Popular Dog-Sitting Site Launches Spinoff for Felines

— -- Why should the family dog have all the fun?

DogVacay, a pet sitting site that provides host homes to dogs while their owners are away, launched CatVacay today. It's a smart business move -- the company said there are 95 million cats in the United States -- more than the estimated 83 million dogs.

CatVacay differs from DogVacay in one crucial way (aside from being focused on felines.) While the DogVacay model is built on the dog’s going to someone else's home, CatVacay is primarily geared toward people who want someone to stay with the cat in its own home.

And the new site's not without its shortcomings: CatVacay.com actually directs users to a page on DogVacay.com. And when a user tries to book a cat sitter -- we used New York as the city search -- it populates with a mix of dog and cat sitters.

A company representative said there would be "several technical updates over time to improve the on-boarding process for cat owners."

Because DogVacay already had people willing to watch cats and do in-home check-ins registered on the site, CatVacay launches with 10,000 sitters. Cat owners can have a sitter stop by to check in and care for their cat while they’re away or have a sitter stay overnight in their home to give their cat 24-hour supervision.