Along West Broadway, nestled between Lidgett Music and Christyles Hair Studio, is The 100 Block’s first (and only) resort and spa that caters exclusively to cats.
After spending most of the previous seven years at the Mall of the Bluffs, with a brief stint along Madison Avenue once the mall closed at the end of 2019, Club Meow opened its doors at 148 W. Broadway in January, bringing owner Mel Brink’s cat grooming expertise to downtown Council Bluffs.
While it’s a new location, Club Meow is still the cat’s meow, offering boarding and grooming that includes bathing, nail trimming, facials and lots of different styling options for your furry felines. And now, Brink has enough space to open a grooming a-cat-emy.
“I’ve wanted to do this really bad for a couple years now, and I couldn’t at the old location; there’s no space,” Brink said. “So I had to have this first.”
As one of only 12 National Cat Grooming Institute certifiers around the world, Brink is in a unique position as the metro area’s only Certified Feline Master Groomer. And if you’re going to learn how to groom cats, who better to learn from than a master?
“I’ve been grooming already for a year and a half, and I thought I knew everything,” said Kim Hickman, who came to Council Bluffs from Mooresville, North Carolina to get the hands-on training she needs to earn her NCGI certification.
As she neared the end of the 10-day course, she realized how much she had to learn.
“But now I know everything that I need to kno
