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David Stewart travels a lot for business, and before leaving town he always checks his two cats into a feline hotel.

He has never seen their lodgings -- hotel staff pick up his Styopa and Marusya and drop them off again when he returns -- but he feels sure they are comfortable there.

"They provided me with a photograph of my cats there, and it looked fine," Stewart, a senior executive at Basic Element, wrote recently from Mongolia. "The people I deal with there really seem to like cats."

Stewart's pets stay at Cat's Dream Hotel (www.cat-hotel.ru), one of a handful of pet hotels in and around Moscow. About 20 cats were staying there during a recent visit, and for the most part they appeared comfortable, although the newest arrivals looked a bit lost, hiding in their tiny houses made of upturned cardboard boxes.

A sheet of paper was pinned to the door of each cabin for staff to keep records of the cats' appearance, psychological state, appetite and bowel movements; owners are also encouraged to leave tips about how their pets should be treated.

The number of guests is set to grow as the vacation season heats up in the coming months, said Maxim Kivva, who together with his family runs the hotel located about 16 kilometers southeast of Moscow in the settlement of Vyunok, near Zheleznodorozhny.

The hotel opened in late 2004 and has seen its number of furry guests triple as Russians learn about the service and become more relaxed about boarding a pet in a kennel rather than leaving it with a friend, Kivva said.

The hotel is particularly busy during the winter holidays and summer months. It had a full house during this past New Year's holiday, when 68 cats checked in and another 40 had to look for other accommodation.

"For New Year's, you have to book in August," Kivva said.

Pet hotels in Moscow are few and far between -- and even fewer of them are located within the city limits. Most are family-run businesses in the countryside, where land is cheaper. Some offer to bring your pet to the hotel and then return it to you, as is the case with Kivva's hotel, where three-quarters of clients take advantage of the 750 ruble ($28) service. Regular customers get a discount.

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