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M oving to Korea poses its share of challenges and considerations: bring- ing over your essential belongings and navigating things like visa ordeals, culture integration and language issues. The list is endless. And with many of these issues, you’ll need to manage them on your own on your way both in and out of the country. Luckily for pet owners, this is one aspect of settling in Korea that is totally covered for you. The outstanding group of skilled professionals at Chungwha in Itaewon have gone to great lengths to handle the full spectrum of pet care. Starting out with Chungwha Animal Hospital, they also operate as Korea Animal Transport, which handles all of the tricky logistics of getting your pet safely here or back home again. Most recently, the new addition to their ev- er-growing range of pet-related services is The Pet Hotel M, which is an upscale pet hotel, influenced by premium pet hotels that one could expect to find in Western coun- tries. Aside from their facility’s cleanliness and range of services, many foreign clients are also attracted to the English language skills of Chungwha’s highly professional staff. The pet hotel’s veterinarians, dog groomers and pet handlers will all communicate with your pet in English, helping to keep your pet’s training consistent while you’re away. Because of this international approach and prime location in Korea’s foreign mecca of Itaewon, over 70 percent of their customers happen to be foreigners. To get a better sense of what is compelling foreign pet owners to take their pet care needs to Chungwha, Groove Korea sat down with some of their staff and asked some questions: Groove Korea: What are the ranges of services that Korea An- imal transport offers? Chungwha: We offer a broad range. If you’re in Korea and departing soon, we’ll come and pick up your pet and take care of them while you deal with packing and getting ready for your flight. We ensure that your pet meets all veterinary requirements of your destination country. We’ll then take the pet to the airport for you and handle transport doc- umentation, and even handle things on arrival at your destination, such as coordinating the delivery of your pet to your home via our network of worldwide agents. Being the only member of IPATA (International Pet and Animal Transportation Association) in Korea gives us a great international network to extend our services, whether you are planning to come to Korea or planning to depart Korea. With over 10 years of pet relocation management, we can confidently consult on the logistics of departures, arrivals and quarantine and can smooth out any wrinkles you may be experiencing with pet travel. you’ve got a pet Hotel now. How does this measure up to the standards of what one may expect to see in a pet hotel in Western countries? I’m glad that you asked that, because some of our staff have lived in the U.S., have been able to work in pet care environments, such as pet hotels and have been effectively able to benchmark some of best pet hotels in America. We have suites of varying sizes, suitable for all breeds of dogs and cats. We do temperament evaluations of the pet to initially assess their behavior and personality traits. If you’ve got a shy dog not wishing to be around aggressive dogs, we’ll spot that quickly and keep your dog in a section of our pet hotel that’s r ight for them. Adding to this is our unparalleled observation system. Although our staff is on-site from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., one of our veterinarians lives in the same building as our facility, and has localized CCTV access to our facilities. With that in place, he can be at the hotel in a few minutes if a problem arises. On top of this, we can give you access to our smartphone app. This links you up to all of our on-site CCTV cameras that are watching your pet, so you can sit back, relax and know what’s going on with your furry friend, no matter where you are in the world. there’s something else that is special about this whole envi- ronment, isn’t there? That’s right. One of Korea’s most famous architects, Byoung Soo Cho, helped design our overall space where we work and operate alongside the pets. Byoung Soo Cho graduated from Harvard with an M.A. in Architecture, and currently spends his time between his Seoul office and his overseas office in Bozeman, Montana, set against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains and all the nature that surrounds it. This is one of the top reasons why Byoung Soo Cho was the right person to bring our new space to life. His attention to eco-friendly principles and visions for setting a natural mood for your pets. There’s so much more that Chungwha can talk about with what they are currently doing for their customers’ pets and the new services that they plan to keep adding. If you are a pet owner or soon to be one, it would be a wise use of your time to stop by their offices and have a chat with them over coffee. (02) 792-7602 21-1 Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul chungwha77@gmail.com www.cwhospital.com j Korea Animal Transport(KAT) & Chungwha Animal Hospital (02) 797-3040 www.thepethotelm.com j The Pet Hotel M