Niner Baxter: Niner is a NYS Licensed Veterinary Technician with 13 years of animal hospital experience, during which he discovered a skill with and passion for grooming cats. The cat grooming process in most animal hospitals is very limited, however, so after leaving that arena and brainstorming at home, 9 Lives Holistic was born. Niner studied with the National Cat Grooming Institute to perfect his skills. In addition, he completed the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine’s weekend program in 2016. He continues to seek out new educational opportunities to enhance the services we offer at 9LH. Niner’s a lifelong cat lover with a calm, level energy cats are drawn to. He is also the chief feather-toy player in the Cat Nappery Inn, aside from the cats, of course, and keeps the retail boutique stocked and running smoothly, both in person and on-line. Niner’s least favorite thing is social media in all its forms, however, so he leaves all of that crazy nonsense to Lynda, who loves it.
Lynda Sandoval: Lynda brings an eclectic work background to 9 Lives Holistic. In addition to five years of experience in customer care at animal hospitals, Lynda is a published author and lifelong maker, the creator behind our wildly popular Catnip Kitchen organic, handmade catnip toys. Lynda has honed all her grooming skills while on the job. While Niner does all the bathing, ear-cleaning, and most of the grooming tasks while Lynda takes photos, she is able to take on many of the shaving, comb-cutting, blow-drying, and nail trimming tasks as needed, and often does. Otherwise, she’s the grooming assistant, holding the kitties and making them comfy while Niner does his magic. She also does all of the de-shedding, scheduling, and social media. In addition to 9LH, Lynda owns and runs Yoga Underground Virtual Studio. Lynda claims she likes cats more than she likes most people, but don’t worry, she likes you, too.
Hospitality Cat, Juno: Juno is a beautiful little long-haired cat that came to us as a trapped feral, with the hopes of taming her into an adoptable, trusting cat. But when she far exceeded that initial goal and became the belle of the ball in the Cat Nappery Inn, we decided she was no longer adoptable, because she’s ours now! Juno comes home with us at night, but spends her days making our guest cats feel welcome and comfortable in the Cat Nappery Inn. She never met a guest cat’s food bowl that she didn’t love.