Owners rush to pamper pets in lead-up to Spring Festival

Just a few days ahead of Spring Festival, pet grooming and pet sitting services are booming in China as people follow the tradition of getting their houses cleaned and in order to bring good fortune in the new year.

"My shop has three staff members including me, and since Jan 18 we've been washing 10 to 15 dogs and cats each day, the workload doubling from usual times," said Yan Jie, who runs a pet grooming business in Beijing's Chaoyang district. "We also offer services such as styling, nail trimming and ear cleaning."

She said the bathing and grooming price for cats has gone up to 160 yuan ($23) per cat, nearly twice as much as usual, and the price for dogs ranges from 120 to 300 yuan, depending on size.

"Despite raising the price, we still have a lot of bookings, and we have to skip lunch or dinner this week to complete them. Many of the customers don't care how much they pay for their pets and just want them to be more beautiful and adorable for the coming festival," she said.

Falling on Wednesday, Spring Festival this year is an eight-day holiday, beginning Tuesday — Chinese New Year's Eve. Because of the long vacation period, during which many people will return to their hometowns for family reunions, pet sitting services are also in great demand.

Chen Yunhan, 24, booked a pet sitting service for her cat before returning to Yunnan province on Saturday.

"Pet boarding and pet sitting are the two main ways we care for our pet when we leave the house for several days. Pet boarding costs more and requires the cat to get used to the boarding houses. Pet sitting is a more economical choice and is better for the cat,"Chen said.

She said her requirements are simple — cleaning up the cat's mess and feeding it. This only costs her 50 yuan each time she requests the services.

"I prefer female cat sitters for safety reasons, and I have household monitors. The cat sitters will send me videos of their services as I require," Chen said.

Thirty-one-year-old Zhang Mengqi, a social worker and part-time cat sitter in Beijing, said that bookings started to increase in mid-January, and she's had three to four people call her about cat sitting services every day in recent weeks.

"Most of the customers have concerns such as whether their cats will feel lonely or if I can take good care of them during the weeklong vacation. I've taken orders from a very cautious female customer, and I signed online contracts with her to help her feel more assured," she said, adding that she is a "cat person" who charges roughly 50 yuan per cat.

"I've also accepted a very interesting but somewhat challenging booking from someone who has many pets such as cats, a rabbit, a parrot and a tortoise at home."

Pet grooming services are all part of the burgeoning pet economy in China.

A recent report by the China Pet Industry Association, the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association and pet economy analysis platform Petdata.cn showed that the domestic pet economy was valued at over 300 billion yuan last year, and pet-related expenses by urban residents exceeded 300.2 billion yuan.

Third-party data analysis agency iiMedia Research in Guangdong province predicts the market scale of China's pet industry will increase to 1.15 trillion yuan by 2028.

Shi Yudie contributed to this story.

chengsi@chinadaily.com.cn