DATE: Tuesday, July 22, 1997                TAG: 9707220238

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   63 lines

WHEN OWNERS GO AWAY, KENNELS TRY TO HELP PETS FEEL AT HOME BUSINESS IS BRISK THIS TIME OF YEAR AT ``PET HOTELS.''

When you have thumbs, summer weekends mean getting away and rubbing coconut-scented balm on all parts not covered by your heinously tight suit.

Paradise.

But when you're a dog or cat and the owners head off, your weekend is a stay in the pet pokey.

Kennels are big business in Hampton Roads. Three yellow pages sport ads in which cartoon dogs and cats eat together, rub fur-to-fur and even share bed covers.

This isn't quite the case at places such as Chesapeake's Animal Inn, where 100 animals might stay during a hopping summer weekend. Workers keep the animals as comfortable as they can, but there's no cohabitation.

Pets are individually caged when they aren't in the hands of groomers or technicians, according to Nikki Lawrence, a 27-year-old veterinary assistant at the Animal Care Center in Norfolk. Socialization usually happens in the yard during three daily doses of rec time.

The Animal Care Center is as booked this weekend as a beachfront hotel, but the rates are considerably more reasonable. And they won't bathe you at the Holiday Inn.

For $7.50 you get a small compartment. For $12.50 you get a big one. Normal baths for dogs are $14, and for $24 you can get the flea dip/bath combo. They pay extra attention to ears and nails.

The center's caged pet quarters cover most of the building's aft end. Most pets stay a week or a weekend, but some go long-term in quarters assigned by an occupant's build and species.

Cages are stacked three high in the cat room. Jingle is the old man of that block. He's been in since June. Seems his owners took a long trip. His time is coming.

Jingle rolls out in a week.

Smaller dogs also live in stacks of barred housing. Each pooch passes cell time differently at the kennel. Gigi, a poodle, paces. Nelson's a napper. So is Hershey.

The big boys roost in the back room, in full-sized cages for full-bodied dogs such as Wolf and Toby, a pair of barkers, and Noel, a friendly dog who'll lick a stranger's hand and ask for seconds.

Devisa Averitt made reservations for her pets at the Animal Care Center. On a sunny Friday, when she and the family headed on a weekend jaunt to New Jersey, Blackie and Rex went upriver for a stay in the hoosegow.

Blackie, a burly German shepherd mix, sang this number during a past Averitt vacation, but it was Rex's first time.

The 10-week-old pit bull and retriever mix leads a different life back in the world, where the pup sometimes grates on the nerves of the older, more worldly Blackie, who doesn't always want to play.

Averitt summed it up: ``They sleep. They play in the yard.''

The owner said she has used the kennel before and her dog was well cared-for. That is the product owners pay for and the assurance they want while they are away.

However cozy the stay, there's nothing like the first taste of freedom.

``Oh yeah,'' Lawrence said. ``They know when they're going home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

TING-LI WANG

Veterinary assistant Lori Pauley checks the paw of a guest at the

Animal Care Center Boarding Kennel on Little Creek Road in Norfolk.

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