my friend takes her cats to kristi's because they have long hair and shed a lot. she gets them shaved and she says the groomer is very friendly and has lots of insight into the cats' different personalities. in other words, it seems like she knows how they tick and what she can do to make their visit as low stress as possible. i've taken my dog there to get bathed, shaved, toenails clipped and they do a great job. i'm pretty sure my dog would not endorse them because she becomes a shaking mass of freaked out mutt as soon as we walk within a one block radius but she is wacked out to begin with and not trusted to be reasonable.
as far as your matted cat fur emergancy, i'm pretty sure they will cut or shave the matts out. i used to use WD-40 to get mats out of horses's tails but thats a pretty different kind of hair... good luck!
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