The vast majority of dog owners may be mad about their four-legged friends, but come Holiday-time figuring out what to do with Fido can feel more like a headache than a labor of love. Dogs require almost as much care as a baby, but cannot be easily taken to hotels on the Red Sea, or on planes to faraway destinations. It was after the umpteenth time a friend asked Tim El-Abd to look after their dog while they went away for a couple of weeks that he decided to turn a hobby into what has in the last year and a half become a flourishing full-time business. In the spacious suburb of Mansouria on the outskirts of Cairo, not far from the road to Alexandria, El-Abd turned an unused patch of land into a fully operational dog hotel, which he named Meat Muncher Kennels. "There is only one other service like this in Egypt that I know of, so the phone never stops ringing, says dog-crazy El-Abd. "I love dogs. My grandfather was big into German Shepherds, and my father had dogs on our farm in Tanta, so I've grown up around them. For LE 45 per day - reduced to LE 30 after 21 days - dog-owners can be safe in the knowledge that their beloved pet will receive daily meals consisting of fresh minced meat, vegetables and bread, will have access to medical care should s/he need it, will be allowed out of their quarters to socialize with their fellow canines twice a day, and will have round the clock supervision. Snookums will even receive grooming at regular intervals, in case of a bad hair day. Moreover, if your dog is ill-behaved, phobic of certain things like getting into cars or meeting strangers, or is just a complete lunatic, Meat Munchers offers a variety of training and "behavior modification therapies to get him back on track. "More and more of our clients are looking for these services. It could be anything from pulling on the leash too much, to excessive jumping and barking all the time, to over-shyness. The problem with canine-oriented enterprises in Egypt, according to El-Abd, is the lack of a central organization known as a national kennel club, which is a requirement in order to join the international canine organization in Belgium. In Egypt there are currently not enough people willing to volunteer to establish a kennel club, and without membership it is not possible to stage internationally recognized dog shows, issue pedigrees and reap numerous other benefits. El-Abd hopes to draw attention to the issue in October when he stages Egypt's first ever dog show featuring top international judges. "This would be a big step forward, he says. "OTV and other media are interested in the event, and we will also use it to highlight awful practices like bad breeding [of dogs] and dog-fighting. Until then, however, he'll just continue to make sure his "guests at Meat Munchers are well fed, well rested, and above all, well groomed. Check out the Meat Muncher Kennels group on Facebook
