box, soothing music and a secluded sleeping area (two storeys for those who opt for the penthouse option). The opening of the hotel, the first not-for-profit pet hotel in Australia, coincides with the organisation’s 60th anniversary.
• French President Emmanuel Macron has taken on a ‘First Dog’ for the nation, upholding a tradition honoured by every president since World War II. Mr Macron and his wife Brigitte named the adopted black labrador-griffon mix after Captain Nemo, a character in Jules Verne’s book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. Nemo takes over the job from Philae, a labrador given as a gift to former President Francois Hollande and named after the European Space Agency’s comet lander.
• And lastly, two New York City cats – Troy and Tiger – have been left some $US300,000 in the will of their owner, it has been revealed. The New York Post reports that the Bronx widow, who died in 2015, left the rather tidy sum to make sure the cats would never be caged and always cared for. When they die, the remaining money will go to a relative of the deceased. It’s certainly not the largest amount left to a pet in New York – Leona Hemsley famously left $12 million to her pooch, Trouble.
