ShawneeDispatch.com

Some residents may not know it, but Edwardsville is home to a luxury resort. It's not for humans, though.

Susan and Adam vonNieda opened the Ani-Pals Pet Resort, 248 110th St., in April 2005 for pet owners who can't take their animals with them on a trip.

The vonNiedas' business employs six people besides Susan and focuses on dogs. Ani-Pals also offers accommodations for a few cats and takes in the occasional bird. The busiest times are holidays, Susan vonNieda said, with most pets staying at least a few nights and some as long as a month.

The regular dog suites, as vonNieda calls them, measure 4 by 8 feet and include an outdoor patio, accessible by a staff-regulated door, as well an indoor room, with a solid wall separating each dog.

There are luxury suites, which measure 6 by 8 feet and feature a toddler-size bed and television in each and provide a view of a miniature pond and garden inside the building.

The luxury suites cost $30 a night, while the regular ones $5 less. The price includes individual playtimes and walks, which kennels usually charge for, Susan said.

VonNieda said she has noticed that in recent years pet owners seem to spend more and more on their animals. One example of this trend may be seen atop the kitchen's partition in the large, airy building where the dog suites are located. Lined up there are the medicines brought by owners for their dogs, along with directions. One of these is a bottle of allergy medicine, and its instructions, written on an index card taped below, say it is meant to serve as medicine to calm the dog in case of a storm.

VonNieda said she's had dogs who were prescribed antidepressants, and some who took five different vitamins.

Some owners bring toys for their dogs and even their own food, including some homemade dishes. One pooch's door had a bag of homemade cookies hanging on it. Other dogs get their food heated up.

"We try to do whatever they do at home," vonNieda said, "to keep them on the same schedule."

Ani-Pals has just begun offering grooming for dogs and even has an employee who took special training to learn how to bathe, brush, dry and trim the toenails of dogs.

In addition to the dog suites, Ani-Pals offers "Kitty Condos," as VonNieda calls them, six stacked wood rooms in a separate room in the building. The cats have a television in the room and a climbing pole, and each is allowed to hang out in the room outside its space for one day.

The building sits on three acres and there are two outdoor play areas for the dogs, plus an indoor play area, for cold or wet weather. Each gets an individual walk and play time, unless the dog came with another from the same owner, in which case they're allowed to play together, and sometimes even share the same room.

Each animal is checked every day, and posted on the front of their pen is a sheet where employees mark off the pet's attitude, appetite, medication intake and frequency of bodily functions.

Pet owners will travel far for such accomodations; vonNieda said she gets clients from as far away as Lenexa and Olathe.