HÀ N?I — The '"cat and dog hotel,"' as the house is known by the members of the pet-lovers forum on www.vietpet.com, is teeming with activity in an alley off Truong  Ð?nh Street here.

An 18-year-old boy stands outside, and a Chihuahua sticks its head out of his collar.

Beside him, a girl pets her big cat Nung, who wears a yellow ribbon on her neck and sits on a motorbike.

Sixth grader Vu Ánh Hà M? has come to the meeting with her 76-year-old grandmother and a cat named Chi Chi.

Her grandmother says M? has been extremely fond of cats since she was very young.

The pet owners are visiting the '"hotel"' for a bimonthly meeting of the vietpet.com forum’s pet club. Launched three years ago as an all-purpose guide to information about pets, vietpet.com spawned the pet lover’s group a year ago.

The group meets not only to see each others’ pets and socialize, but also to discuss the best ways to care for pets as most members have years of experience with different kinds of animals.

Nöng’s owner, 18-year-old Nguy?n Thu Hà, says she learned how to clean her cat’s ears properly at one of the meetings.

She says if she hadn’t been told the proper way to do so, her cat would be suffering from lice.

A 12th-grade student from Huê brought his cat and a miniature pinscher to the meetings.

The student, Vinh  Ði?n Huê, says he had raised two more dogs at home.

'"They’re quite naughty and have gnawed away the edges of all the tables and chairs in my house,"' he tells the group.

At a meeting last month, the group welcomed Phú Dung from Sài Gòn.

Dung is a teacher and in her free time works as the administrator and developer of the cats section on the website www.vietpet.com.

For a decade now, Dung has made a name for herself in the minds of Vietnamese pet lovers for taking in dozens of abandoned and stray cats.

'"I don’t buy cats, but I bring home and take care of those I find on the street,"' she says.

She said that many young people in Sài Gòn do the same.

'"We’re tired but we’re happy,"' says Neko, who brought two stray 2-month-old cats home for care.

Youngsters like Neko spend at least half an hour bathing and grooming their cats per day and their clothes and furniture are littered with cat fur. Their arms are often full of scratches from the animals.

Veterinarian Hoàng Ng?c B?u says he will soon adopt Ginger, one of the cats picked up by Neko, and help nurse it to full health.

He says he picked up a stray cat that has become so healthy that it now frightens dogs.

The doctor says that pets are popular with students because they help them relax and relieve the pressure brought on by exams.

In the area around Hang Bê market in Hà N?i's Hoàn Ki?m District, Nghiêm Xuân Ký is known as a local dog breeding and medicine master. His house is now home to eight dogs.

Though he can’t perform operations on dogs, he says he can cure common canine diseases.

Ký says he started breeding dogs when he was 6 because he loved the animals for their loyalty.

Ký joined the vietpet.com forum to share his love of dogs with other canine lovers. He has since become one of the Web site’s administrators.

Ký says he has traveled far and wide along with other members of the group — to Sa Pa, Hu? and Thái Bình province to collect rare breeds of dogs in an effort to keep them from disappearing.