Family Business

Hello I'm Lisa and this is our family story. After working in IT for 20 years I took redundancy. I wanted to try something completely different. So I did the IPG Dog Grooming Certification in February 2015 at Broomfield Hall, Derbyshire.

I already groomed our own dogs a Bichon x Westie and a Standard Poodle before being professionally trained. I opened 'The 4 Paws' in September 2015.

At the back of my mind I always wanted to do cat grooming. I continued grooming dogs whilst building a customer base of cats. In 2020 I had completely transitioned to cats and changed the business to 'The Cat Spa'.  My eldest daughter Mia began grooming with me in September 2021.  My younger daughter Georgia began grooming with us in 2023.

I used to blow dry cats in a dog crate, it's very dangerous to restrain a cat in the typical way we would a dog with a groomers arm and noose, this is where the idea of the Dry Vac came about. Standing all day and inhaling the fur and dander isn't nice. I also worried what the long term effects on my health were. I wanted a safe environment which also extracted the fur away from the cat. I discussed my idea with a friend who is a design engineer and the first Dry Vac was made in 2019. My father who is also a retired engineer and I built more boxes altering the original design and we now have this design suited to both cats and dogs. 

Whilst I continue to run a feline exclusive grooming salon with my daughters my sons Samuel and Joseph take care of the building, delivering and installation of the Dry Vac to customers. We take pride in our work. We care, and it shows. We're a family business, and we treat you as family, too. We handle every request with the utmost care and professionalism.

We groom between 20 and 30 cats a week.  We have one bathing and two separate drying areas. With prior arrangement we are happy for you to visit and we can demonstrate the Dry Vac in use and answer any questions.