OUR STORY
From Founders Darcy & Liam Faely
Before Divine Feline, there was a much older story — one where cats had already been misunderstood for generations.
Cats are incredibly intelligent and emotionally complex animals, but because they communicate so subtly, even the early research misread them. Studies were based on dog behaviour, and when cats didn’t respond the same way, they were wrongly labelled as aloof, uncooperative or emotionally limited. Those mistakes filtered down into everyday life, and the world started treating them as “low-maintenance” animals who didn’t need much from us.
People didn’t misunderstand cats on their own - they were taught to.
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The reality for cat owners
Because cat-centred care didn’t exist, owners were left with almost no options. If a cat needed grooming support of any kind - whether they were stressed, reactive, nervous, elderly, long-haired or just struggling to cope - the default answer was sedation. Not because anyone wanted that, but because there was nowhere else to turn.
People weren’t failing their cats; they were simply never given another option.
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And that is the exact situation we found ourselves in.
So how did we get on this crazy train, you ask? Funny story actually…
When Liam proposed to Darcy there was one thing he had to accept. His lifelong dream of owning a cat would never come true, as Darcy was terrified of them - not because she ever had a bad experience with them, but because of the common misconceptions she had believed her whole live - that cats were unpredictable and aggressive (Yep - She was part of the problem!)
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So, in Liam’s mind, the cat dream was over.
That lasted a grand total of… one week.
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Because seven days later, he walked through the door with the tiniest ginger kitten you’ve ever seen and that was that. Theo didn’t give her a choice in the matter. He climbed straight into her life and made himself permanent before she’d even finished being afraid.
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The part no one told us about
A few months passed and Theo started getting knotted, no matter how often we brushed him. So we assumed the answer was simple: take him to a cat groomer.
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Except — there weren’t any.
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Hours of searching turned into days, then weeks… So we spoke to a vet for some advice.
This is when we learned that in the UK it is common practice to have your cat anaesthetised to shave matts off them, without doing anything to prevent it happening again.
We were absolutely shocked to hear that this is the only level of basic care offered to our beloved pets.
So We started digging for answers
Once we realised there was no real help available, the only option left was to start learning ourselves. Not tips or quick fixes – actual understanding. Why cats become stressed. Why they react the way they do. Why grooming becomes traumatic for them when, in reality, it never needed to be.
We started researching everything no one teaches cat owners: feline communication, stress triggers, handling styles, coat maintenance, fear responses, breed-specific needs – all the things that should have been common knowledge but weren’t.
Because if sedation is considered “normal,” then clearly nobody had ever stopped to ask why it was needed in the first place.
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​​And very quickly, it stopped being about our cat – it became about all cats.
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It was time for cats to lead
We began slowly piecing together what cat-centred grooming should look like in reality, not theory.
It wasn’t the beginning of a business - it was the beginning of taking responsibility for doing better than the system had ever offered.
Because once you know better, you can’t go back to just “good enough.”
Built from the heart - for those who need it most
The more Darcy learned, the angrier she became – not at owners, not at vets, but at the system that failed everyone involved. She realised she hadn’t been “afraid of cats,” she had been misinformed about them. And once she finally understood them properly, she could see how deeply unfair the current approach is – not just for cats, but for the people trying to care for them.
What hurt most was realising she had wanted to help Theo and still couldn’t, because there was nowhere teaching owners how to support their cats properly. That helpless feeling – loving an animal but having no way to do right by them – stayed with her. And if she had felt like she was failing, then so many other owners must be carrying that same guilt and frustration too.
Not because they didn’t care – but because nobody had ever given them the guidance.
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we created something different. Something gentler. Something just for them.
All of that learning became more than knowledge – it became purpose. What started as trying to help one scared little cat has grown into helping thousands across Scotland feel safe, understood and genuinely cared for.
Along the way, we developed our own handling and grooming approach – the first cat-centred technique of its kind in the UK – created specifically for reducing fear, building trust and working with a cat instead of against them. It exists because nothing else did, and to this day it is offered only by Divine Feline.
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Because at the end of the day, we’re not just groomers. We’re cat lovers on a mission to make the world a gentler place one paw at a time.
That’s why we do this with our whole hearts.
Because no cat should ever be written off as “too difficult” when what they really needed was patience, knowledge and a kinder way of being handled.
This isn’t a job for us – it is our life’s work. A promise that as long as Divine Feline exists, there will always be at least one place where cats are treated with compassion, understanding and given the care they deserve. ​
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Caring for Theo has changed our lives in ways we could have never imagined. We got involved working with various charities, started fostering & rehoming cats in need, raising kittens and fundraising.
We have taught cat care masterclasses , won multiple awards and worked alongside vets all across the UK and we have finally managed to put cat grooming on the map as a vital service in Scotland - something we will be proud of forever!
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