Jennifer T.
Yelp
Since all of these reviews are about dog boarding, I thought I would take a moment to review their cat boarding facilities. I know most people don't board their cats, and this is going to make me sound like a crazy cat lady, but my kitty doesn't do so great when "her human" is not around. The main thing is that she doesn't get along with my roommate's dog. So although my roommate is cool with feeding and keeping an eye on her when I'm away on business or vacation, having to take care of her own dog makes it complicated. It's better for all parties if I remove my kitty from the situation when I'm away for extended trips. I've used Now Boarding about 6 times during the past 1.5 years and they've all been positive experiences, though some have been more positive than others.
To be fair, I haven't tried other places as there aren't that many places in the Twin Cities that take cats. The number one pro to them is convenience. They are reasonably close to my house and of course the airport. It's great that I can get off the plane at 8pm, pick kitty up, and head home. No other place in the twin cities that can match this level of convenience. Service-wise they are pretty good although I've noticed that sometimes they are more attentive than other times. Let me explain:
Our first visit was a little over a month after I adopted her from the humane society. I think my cat thought I had "returned" her as she regressed a little. The only reason I know that is that the 2nd morning of my 5 day trip, I got a call that kitty hadn't eaten since she arrived the morning the day before and they wanted to know if it was ok if they gave her wet food. After okaying this, I received a call from them every 3-4 hours for the rest of the day. ("didn't work, can we try tuna", "she's eating again but no BMs", "she acting normal again", etc). Then they called me every day just to let me know everything was still ok. All without me prompting them which I thought was pretty cool. Made me think that if something went medically wrong, they would be very attentive.
Kitty is still not the social butterfly of the place as she prefers undistracted 1:1 attention and needs to be coaxed a bit, but giving her the calming treatment the first day seems to help her adjust a lot. This "not eating" thing has not happened since but I can definitely tell that sometimes kitty gets more attention than other times because her report card always reflects it. If I get an undistracted, cat loving kennel attendant, her report card will say that "kitty was shy the first day" but once she realized "what nice head scratchers" they were she turned into a cuddlebug, which is the personality I know her to be.
If I get a distracted employee with little cat experience, her report card will say that kitty was a sad antisocial soul who never came out of her kennel. To me this is only marginally better than her getting into fights with my roommate's dog if she had stayed at home. :/ To be fair, this has only happened 2 of the 6 times but it makes me think that kitties aren't really their priority. If there were a more options, I might try other places, but I think this would be the case at any place that also boards dogs so its not a deal breaker, it's just my reason for only giving three stars.
Facility & cost-wise, they are the best value. It's hard to get my kitty into her carrier so they always escort me back to get her myself meaning I've seen the setup of the whole places a few times. It's always super clean and calm. The kennels are a good size and well maintained. The kitty play area is a pretty good size too. And their cost is fairly comparable to other places. (I think in my internet searching I only found one other place that was cheaper for cats and it would have involved an hour's drive each way with a yowling cat). So for now, I'll keep coming back but I really would love to see other options for cat boarding.