Yuma cat grooming business earns statewide honors

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA) - Touch of Class, The Yuma Cat House, offers grooming, boarding and training for aspiring feline groomers.

A Yuma cat-grooming and boarding business is earning recognition across Arizona while helping train the next generation of feline groomers.

Melissa Hall, owner of Touch of Class, The Yuma Cat House, has more than 30 years of experience grooming cats and has held her Feline Master Groomer certification for more than a decade. This year, she received honors at the Arizona Professional Groomers Guild’s Best of the West Awards.

Hall said more than 800 people voted in the awards. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award and an Industry Leadership Award for her work in cat-grooming education.

“It meant a lot to me,” Hall said.

Hall is also a certifier for the National Cat Groomers Institute. She trains students from around the world, including students from Germany and Malaysia, as well as others traveling from California and the United Kingdom.

“There are only a few people qualified to teach, and we’re one of them,” Hall said.

Hall has trained 58 students who have gone on to earn grooming licenses. One of her employees, Nissa Magna, has been a certified Feline Master Groomer for two years and was nominated for Groomer of the Year.

“It was crazy,” Magna said. “I was like, ‘Oh, man, people know me? That’s pretty cool,’ especially for barely just starting out.”

The Yuma Cat House also offers cat-only boarding in private condos. Hall opened the cat hotel in 2023 after seeing a need for boarding options among her grooming clients.

“After grooming here since 2011, I had a little over 400 cat clients coming in just for grooming, and I really felt like we could use some boarding,” Hall said.

The business’s resident cats, Daisy and Elena, also keep boarding guests company while their owners are away. To learn more about Touch of Class, The Yuma Cat House, visit its website here.