As I have said many times, my pets are my family, the only family I have, and I enjoy doing things to make them happy… that, in turn makes ME happy.
Now, I don’t dress them up and push them around in a baby carriage, nothing like that. They are reasonably well behaved and definitely know I am alpha bitch.
Ways I “spoil” my pets:
-they sleep with me. All of the. Five dogs and two cats.
-they have way more toys than they need. My house looks like a stuffed animal factory exploded in it. (NOT torn up, just scattered. I am lucky in that they rarely disembowel their stuffies.)
-I like cooking for them on occasion. Always food that is good for them (reasonable so anyway) This morning we all had scrambled eggs and turkey bacon.
I built a cat suite for my cats. Since I was in cat rescue for so long, I ended with a few more cats than is reasonable for most people, so I converted a two car garage for their living area, with my office in the former tool room. They have carpeted shelves along the walls at various heights for roaming, an 8-foot window with various deep sills for outside observation, a 10-foot cedar tree for scratching and a castle built of old doors for climbing and lounging. It has its own HVAC system. I spend most of my time in the office, so I’m usually out here with them.
My home is not suited to closing off the kitchen, and I don’t like cats on my kitchen counters. I also do a lot of scrapbooking (custom hockey books, mostly) and don’t need feline assistance. This way I have the best of both worlds.
I often take a kitty in with me at night for cuddle patrol; I have a litter box in the master bath for just that option.
Our dogs have a diet consisting of great food. I rotate through Innova, Evo, California Natural, and a few other lines. When we grill meat, we always buy extra for the dogs. We order food in a restaurant knowing that a “doggy bag” will be just that.
We bought a pontoon boat so that the dogs can accompany us on the water. Our friends think this was a bit over the top.
When we vacation, we have replaced “the kennel” with “the house sitter”.
We simply accept the fact that at least two, and possibly three, of the Bodoni kitties are going to get bits of whatever we’re eating. The fourth cat eats cat kibble, canned cat food, and tuna juice. And that’s IT. He’s not interested in the steak or pork chop or chicken. The two females would prefer to live on human food, I believe. The other male cat likes roast turkey and ham, but not steak or pork.
We don’t allow them to eat at the table, though. One of the females (the little blue girl) will jump up into Bill’s seat when I announce that dinner’s ready, as if she expects me to serve her food there. Bill generally just scoops her up, grabs her dish (which has her serving in it), and puts her and the dish on the kitchen floor. The other female has already noticed that her dish has dinner in it.
And the cats DO know the word “dinner”.
All four cats regard Bill as their personal chair. He usually comes home, plops in front of the TV, and will have one or two cats climb into his lap. The cats lie on him in turns, so that one cat gets off, and another one jumps in his lap. I fidget too much when I sit, and they think that this is VERY inconsiderate of me.
Dolly gets an 85-cent can of green beans every night and has gotten a can every night for the past, say, 6 years of her life.
She is rarely at home alone. I work from home then when I go out after work I drop her off with my parents on my way out. If she ever has to be home alone it’s for under 3 hours.
She’s got a favorite toy - a stuffed soccer ball. Whenever she rips it up, I buy her a new one. I think they’re like $18 and she gets 4-5 a year.
Lots of walks and training and activities and play for the dogs.
Take them to the lake or river and do water retrieving or nice hikes along the beach. Frisbee in the back yard or park. Doggie day care and training classes.
Heck I even bought my current house for the dogs (well, with the dogs in mind) and spent mumblety-eleben-tousand on a 6-foot fence around the fairly humungous yard for them to dig up and do zoomies in.
Food is secondary. I mean treats are; I feed the best I can (primarily raw) to my dogs and the cats too.
My Little Spotted Dog is the only one who gets to sleep on the bed, she goes under the covers with me. The big boy dogs (Rottweiler and black lab) sleep on the bedroom floor because L.S.D. won’t allow them onto the bed and they respect her authoriteh. Also the Rottweiler eats pillows.
Cody, The World’s Least Scary German Shepherd, gets to sleep on the bed (I put down an old quilt for him)
He also gets puppy treats, and occasionally I will make him hamburgers. He has a Kong he adores. I have a 100 mile RT commute every day for work, so I am away from home from about 5:30 AM till 5:30 PM. I suffer greatly from GPMS - Guilty Pet Mom Syndrome. He has a dog walker who comes 2x a day to exercise him, and he has a dog run for when the weather is nice, but I still hate to leave him so much.
Not my dog. But a friend of my mom’s has a pet Yorkie. You guys already know where I’m going with this. Her name is Daisy, and she rides around in Sue’s purse anytime Sue leaves the house, which is pretty often. She’s a pretty well-trained purse pet, as far as purse pets go. She doesn’t bark much (unusual for a Yorkie) and she just sits patiently in the purse most of the time.
Daisy is always dressed up. My mother attests to having seen Daisy’s closet (in Daisy’s spacious bedroom) and estimated that Daisy owns over 100 outfits. Everything from a little Harley Davidson black leather fringed jacket, to little pink lacy pajamas. And rain boots. Her collar collection includes several with semi-precious gems and sterling silver buckles. She has Halloween costumes. Several.
Daisy goes to the “beauty shop” to be groomed at least twice a month. No short “teddy bear” clip for her, oh no. She looks like the Yorkies you see at the Westminster Dog Show, with fur down to the floor and a little bow on her head, and nary a knot or tangle. Sue brushes her MANY times a day.
I think some people really need a hobby. Or some grandkids. LOL.
My two boxers own about 40% of our king size bed. We frequently argue over the exact boundries, but typically Kaia sleeps with her head on my ankles and Mojo either sleeps with his head on a pillow or moves to the floor.
We have a shelf in the kitchen which is full of various dog treats and you cannot stand near it without dispensing. Also the sound of the icemaker brings them running - ice cubes are a favored treat.
They don’t get much human food but that’s more to do with Mojo’s sensitive stomach than anything else. I’ll only clean up a few times before learning my lesson. Cheese is the major exception to this rule.
Often instead of reading in a chair one of us will move to the bed to read just so the dogs have room to cuddle while we do.
I bought a farm so I could have my horse with me and the dogs would have more than a suburban backyard.
My current dogs don’t sleep with me - the cats get that honor, since I spend more of my home and awake time with the dogs. But none of these dogs asks to get on the bed for more than a couple minutes of cuddle. I’ve had other dogs who slept with me, though.
We have two cats, both spoiled rotten, but one of them, Hissy by name, has a special position. He absolutely loves (more than catnip), huge servings of whipped cream. Not just any whipped cream, either. Only Fred Meyer’s pressurized whipped cream. He goes bananas when this comes out of the refrigerator, and will almost climb up your leg to get an early taste. Our whipped cream budget is almost obscene.
My little Shih-Tzu eats only food I cook for him. It can range from mashed potatoes, ground beef, chicken, carrots, string beans, broccolli and pretty much anything that wont be poisonous like chocolate, garlic, onions etc.
I always add seasonings after I have separated his food so he does not get any extra salt. I also make my own tomato sauce that I use for stews, pasta, etc from canned tomatoes since nearly all pre-made sauces have salt, onion powder and garlic powder added. I add the garlic powder after I have separated his sauce from mine.
He only needs about a cup of food a day to keep him a lean 12 pounds so I think its worth it.
Well, unfortunately, we have turned our puppy into a tablehound… she gets “treats” from the table from two very well trained masters. She likes Mighty Dog, and we give her waggin train Chicken Jerky and chikn’ stix… she get’s dinner bones, smoked bones from the butcher (which she mostly makes a big prancing show of the treasure, and then elaborate digging and hiding ceromony under piles of clothes and couch cracks.). She likes to go for car rides…
She has a toy box, but mostly she plays with her ball, skunk, squirrel, 'possum, and stick. and knows those by name…she knows the words for outside, ride, and walk. Plus several people by name… Not much she doesn’t listen to.
The birds have a designated area in the bedroom that is Bird Territory with play gym, a large bird bath, food, and toys. There is a custom-made perch large enough for three birds to sit on while watching the computer monitor (they especially like computer games and videos) or TV. The humans wear designated “bird shirts” for them to perch on shoulders. They get a little bit of almost every meal we eat, in addition to their own food and special treats. The get individual attention, petting, tummy rubs (well, the two that like those), assistance unwrapping new feathers (well, the two that allow that), and cuddling. In the morning they are carried from their cages near the living room to the bedroom area where, due to the computer and TV, we actually spend quite a bit of time, with no flying required. At night they are carried back to bed/cages along with a good night ritual, again, no flying required. But they spend hours a day out of their cages in a room large enough for them to fly in, and they are allowed to do so.
They have two humans to supply them with food, attention, and new diversions.
I also grow corn and sunflower seeds in the garden just for them.
I also really indulge my Shorkie. I let her “chew me up”, sometimes she gets in an ornery mood and wanrs to “play fight” with me. I actually took her home from roughhousing with her brother, adopting from the cardboard Box. She also had a traumatic stomach surgery as a young pup and has confidence issues. She wants to be be the female alpha to my male beta. But I am the only real male discipliner, and she doesn’t really listen to me, only females…
I have retrievers, have had them since 1975 and have been doing field training and events with them since almost that long. I’m getting crippled up enough that doing so is getting difficult, but? They really love it. So I drag it on out there.
But the cat is the one that is really spoiled. Anything she wants, she gets.
