How do you spoil your pets??

[charliezangel]

My kitties get fresh bottled water daily (although maybe more people do this than i think).

We are trying to crate train our new puppy, so i wanted to put extra special things in her crate. Currently, she is sleeping on a 400 TC queen Ralph Lauren Sheet!!! It's super soft and comfy...it's too small for our bed so i figured she'd enjoy it more, lol.

[IrishMeg]

We give them bottled water.
They can sleep where ever they want, which usually is in the bed with one of us.
They get Kongs everyday when I leave for work.
They get green beans, plain yogurt, carrots, oatmeal, or blueberries mixed in with their meals to make them more "interesting."
We celebrate their birthdays with a party and homemade dog cake.
They get trips to the dog park.
When we were looking to buy a house, we chose this one because it had a huge back yard that we knew they would love.
We sodded the entire back yard shortly after moving in so they could have a nice place to hang out. (We never, ever use the back yard for ourselves:o )

[Smiley124]

Gosh -- ours are SO spoiled (no bottled water though)

-yummy treats and new toys all the time
-bought our house largely based on the huge backyard
-free reign of the house (all sleep in our bed with us)
-during the week someone is always home with them (hubby & I work opposite shifts -- didn't do it for the animals origianlly, but now that we do I never want to stop)
-we go years without a trip where we have to fly, so they can come with us on vacation

I could go on and on. They are spoiled and I'd have it no other way. My pets are my life. :o

[greenbunny]

Our cats drink Brita water just like we do, but I wouldn't give my worst enemy our tap water. It tastes like potting soil.

Bella sleeps on our bed, below my feet. During the winter, the little rascal sometimes weasels her way under the covers and I wake up to find her burrowed into my side. Cats IN the bed was definitely not part of the plan!

DH is building window seats for them because he doesn't think the store-bought ones are stable or comfortable enough.

They eat off our regular dishes a lot of the time. It seemed pointless to go out any buy extra pet bowls, it all ends up the same in the dishwasher anyway.

We often cut short a night out to get home and snuggle our girls. I'd rather be curled up on the couch with DH and my babies than at any hip night spot.

[eli1126]

Well, last night I was stuck in the middle of our king size bed because Belle was sprawled out in my spot.
They have their own room.
Their toys are all over the house.
They get top shelf cat food.

Beth

[jajacobsen]

The dogs:
Their Mom leaves the house at 6.30 am every morning to take them to the lake and wood for a 1-2 mile ramble. (these dogsa have a 1 acre wooded yard that gets "boring"). Soemtimes dad does the same thing when he gets home.

Pig ears every day.

They go everywhere with us legally allowed. The people at Lowes and HD know us as "Samson and Delilah's owners." They ask what's ong with the dogs if we don't bring them.

Vacations that are not "dog friendly" have become a lower priority.

The old white comfy couch in the family room is now theirs. It is permanently draped in old blankets.

Baths are in the upstairs, oversize tub with nice warm water because they hate the garden hose (too cold).

They have a large shed (8X10) as an exterior dog house, complete with a dog flap door, and old mattress for a bed and carpeting.

More toys than I had as a child.

We spend more on their healthcare than ours.


The cats:

Sleep with us every night, especially on our pillows whether we want them to or not. The dogs do not sleep with us, making the cats very happy.

Have had cat portholes installed on the interior doors of our home so they have complete and free access to all levels (three) of the house, while the dogs have access denied (thus confirming the cats superiority).

Pedicures very two weeks (we trim and put nail caps on their nails, rather than having them declawed).

Specailly built "toilet" which is a littermaid litterbox in a cupboard, with a light and extractor fan. Yes, we really did have one cat who was afraid of the dark.

One of the primary considerations in building the $30k sunroom was "the cats will LOVE " it.

Deck railings and gate were designed to be "cat proof" so the cats could play/sleep out on the deck while we are home (generally they are inside only).

(our contractors think we are insane)

Bird feeder and suet bars installed just outside the kitchen bay window for "kitty TV."

[diam124]

- FIL built a 7 foot high cat tree just for our cat complete with cat "house", top ledge to sleep on and one level with a hanging ball to play with (took him much longer than he thought it would).

- She has her own room with a loveseat to lay on (she actually used to have her own bathroom before we moved and her own queen-sized bed). She sleeps in our room on our bed though :rolleyes:

- Her litter box (littermaid) is probably more expensive than our toilet and has the "kitty cabana" cover.

- We take her outside on a leash. I'm sure this gets some chuckles from the neighbors.

- So far we've never left her for more than 48 hours.

- We have tons of cat toys and scratching posts strategically positioned throughout the house.

- When I come home from work I put her "show" on while I catch up on email, etc. Her show is "Video Catnip" and she loooovves it.

[greenbunny]

Yes, we really did have one cat who was afraid of the dark.

Bella is, too. We bought a ton of nightlights for her. If she doesn't have them, she plops on the floor and cries until we come carry her to bed or turn the nightlights on.

I'm psyched to see other people take their cats on walks! My neighbors think I'm insane.

[jajacobsen]

Greenbunny, Our "afraid of the dark cat" will not go in a dark room to use the box. She will get the closest to the cat box she can where there is still light and go on the floor. We noticed if we left the lights on, she would use the box. But it is human nature to turn the light off and we kept doing so by accident, so DH just installed special light just for her. Problem solved.

[wendalah]

Too many nights than is healthy, my husband ends up sleeping on the couch because the dogs push him off the bed. :rolleyes:

After they get rid of him, they proceed to shove me over to the very edge of the mattress. Keep in mind they are small (under 20 lbs) but magically can stretch out to great lengths when fast asleep.

[QueenDillyDally]

Our Dog:
* Four walks per day
* Goes to work with me at least once every few weeks
* Rides in the front seat of my car
* Every night while we are eating supper, he gets his marrow bone filled with peanut butter
* Cheese, carrots, cucumbers, and ice cubes are some of his favorite snacks
* Spoiled rotten on his birthday and everyday actually
* Is "tucked in" everynight on his pile of blankets by DH & I
* Is allowed to kiss us at free will all.the.time
* Only gets bottled water
* Stuffed animals - if he chews & rips up his favorites, I sew them back up for him.. he now has a headless dinosaur!

Our Cats:
* Bottled Water of course
* They are allowed to sleep between my legs and I try to be careful not to disturb them if I go to the bathroom in the night
* Brushed every morning and then rolled with a lint roller
* Special dry cat food (treats) often throughout the day
* Olivia, my female cat, gets to have small tastes of my ice cream off of my spoon after I am done. Her favorite is chocolate... she won't touch any other flavors
* Bailey, my male cat, must sit at the vanity in the bathroom while I get showered and drink running water out of the faucet

[Kanga]

I thought my cats were spoiled until I became a SAHM. Now they're really spoiled.:cool:

-They have water dishes all over the house and expect all of them to be filled at all times. It is far too much trouble for them to go to a different one if one is empty. They have a tupperware cup in the bathtub and is the only thing they will drink out of in the bathtub. But it has a narrow opening so it must be refilled at least 5 times a day, including in the middle of the night if I'm up with dd. They have a 5 gallon water thing in the basement because they kept knocking down the old one and spilling water everywhere. Of course it would take them years to drink that much water so I have to lug about 4 gallons of undranken water back up the stairs, clean it out from the food crumbs that always end up in there, refill, then lug back downstairs to the basement.

-The litter boxes must be completely cleaned out every 7 days and scooped once in between then. I don't find this to be demanding at all, but if you forget even just once and let it got 8 days, there's bound to be a special present waiting for you outside the box when you wake up.

-All 3 have their own cat beds that I might as well donate to a shelter because somehow they always end up in ours. Jazz usually ends up under the covers unless the window is open, then he sits in the window sill to keep guard. Reggie shares my pillow and often times I get fed up with his fluffy tail in my face and just give it to him. If he's not on the pillow he manages to stretch himself out to at least 4x his regular length and lay horizontal on the bed, pushing dh and I to the edge. Roxy at least sleeps curled up on the foot of the bed or on the edge next to me.

-All 3 refuse to eat commercial cat treats, although they all used to until they discovered tuna and hard boiled eggs.

-Due to Jazz having urinary problems, they now eat prescription food that cost $3 a pound because I can't keep them out of each other's food. I consider it just taking care of your pets, but I suppose some would just get rid of him.

-They get table scraps from pretty much every meal, except breakfast

-I've considered making their food, but I just can't deal with the raw meat.

[julietchicago]

Our Three Dogs

*Have their own room
*Sleep on the bed w/ us
*Are allowed on the couch
*Have an endless supply of $.88 Walmart Dog Toys (great bargain considering they can tear them up in record breaking time!)
*Get 2 treats everyday, just because

Oh, I could go on and on. :cool:

[katmg]

I don't consider him *too* spoiled. He only sleeps in the bed on weekends if he is relatively clean. The queen sized bed is just a bit too small for the 3 of us - especially since I'm 24 weeks pregnant now!

However, he does basically have his own sofa in the front living room - he can lounge there and look out the front bay window. He also climbs up on the window seat and stands guard over the cul-de-sac.

I sew up his stuffed animals after he has ripped the stuffing out of them - we call them "flat babies."

He is allowed on the furniture and in some cases, kicks us off if we don't fit! We have actually considered getting an extra-deep sofa so that the three of us can stretch out together. :p Here is one of his favorite snoozing places:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n33/katgalpin/sleepy.jpg

[jajacobsen]

That is such a great picture and so typical of a weim! Mine do that too!

[jnshanna]

I don't think our dog Sophie is too spoiled but...
She only drinks ice cold water with ice cubes from our fridge dispenser. That was a bad habit to start!
She has more stuffed toys than she knows what to do with!
She has her own room complete with a full bed. She likes to roll all over it and "nest" the blankets.
She has complete access to the entire house at all times and hates it when we close any door.
She is also allowed on all our furniture. I tried to keep her off our new furniture but she would roll all over it while we were at work. :rolleyes: So our furniture is now covered with blankets unless we have company over.

[Pink_Converse]

In many ways, especially pre-baby she was VERY spoiled, but the one most people roll their eyes at is that she gets her own private room at a pet resort (kennel) with a tv which usually is playing 101 Dalmations, cushy bed, everything if we have to go out of town.

[SheRa]

Happy to see that other people even considered their dog when buying a house (in the yard aspect). We not only bought our house for it's outstanding yard, but we also fenced in the backyard so Remi can chase birds and other wildlife creatures (his latest obsession is flies) to his heart's desire. He has his own "bed" in our bedroom complete with a body pillow, two regular pillows, 2 throw blankets and a comforter. Still, he usually ends up on our pillowtop mattress during the night, pushing one or both of us off the bed.

But he's a sweetie, and extremely well-behaved for a shelter dog, so I can't complain. :)