Unusual Retirement Home Provides Some Old-Age Comfort for Dogs, Cats

An unusual pet retirement home here is giving a carefree old age to canines and felines whose owners can no longer care for them.

The pet pensioners home run by the National Animal Care Foundation provides loving care for up to 50 dogs and 20 cats, who are looked after until they die.

It also provides their owners with peace of mind and an opportunity to visit their animal companions.

“The main target group is (elderly) people who go to a retirement home” where their often-aged pets can’t accompany them, said foundation director Jaap Boersma, who runs the pet home in this affluent suburb of The Hague.

Too Old, Infirm

The foundation gears its pet refuge to dogs and cats who risk being left out in the cold when their owners become too old or infirm to look after them.

Taken to a public pound, they would be put to death unless adopted within a short time.

The National Animal Care Foundation is a private charity started in 1926 by two ladies-in-waiting to the late Queen Wilhelmina, who died in 1962.

More than one in four people in this pet-loving nation of 14.6 million has a cat or dog, and humane treatment of animals--whether they be farm animals, pets or wild creatures--is a strong tradition.

In 1985, Boersma opened his dog retirement home, known as the Senior Club, as an annex to the 17th-Century farmhouse where the foundation already operated a short-term boarding pound, an international transport service for pets whose owners go abroad, and a pet hospital complete with ambulance service.

Last October, Boersma added the Council of State for cats. The feline facility takes its tongue-in-cheek name from the nation’s highest and most venerable administrative court.

Instead of confining dogs to individual cages, Boersma keeps his Senior Club residents in compounds for up to 10 dogs each to encourage their pack instinct.

Among them are two Dalmatians, a dachshund, a Pekingese and dozens of mongrels.

“We are using the only thing that a dog still has in common with the wolf that he descended from,” Boersma said.

To ease their own adjustment to life without their owners, the Council of State cats live in a 13-by-17-foot room decorated like a living room with an ancient sofa, a low table and an out-of-order television set.

“It’s quite comparable to a retirement home for humans. . . . You’ve got the same diseases--arthritis, worn hip joints, you name it,” Boersma said, as he stroked a placid, three-legged cat that responded with a happy purr.

Retiring a pet to the Senior Club or Council of State costs owners $2.65 a day, but most of the costs are offset by charitable contributions.

The foundation encourages animal lovers to “adopt” a retired dog or cat with a $26.50 annual donation.

Although the foundation will provide transportation for elderly owners too infirm to come on their own to see pets, visits are rare, according to Boersma, with many owners unable to cope with having to say goodby again to their animals.

One who does visit is 73-year-old Jan de Graaff, a retired meter reader who makes the 90-minute bus-and-train trip from the nearby city of Delft every week.

“Once you’ve got a dog, you’re hooked,” said De Graaff as he stroked the thick, white fur of Freddy, the 11-year-old Samoyed he adopted after his own dog died at the Senior Club last year.