Gadgets for the Techie Pet Owner

I won’t lie … my dogs and cats have a pretty nice life.  I don’t really consider them spoiled, because I do insist that they be reasonably well-mannered and appropriately behaved, but they do have it pretty good.  Though, the way I see it, they deserve it.  They bring an incredible amount of joy, love, and companionship to my life, so even given all I do for them, I still feel like it can’t possibly compare to all they give to me.  Also, all five of them had less than auspicious beginnings in life.  The dogs were both rescue pups, (though The Flying Monkey had an easier time of it than The Paragon did – she got yanked from a high kill shelter in Miami along with her sister and was queening it up in her foster home and sleeping in bed with her foster mom’s little girl when I adopted her) and all three cats were born feral.   I consider myself incredibly lucky to have each of them, but there’s no doubt that they also got pretty lucky to have landed themselves a home with us.  Things could easily have gone far differently for each of them, and indeed, for The Baby in particular, he probably didn’t have much longer out there on his own before starvation, dehydration, and a nasty respiratory infection would have done him in. 

The point is … I do concede that this once-motley, now greatly beloved, furry crew of mine do have things pretty good.  But neither are they particularly spoiled.  Their collars and leashes aren’t terrifically expensive, they don’t have “wardrobes” to speak of, except for a few T-shirts and sweaters for the dogs when it’s cold and they need them, and they certainly aren’t slurping mineral water out of crystal dishes.  They get filtered tap water in stainless steel bowls, and they like it just fine!  About the only thing I do splurge on is their food, but I don’t even really consider that a splurge.  I consider it an investment in their health, and that’s why my vet bills, except for things like routine checkups and blood work, and the required-by-law yearly rabies vaccines (I don’t routinely vaccinate for anything but rabies – I do titers instead), are just about nonexistent. 

But even though I don’t consider myself particularly extravagant (in much of anything, but even where my greatly treasured furry housemates are concerned) I do still like to keep an eye on the trends.  So today when I was scanning MSN.com for my daily dose of all things newsworthy and not-so-newsworthy, my eye was caught by an item that read “The 7 Best Tech Gadgets for Pets.”  I had five minutes to kill, so I clicked.  Here’s what I found:

Gadget #1:  The iFetch ($100 from goifetch.com) 

  
This gadget shoots a ball up to 30 feet away whenever the ball is dropped into the funnel.  For ball-obsessed dogs, whose owners get tired of throwing a ball over and over, I can see the appeal in this gadget.  But in my house, the pups’ preference runs more toward stuffy toys with squeakers than to balls.  I have some friends whose dogs might really like this, though. 

Verdict:  I can see where this might come in handy for some people, but for me I would have to pass.  

Gadget #2:  The Passport Pet Access Smart System Door ($230 from petsafe.com)
 

 Truthfully, I’m kind of surprised that this particular gadget made it on anyone’s short list.  I’ve seen its’ like many times before.  It’s a pet door that can be programmed to allow entry or exit only for designated pets by using a little electronic key that attaches to their collar. As I said, I’ve seen other ones that advertise similar capabilities in the past, so I can’t see what’s so different or great about this particular one. 

 Verdict:  Pass 

Gadget #3:  The Petnet Smart Feeder ($249 from petnet.io) 

Again – I’m not terribly impressed with this one.  Its selling points include that you can manage exactly when your pet eats and exactly how much.  But other automatic feeders can do this, too, and actually, so can I, with my own two hands, albeit not when I am not actually home!  The difference here is that you can program the portion amounts and the times the food is dispensed via a computer, smartphone, or tablet.  I guess this is handy, but again, I prefer to feed my animals myself.  Also, I feed a raw diet, so it probably wouldn’t work very well for me anyway.

Verdict:  Pass

Gadget #4:  The Whistle Activity Monitor ($130 from whistle.com)

Perhaps my Amish roots are showing, but here’s another gadget I just don't see the point in.  A little device hooks on to the pet’s collar, and “uses information like weight, age, and breed to crunch data about your pet’s periods of activity and rest.”  This, apparently, allows you to “set and chart health goals and track behavior patterns.”  To what purpose, I’m not exactly sure. 

Verdict:  Pass 

Gadget #5:  PetChatz ($349 from petchatz.com)

At the risk of sounding like the boat-coveting-woman-from-Napoleon-Dynamite let me just say:  I want this!  Unlike with a web cam, not only can you see/hear your pets, but they can see/hear you as well.  The PetChatz unit is plugged into an electrical outlet and then screwed securely into the wall stud.  The PetChatz unit is connected to your home WiFi network and then you log in to PetChatz.com on your computer, or download the app on your tablet or smartphone, and you’re ready to go.  Go to the PetChatz website and see a video of it in action.

Verdict:  $349 doesn’t seem that bad for this system – heck, it even dispenses treats – but then again – I can think of other things I would probably rather buy for that amount of money.  And yet I can’t deny that I really would like to try it out.  Not even for the dogs so much, as they are with me at the office most days, but for the cats.  Especially because I like to go away for the weekend (usually the dogs come along) and when I do, it’s easy to have my pet sitter come twice a day to feed the cats, but The Hunk, especially, is so shy with people he doesn't know well, that my pet sitter, K, pretty much has to take it on faith that everyone’s still alive and well.  The fact that I could dispense treats remotely would be kind of fun, and I can see The Baby, especially, really digging that.  I’m highly intrigued, and feeling covetous, but not quite ready to whip out my credit card at this juncture. 

Gadget #6:  The Tagg Tracker ($100 from pettracker.com plus an $8 per month service fee after the first 90 days of service) 

This gadget, I admit, is pretty cool.  It attaches to your pet’s collar (it’s designed to be worn at all times – and is even waterproof!) and uses a GPS system to keep tabs on the pet’s location.  If the pet strays from a designated zone, you’ll be alerted by both email and text message, and you can track the pet’s location on a map using your computer, or mobile device (you have to download the free Tagg mobile app for that).  With my current situation, and my current animals, I don’t have much real need of this device, though given The Baby’s penchant for staring holes through doors (and his recently documented ability to OPEN them himself), this probably would be a good idea for him.  And it definitely would have come in handy back in my departed Malamute mix, Dakotah’s, glory days.  That boy could run like the wind, and he’d take any available opportunity to take off and explore on his own.  I remember one sleepless night in particular when a family member accidentally let him out during a torrential rainstorm and he got his collar snagged on something, got stuck fast, and it wasn’t until daylight that someone spotted him.

Verdict:  If you have an escape-prone pet, this definitely seems worth looking into. 

Gadget #7:  The Petcube ($149 from petcube.com) 

Similar to the PetChatz, this gadget is designed to let you keep an eye on your pet(s) when away from home.  Set to debut in May, it will allow you to check in on your pet(s) via a mobile app.  A wide angle camera streams and records HD video to your computer or smartphone, and apparently you can move around a laser pointer to “virtually play with your pet.” Though cheaper than the PetChatz system, this one doesn’t really thrill me.  If I were to choose between the two, I’d rather pay double the money for the PetChatz system as it just seems like it can do more, and is more interactive. 

Verdict:  Pass 

Overall, quite a few of these gadgets were not all that exciting to me, but I really am strongly considering trying out the PetChatz system, and I think the Tagg Tracker is also a great idea, especially for pets that are known escape artists.

What about you?  Do any of these strike your fancy?  Is there a pet-related gadget that you just can't live without?

Wordless Wednesday with The Flying Monkey: Home Alone

The Flying Monkey does not enjoy being Home Alone. 

Of Dog Parks & Dimwits

The Paragon, The Flying Monkey, and The Cowardly Lion - ready to go to the dog park (cat butt photo bomb courtesy of The Diva) 

The weather here has been gorgeous lately, and I just can't seem to get enough of being outside.  (The previous few weeks, it has been gray and nasty, even though the temperatures have been in the forties and fifties, which I love, and I also know that the heat of summer, which lasts about eight months of the year here in Florida, is going to be here before I know it.)  So on Saturday morning, I suggested to my sister, K, that we take The Three Amigos (consisting of The Paragon, The Flying Monkey, and her Wheaten Terrier/Golden Retriever Mix, The Cowardly Lion) to the dog park.  

On the subject of dog parks in general, I am always a bit ambivalent.  I have, over the years, had more than a handful of "I can't believe I just witnessed this in real life ... surely I'm being Punk'd." moments.  Like the time, for example, that a twenty-something guy swaggered in with this poor, skinny little six or eight month pit bull on an honest-to-God chain  hooked on to some sort of home-made prong collar/choke chain thing.  I am not kidding ... it looked positively medieval.  Not to mention that taking a leashed dog (and I use that term loosely, shackled would have been a better word) into a big group of unleashed dogs is always a bad idea, anyway.  But that was not the worst part.  The worst part was that the poor dog was in heat, and this asshat (sorry, I have been trying, lately, to keep the four letter words to a minimum, but an asshat is exactly what this guy was; in fact, if Asshat were a country, he would be their Asshat King, or maybe their Asshat in Chief, and plus, it is technically six letters, so I'm letting it slide) had brought her there to, and I quote, "get her knocked up."  It was a head-desk moment to end all head-desk moments.  I can literally feel my blood pressure rising right now, and this was years ago.  

In any case, for this reason, and because of a dozen or so incidents in a similar vein (though that one did, then, and still does now, take the proverbial cake), I am always a little bit skeptical when I go to the dog park, wondering what craziness, poor judgment, or sheer idiocy I might encounter while there.  Suffice it to say, I don't go to the dog park all that often, probably two or three times a year, on average.  I hadn't been to this particular one, which is now the closest one to where I live since I moved back in July, for several years.  

This particular park is actually pretty nice, because it has three separate areas.  One really large area, a medium-sized area, and then a smaller area.  The medium-sized area is kind of a buffer zone / no-man's land between the large and the small area.  The small area is reserved, unofficially, for small dogs, although when we got there on Saturday, there were several small dogs in the large area, and since there weren't any really big dogs there, that seemed to be fine.  (The largest dog there was a Siberian Husky; most of the others larger dogs were about the size of The Cowardly Lion, which is to say, not terribly big.  (TCL weighs forty-three pounds or thereabouts.)

It seemed a little chaotic when we first got there, but the area is pretty large, and most of the chaos seemed to be at the far end, so as the middle, medium-sized, area was completely empty, we decided to go ahead on in.  The Paragon immediately started making the rounds, as he generally does in situations like these, while The Flying Monkey stuck close to me, and The Cowardly Lion tried to get up the nerve to play with the Sibe. He wanted to, but he is a bit cowardly, as you might imagine.  All was normal. 

Within five or ten minutes, though, things started to change. You know that feeling you get when something just isn't right?  Well, I had it.  About thirty feet away or so, a cluster of dogs had gathered around their humans (or some humans, anyway, whether theirs or someone else's) and one dog began relentlessly humping another while the other dogs nearby circled anxiously, and the people involved stood by and did absolutely nothing.  Well, that's not true.  They did worse than nothing.  They treated it like a sideshow.  Like entertainment.  They laughed and pointed and basically behaved as though they were completely oblivious of the tension that was brewing.  I didn't like it, and I definitely didn't want any of our dogs in the middle of it, so I suggested to K that we exit that area, go to the middle section, and just let our three dogs play amongst themselves.  

Which we did, and which they did, for fifteen or twenty minutes.  On the other side of the fence,  we watched a mild fight break out among the humper, the humpee, and the canine bystanders.  Fortunately, one or two of the human gawkers finally got it together and broke up the humpfest as well as the resultant altercation.  We were just about to leave, when a man came in to the middle area with his Australian Shepherd*.  K and I chatted with him a bit, and learned that his dog, I'll call him Rowdy, was a rescue, and a bit peculiar, something not out of the ordinary for this breed, which K and I know all too well, as we had one growing up.  

Frankly, though, it was not long into the conversation before I could tell (because I have known K since she was born, which is to say rather well, and I can pretty much tell exactly what she is thinking at all times) that K and I were thinking pretty much the same thing:  that it wasn't just the dog who was a bit peculiar. A suspicion which was borne out, and then some, when Rowdy's owner began calling the dogs on the other side of the fence over to the fence line so that ... wait for it ... Rowdy could chase them.  

And no, I am not kidding.  I wish.  Fence-fighting, as anyone who has ever dealt with it knows, is no joke, and this seemed, to me, a pretty darn good way to get one started.  Especially since Rowdy did not just want to chase the dog on the other side of the fence.  He wanted to bark and growl at it.  In fact, between the barking, the growling, and the very deliberate lie-downs, creep-ups, and intense stares, Rowdy looked very much like the classic picture of the herding dog he is whilst said dog is in the process of herding something.  Like, say, sheep.  Except dogs are not sheep, and the dogs on the other side of the fence did not very much want to be herded.  Nor did they want to be barked or growled at.  All of which poor Rowdy, his herding instinct now fully engaged, was oblivious to.  And which his not-so-intelligent owner was most definitely oblivious to.

All in all, it seemed a pretty darn good time to get out of there, which we did.  And I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon.  There are other places to take the dogs to run off-leash that aren't such a free for all.

What about you?  What is your opinion of dog parks?  

* Dog's name and breed changed to protect the not-so-intelligent owner of said dog.  I may also have changed the owner's gender.  

Meet The Flying Monkey

"What's wrong, buddy?" I asked The Paragon one evening in February of 2008. I was sitting on the couch watching TV, and The Paragon was curled up next to me, dozing, when all of a sudden he let out a deep sigh. Not entirely unusual ... dogs do this all the time, and it doesn't necessarily mean much of anything. Also, I try very hard to be cautious about projecting emotions onto my companion animals. It's all too easy to do, blank slates that they are, but it doesn't always serve them well to do so.

This time, though, I was pretty confident that the heavy sigh meant that The Paragon was sad. In fact, I was positive of it. Positive because I knew how sad *I* was ... and The Paragon had just as much of a reason to be sad as I did. The previous month, his declining health had forced me to make the painful decision to euthanize Dakotah, my beautiful, sweet, loyal braniac of an Alaskan Malamute mix. After sixteen years together, the void he left in my life was indescribably large, and I knew that The Paragon was feeling much the same way.

After all, Dakotah had been The Paragon's big brother, his teacher, his mentor in many ways, not to mention the very best pillow in the entire world. I had already decided I wasn't getting another dog ... for a long time, maybe not ever. The last few months of Dakotah's life, his declining health had taken its toll on me, both emotionally and physically. Seeing a dog that had always been so healthy and vibrant become increasingly feeble and infirm was painful to watch.

Also, Dakotah was a seventy plus pound dog, and I am a 5'1" person. When he could no longer rise easily, I was the one who had to lift him to his feet. When he couldn't walk down the steps from the porch to the yard anymore to go to the bathroom, I had to carry him. He also hadn't slept through the night in at least four months. As is common in elderly dogs, he seemed to have his days and nights reversed. During the day, he slept just fine, but at night, well ... not so much.

Suffice it to say, in the weeks after his passing, my heart ached, my back ached, and I was completely exhausted. Getting another dog was honestly the last thing on my mind. Dakotah was irreplaceable, after all, and the truth of the matter was that even, perhaps especially, when he was perfectly healthy, Dakotah was a Challenge with a capital C. The Paragon, on the other hand, was easy-peasy. I would have given anything to get Dakotah back, but that wasn't possible, and since I already had the best dog in the entire world sitting on my couch, why, you may well ask, would I even dream of rocking the boat?

The truth is, I wasn't planning on it. But then The Paragon sighed that heavy sigh, and could barely muster a half-hearted wag of his tail when I inquired as to what was wrong. So I started thinking about it. A lot. And I decided that if I was going to do this, I didn't want another Malamute or Husky, or even a Shepherd, three breeds I've always loved and felt a huge affinity for. Since The Paragon had come into my life, I'd learned first-hand the joys of dogs that come in smaller packages, and I thought that maybe a dog his size, or maybe a bit larger (say the size of a Cocker Spaniel) might be ideal.

So I started looking. And not long later, I found The Flying Monkey, (aka The Monkey aka Monkey Face) who was, obviously, just about the antithesis of Dakotah in every possible way. Weighing only six and a half pounds (nine and a half now ... she was pretty skinny when I first got her), she was a lot smaller than what I was looking for, but once I met her, I just had a feeling she was going to be exactly the right fit.

Fortunately, my instincts were correct. From the first, The Paragon and The Monkey got along beautifully, and in fact, not once in six years has there been even a ripple of jealousy or dissent between the two. They are great companions for one another, and as for me, choosing to adopt a dog that was as different from Dakotah as she could possibly be turned out to be exactly the right thing to do. There were no painful comparisons to be made between the two, so I was free to enjoy this new dog in my life without all of that baggage. And enjoy her I did, and do, in so many ways.

The Paragon is, it is widely accepted in the circles in which we travel, the sweetest dog on the planet. The truth, though, is that in her own way The Monkey is even sweeter. She is a snuggler extraordinaire, of the marathon variety. If you want to, you can snuggle her just about to death. She is happy to be held for hours on end, if you have the time and the inclination, her tummy to your chest, her head on your shoulder, and just lie there quietly and be with you. If holding her on her back like a baby (she's just about the size and weight of a newborn human infant, which is to say the perfect size for cradling in such a fashion), is your preference, that is fine, too. As long as you keep the snuggling coming, The Monkey is on board.

The Monkey is a soulful creature, fond of staring off into middle distance thinking, it often appears, all sorts of deep and profound Monkey thoughts. Her fairly pronounced under bite often lends her a somewhat dour expression, but she's really a very "up," happy, fun-loving, and truly funny dog. When she gets excited, for example, she starts to sneeze uncontrollably, making everyone around her laugh. And when she's excited to see you, she will literally launch herself into the air, (one of the main reasons why her nickname is The Flying Monkey instead of just The Monkey) trusting that you will catch her.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better companion for The Paragon, or a better second dog for our family. The Monkey is a very easy dog in almost all respects, and in fact the day that we drove to her foster mom's house to pick her up, a two and a half hour drive away, she joined us at an outdoor café for lunch, sitting in her carrier on her own chair, as perfectly composed and well-behaved as though she did it every day. From the first she fit in perfectly, as though she was always meant to be a part of our family.

The Monkey was a breath of fresh air and a reason to smile and laugh in a very sad time. Her sense of comic timing is excellent, and if someone is stressed or upset, she will first try to love them out of their bad mood, but if that fails, she will resort to her silly antics to snap them out of it. She's the jester in this family's court, and we feel so lucky to have her around to make us smile.

* Note:  I am not sure what's going on with Blogger tonight, but the picture I wanted to use kept being stripped off, somehow, so I changed it out for this one.  I also see in my Gmail that some comments came in and were made to the original post, which I had to delete. Sorry about that!