The Opelousas courier., 1886-09-25
A PET HOTEL.
Birds and Beasts Cared For
While Owners are Away.
How Feathered and Other Favorites are
Boarded and What it Costs

In upper Broadway is a large, airy
store for the sale of bird and beast pets.
In addition to being a store, it is a hotel
a hotel for pets whose owners put them
out to board during the hot weather.
Just as 500 as the days grow long aud
warm, and the fashionable world begins
fitting away to seashore, lakeside and
mountain, the Pet Hotel begins to fill up.
Cruel and unreasonable prejudice forbids
even the most beautiful, intelligent and
exemplary dogs accompanying their mas
tiers and mistresses. Birds are such a
nuisance to travel with that
few persons attempt to take them along,
except tough old maids, who have
strange ways of their own. And as for
monkeys, nc hotel with a a n proprie-
tor would open its doors to them, of
course. So the best arrangement that
can be made, for both owners and pets,
is to leave the latter in the care of an ex-
pert person during the summer. That is
where the proprietor of the Pet Hotel
comes to the front as the expert person.
He sees to it that the birds and beasts
are properly fed, that their cages and
kennels are carefully cleansed daily, that
any sick among them are properly iso-
lated and doctored until they get we'll,
and for all this makes quite reasonable
charges.
For boarding a big mastiff or st. Ber-
nard or Dachshund, with an appetite like
a hired man, he will charge "a NJ s. a
week; but reasonably sized dogs, such as
fox terriers, pugs, Yorkshire terriers,
black and tans, and even spitzes, are
boarded for only So so q week. There
are generally fifteen or twenty dogs here
as temporary residents at this season.
Their kennels are in a large, light high
ceiled, and we'll ventillated basement,
where dog would doubt
less deem himself very comfortable for a
time, but would eyentually find exist
ence rather monotonous, The hospital
kennels for sick dogs are out in the yard
at the back of the building, where they
will be completely isolated from the
other animals. The food of the dogs
consists of bread, water, and the meat
saved from the tables OF a large restau-
rant.
Cats are also boarded for So so a
week. They are kept in a large wire
cage where q glance in any direction
satisfies them of the utter uselessness of
yowling for 'M'rier," and consequently
they are very quiet and u~nobjectiona-
BILE boarders.
The bird guests in the Pet Hotel
outnumber the beasts always. Cana
ries and fnches are cared for at rs
cents a week; parrots, macaws, and
hooking birds, SO cents a week. The
only big birds boarding here now are
o sulphur-crested cockatoo belonging to
a Polish count who is temporarily in
Europe, and q hugo macaw, as gay in
colors as . new barber pole, belonging
to Theodore Moss. The macaw is not
simply q boarder, but q patient. Its
feet are paraIyzed, and if it does not
get better on treatment they are going
to astonist it with some electricity.
The price for boarding monkeys is
seventy-fve cents d week, which barely
covers the hananas, milk. and eggs that
the quadrumanous pets require. Not
many of them are brought to the Pet
Hotel, and the proprietor thereof is
rather glad Of it. No good reason seems
to exist for putting monkeys to board
here in idleness when their aristocratic
owners might be drawing a revenue from
them by hiring them out to Italian dukes
for the rural hand-organ season. Per-
haps the prevalence of some such ar
rangernent prevents the number Of mon
key boarders being greater.
In conversation with the proprietor
the fact was developed that our people
care very little for our most charming
native birds, preferring those imported
from other countries; but there is q great
and steady demand in Europe for any
s~weet-yoiced little indigo beauties,
American goldfnehes, Virginia nightin-
gales, Baltimore orioles, and other choice
birds from the United states.-Nes0 York
SIN.
Not Acqsasasted.