Now people in Washington DC can drop their dogs off at a pet hotel that gives them five-star service. It even gives them rooms with pet-themed television shows.
In the lobby of the PetSmart PetHotel, the pets’ owners wait in line to pay US$23 for each night their dog stays.
The doggie hotel is nothing like a kennel: in this hotel there is special doggie ice cream, indoor recreation, and for an extra US$10 a night, the dogs can stay in a larger room with a television showing an “animal-related movie all day,” said Vince Malanaphy, who manages the Bethesda PetsHotel.
PHOTO: AP
“It helps them to relax and to adjust as they are used to hearing TV at home,” Malanaphy says.
Half of the dogs come every day. Instead of staying overnight, their owners leave them there for the day while they are at work. “It’s better than leaving them at home alone,” said Cyra, one of the owners, as she drops off her two dogs before running off to work. Here “they can socialize,” she said.
Meredith, in charge of animal recreation, says that if dogs “are aggressive or play too rough, we give them a time out in a cage” for 15 minutes. “After twice, they get the message,” she says.
The Bethesda site has room for 180 dogs and 26 cats. Cats stay in glass cages known as “kitty cottages” for a mere US$14 a night, which includes 15 minutes of TLC - Tender Loving Care, otherwise known as petting. (AFP)
現在,美國華府民眾可以把愛犬寄養在提供五星級服務的寵物酒店了,酒店方面甚至還會播放寵物主題的電視節目給這群小房客們看。
PetSmart PetHotel的大廳裡,寵物主人排隊等著為愛犬支付一晚二十三美元的住宿費。
在貝塞斯達經營PetHotel的文斯?瑪拉納菲表示,這種狗狗酒店和一般的狗舍截然不同,除了提供特殊的狗兒冰淇淋和室內娛樂外,每晚多付十美元還可以讓愛犬待在配有電視機的大套房裡,「全天候欣賞和動物有關的電影」。
瑪拉納菲說:「這能幫助牠們放鬆及適應酒店環境,因為牠們在家都習慣聽電視的聲音。」
半數的狗狗每天都來報到。牠們的飼主白天上班時就把牠們託放到這兒,不過狗狗們並沒有留在酒店裡過夜。趕在上班前把兩隻愛犬送到寵物酒店託養的飼主希拉說:「這比把牠們單獨留在家裡好。」她表示,在這兒,「牠們可以和其他狗狗交流」。
負責動物消遣娛樂的梅芮迪絲表示,如果狗狗「出現挑釁行為或玩得太粗野,我們就會把牠們關進籠子裡」十五分鐘。她表示,「兩次之後,牠們就明白了」。
貝塞斯達PetHotel的套房數目足以容納一百八十隻狗兒及二十六隻貓咪。貓咪們待在稱為「貓咪屋」的玻璃圍籠一晚只要十四美元,還包括十五分鐘的「溫柔寵護」。
(法新社/翻譯:林倩如)
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once
A: “Forbes” magazine just revealed Hollywood’s top 10 highest-paid stars of 2023. B: How much did those superstars make last year? A: Denzel Washington was at No. 10, having made US$24 million, which is about NT$771 million. B: That’s an astronomical figure to me. A: No. 9 to No. 6 were: Ben Affleck with US$38 million, Jason Statham with US$41 million, Leonardo DiCaprio with US$41 million, and Jennifer Aniston with US$42 million. A: 《富比世》最近公布了好萊塢去年的片酬排行榜。 B: 大明星的片酬到底有多高? A: 第10名是丹佐華盛頓、片酬2400萬美元,大約7.7億台幣。 B: 天啊這根本是天文數字! A: 第9到6名是︰班艾佛列克、3800萬美元,傑森史塔森、4100萬美元,李奧納多狄卡皮歐、4100萬美元,珍妮佛安妮斯頓、4200萬美元。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)