Built with your cat in mind
Boutique, bespoke, built for cats ...
Stoberry Farm the Cattery
Stoberry Farm is a small, family-run boarding cattery located at our rural residential home in Wanaka, less than 4 km from the CBD. We have ten, full-height studio rooms each with a glass door and window so your cat can enjoy the views of nature or bask in the sun. All rooms are insulated, heated, and double glazed so your cat can enjoy the warmth of home. In the summer months a screen door keeps the cats safely inside while allowing the breeze, scents, and sounds from the outside to come in.
The Studio Rooms
This brand new build using impervious materials enhances the ability to keep each studio room clean and hygienic. To help your cat adapt to the new environment, the rooms are furnished to have a comfortable and relaxed homely ambience. Each room has its own lounge chair and the shelves at various heights allows your cat the choice of where to sit, jump, climb, play, hide, and sleep. And hopefully only scratch where they're meant to! The Studio Rooms are designed so compatible cats from the same household can be accommodated together.
The Studio Rooms have a colour theme, with names reflecting the beautiful Upper Clutha environs: Ruby Island (red), Crown Range (orange), Mt Gold (yellow), Matukituki (green), Two Lakes (blue), Mt Maude (purple, pink), Clutha Mata Au (aqua), Fog Peak (grey), Black Peak (black), and The Peninsula (brown).
.jpg "Mt Maude - My Mum's chair when she used to visit :)")
.jpg "Clutha Mata Au - the aqua twin of the Acapulco chair in Mt Gold.")
.jpg "Fog Peak - the cute vintage chair, reupholstered.")
.jpg "The Peninsula - this chair has a lovely rich reddish-brown hue")
Integrity, quality, respect, and kindness ...
Our Values
Cats
We love cats. Beautiful, stylish, independent... and each with their own personality - loving, grumpy, bossy, timid, bold... We accept them as they are. All, given the right start or a second chance in life, can provide companionship, love, and enrich our lives. Life just wouldn't be the same without them.
Environment
We believe we need to be careful with the environment and practice the 4R's: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We also love the things of old that were designed with beauty, built to last, and be passed down through the generations. That is why our Studio Rooms are furnished with an eclectic mix of pre-loved items including antique, vintage, retro, and contemporary. Plates and bowls are mainly antique English china, or vintage New Zealand made like Temuka, Teal Ceramics, and Crown Lynn. The rocking chair in the Crown Range Studio was my dear old Dad's favourite, and the chair in Fog Peak Studio was a vintage find at Wanaka Wastebusters. Both these chairs were given a new lease on life and beautifully reupholstered by local company Wanaka Upholstery.
Community
Another benefit of sourcing these beautiful or quirky pre-loved homewares, is we get to support (mainly local) second hand and charity shops and therefore the work their parent organisations do in the community. We acknowledge the volunteers and staff of The Salvation Army, Upper Clutha Hospice, and Wanaka Wastebusters for the invaluable work they do in operating the stores and addressing human and environmental needs in the community and beyond.
Family
As a family with multiple felines, and foster kitties for Cat Rescue Wanaka, we understand how precious cats are to their human families. (Hubby particularly appreciates their skilful rabbiting abilities!). It is our desire to provide a safe, interesting, and loving place for cats who are needing a comfortable and tranquil home away from home.
The Stoberry Farm Story
About a decade ago, I asked myself the question: If I could do anything, what would it be? "Look after other people's cats" came the answer. Not knowing where to start, I searched the web. It was there I found the informative tome "Cattery Design" by David and Kay Key (2006). They key thing (excuse the pun!) I got from their extensive work, was that cats generally prefer not to be in the company of cats they don't know; that behaviours such as hiding, and remaining still and watchful in communal areas are indicators of stress. Their collation of research guided all aspects of our cattery design e.g. the use of impervious building materials for cleanliness and hygiene, windows and glass doors for basking in the sun, with views to nature to capture cats' interest and attention, and of course, human interaction. It's not an easy route to take however. We started the process proper in 2015, and finally in 2020, we are open for business.
As for the name, Stoberry Farm reflects the history and connection with the land. The property we have was once part of Wanaka's original Berry Farm, Pengarth. We still get the odd thorny twig sprouting up! We are situated on the gently sloping up side of Mt Iron, the side that was worn smooth by advancing glacial action, which is called the stoss side (the rugged, cliff edge side is the lee side). Playing with the word "stoss" by dropping the final two s's we get "sto". In Greek, 'sto' means "at the", or "to the". Add that to Berry Farm, and we get Stoberry Farm - "at the Berry Farm". Voila! (which of course if French...)
As for the name, Stoberry Farm reflects the history and connection with the land. The property we have was once part of Wanaka's original Berry Farm, Pengarth. We still get the odd thorny twig sprouting up! We are situated on the gently sloping up side of Mt Iron, the side that was worn smooth by advancing glacial action, which is called the stoss side (the rugged, cliff edge side is the lee side). Playing with the word "stoss" by dropping the final two s's we get "sto". In Greek, 'sto' means "at the", or "to the". Add that to Berry Farm, and we get Stoberry Farm - "at the Berry Farm". Voila! (which of course if French...)
.png)