The Whole Cat and Kaboodle

If you have one cat, this place is fine. However if you have multiple cats, you might think twice about bringing any of them to this place (either location) for grooming. We have 3 cats, and have brought the 2 long haired cats in for dematting and sani trims twice now. The first time, there was more than expected hissing and growling when they got home, but this passed within a day or so. The second time, though - All hell broke loose and 2 were absolutely besides themselves with anger and hysteria at the third one. It was as if she was a completely different animal to them, and a scary one at that. This poor cat who now found herself under attack has always been a rather timid and gentle soul, and being suddenly attacked without provocation threw her into hiding full time, and then she voided on the carpet when she couldn't reach the box without going past the other two. I contacted the shop. The owner did call me back and was very apologetic, but had no real explanation. She offered us some feline pheremone spray for free which we did get and use liberally, and which did absolutely nothing at all to calm our cats down. The stuff may be of some use for mildly anxious cats, but it's definitely not any kind of sedative; overpriced snake oil, imo. This went on for days. The wife and I love all of our cats and we have been very concerned that we might have to give one up. We can't have cats urinating on the floors because they're upset! We tried many things to get our cats back to themselves, including wiping them all down with damp towels multiple times. Now, after almost a week of stress, it seems that things are almost back to normal. What caused all this? The shop owner suggests that this happens commonly. NO. We take our cats to the vet fairly regularly, this has NEVER happened before. At most, a few sniffs when the cat gets home, that's it. No, I am certain that the problem here is BAD SANITARY PRACTICES. Our cats came home loaded with smells of other cats. Who knows, maybe there had even been an unneutered male in before our cats. The employees hands, their clothes, their shaving instruments, the work surfaces, maybe ALL of the above, are inadequately sanitized between cats. Only reasonable explanation. So, even though we wanted to like this place, obviously we won't be going there again. If you have multiple cats and value your peaceful household, you won't either.