Integrating pet design into the home

[Liberal_in_LA]

wow!





THERE was a time when pets were pets. They had bowls and beds, and that was about it. Then something changed.

As Kristi Linauer, a Waco, Tex., interior decorator, put it: “Pets have become family members. We love them like children, so people are naturally drawn to anything that gives our pets a special place in our homes.”

For some animal lovers, that means not just buying aesthetically pleasing pet supplies, but creating their own animal-friendly design solutions to complement their human-centric décor.

Amy Britton, an interior designer who owns Artisan Kitchens in Osterville, Mass., on Cape Cod, said that more of her clients are asking her to include amenities for their pets as part of their renovations. One example is a kitchen island with alcoves for food and water dishes, drawers for leashes and treats, and roll-out storage bins to hold bulk kibble.

“People are trying to do a better job at planning everything out and accommodating the whole family, pets included,” Ms. Britton said.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/garden/22pets.html?src=me&ref=general

[niyad]

1. and why not? I love the fact that one can purchase faucet fixtures with levers so that cats

can serve themselves fresh, running water. then there are the reproduction pull-chain toilets that some cats use. . .

tree houses for cats, etc., etc.

[sui generis]

13. yeah my kitteh discovered two really bad habits

how to turn on the faucet in the kitchen and how to turn on the stovem, fortunately gas range pilot engaged and it didn't just spew natural gas vapor.

The water bill - that was bad, but the melted microwave / range hood was unnerving.

Now kitteh has to step on a pressure sensitive electroshock pad in order to turn on the gas, and we leave a kitty fountain running for her to play with water. Ms. Jazz is the spawn of the devil. :P

[SPedigrees]

17. Oh dear! That is one cat not to be trusted home alone! lol nt

[BrklynLiberal]

2. so cool. Check out this stuff...

http://mycatgoma.com/2008/10/house-designed-for-cats-ultimate-kitteh.html

http://www.thecatshouse.com/

[niyad]

4. how cute--thank you for sharing

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. cool. pic from site

[blondeatlast]

35. That is some awesome! Spark (kitteh) and Sasha (puppy) approve!

Unfortunately we live in a rental, but I LOVE the ladder and the "balcony" thing!

[snooper2]

11. Cool, check this video out...

Mother-in-law hates rodents, so evil me wanted to build what you see at 21 seconds in the video for my daughter when she gets old enough :evilgrin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJzUB8yNQkQ

[BrklynLiberal]

25. Wow! Awesome construction!!!!

How many hamsters do you have?

[LibertyLover]

54. My rats would love that - they could run all over the house

and be kept safe from the dogs!

[SPedigrees]

20. My cat would LOVE these houses!

Thanks for posting. These cat platforms and staircases would delight any kitty.

[BrklynLiberal]

26. I was thinking of putting steps onto the wall..just pieces of wood, at rising intervals, like book

shelves...with support at the bottom.




more info
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/pet-decor-2006-entries/my-designs-dreamy-cat-stairs-3-010732

[woo me with science]

44. That's cool, but there will be black dirt smudges on the walls very soon

right behind/above every single ledge.

[drmeow]

39. AWESOME! n/t

[Toucano]

3. Afluenza is a persistent infection. n/t

[dionysus]

16. so is jealousy.

:shrug:

[Toucano]

27. 1 in 5 children go to bed hungry in the United States and you people are building furniture for cats

That's not jealousy.

That's vulgar.

[dionysus]

28. so if someone wants to modify their own home, it's an injustice to starving children?

jesus christ, get a fucking grip.

wow, i shouldn't have built that shed to store my lawnmower and bicycle, i could have given the money to charity!!!!

you shouldn't be online. if you are rich enough to afford a computer, you should have given the money to someone in need.

:eyes:

[Toucano]

29. You can't distinguish between the necessary and the frivolous?

Home modifications to better the lives of pets is frivolous. Especially since the pets in no way require these modifications. This is for their deluded owners.

The ascension of pet to "baby" is obscene.


Your values are broken.

[dionysus]

31. cats like to crawl up and climb on shit. guy builds cool looking stuff for cats to climb through....

IT'S AN OBSCENITY!

...

:rofl:

[Toucano]

32. Cats have happily been human companions for millennia without home modifications.

It is an unnecessary excess driven by the anthropomorphizing of pets and has nothing to do with their well being.

And yes, it is a product of afluenza and it is obscene.

[SPedigrees]

42. And humans used to live in caves. Maybe you should go find one and crawl into it. nt

[Withywindle]

46. Tell that to the ancient Egyptians.

Newsflash: there have been other cultures that revered cats even more than we do.

Mind you, I don't think the cats really cared--except for that part where it was punishable by death to intentionally kill a cat. I imagine the cats might have approved of that. But they might approve of our current desire to stress spaying and neutering to cut down on the number of homeless street strays, and also making the relatively short lives of our pets as much fun as possible while they're with us.

[dionysus]

48. i guess you're just jealous they can afford to cut holes in their drywall and afford some boards.

sad.

[grace0418]

37. Can you distinguish between something truly worth getting upset about and something that's

really not that big of a deal?

I know lots of people who've decided that children aren't for them, why can't they make a family with their beloved pets? I'd rather see them doing that than having children they don't truly want.

Who are you to tell them it's obscene to love members of their family? Who are you to tell them their values are broken?

[Withywindle]

38. So if you put those exact same little shelves on your wall

but you put books or pictures or tchotchkes on them and then yelled at the cats for climbing on them, I guess that'd be OK with him?

It's just the *stated purpose* of it that offends him, the idea of someone making things for their pets to enjoy. Never mind that of course it's also for the benefit of humans because people like watching their pets play!

[Toucano]

41. Who said I was upset?

I simply pointed out that if not for the affluence of the U.S. consumer, no one would consider producing, selling or buying products to "design" their home around their pets.

The freedom to preoccupy oneself with the perceived anthropomorphic comfort of their pet is a symptom of affluenza. In typical good American consumer fashion, the thread fills with "I want one of those!" comments.

Buy, buy, consume, consume, and dump, dump, dump in the landfill. Not because we need it. Not because our pet needs it. But because we can.

"...why can't they make a family with their beloved pets?"

Because that's not a family. That's a person and their pets.

A kitty is not a baby. A puppy is not a toddler. If you can't understand the difference, your values are broken.

[Withywindle]

47. Oh, it's so nice of you to lecture us on what a "family" really is.

Thank you so much for sharing. None of us understood your wisdom before you decided to bestow it on us.


I stand by my point. None of the modifications in the pictures are any more expensive than a nice set of bookshelves--which are built for INANIMATE OBJECTS. I love my books, but I still wonder about people who will spend thousands on a TV set, a computer, a gaming console...and still look down on people who will spend far less on some harmless toys for their pets.

(If you're wondering about my karmic footprint, well, I haven't owned a car in 16 years because where I live, I don't have to. So I think that compensates for my toys for my cat.)

[grace0418]

51. You don't have to justify toys for your cat to anyone. The idea that someone thinks

they can decide what constitutes a family for anyone else is ridiculous. The added irony being that he or she deems it acceptable to tell others that their values are broken.

But excellent point. People spend ungodly amounts of money on bookshelves, cupboards, walk-in closets and any number of spaces to hold inanimate objects. But spend a few bucks on a beloved pet and suddenly their values are broken. WTF?

[grace0418]

49. Love makes a family. If you can't understand that then "your values are broken."

Who are you to tell people who they can include in their families? I've known women who have given birth to babies and yet are no more mothers to those children than the man on the moon. I've known people who've been disowned by their families for various reasons (gay, not religious enough, not willing to live the same as them). They get more love and loyalty from their friends and their pets than they do from their "families." There's a woman who wanders around my neighborhood. I chat with her sometimes and she's nice and harmless enough, but she's definitely mentally ill. But she takes great care of her dog and it's clear that they are each other's family. You can tell he would defend her to the death and stay with her no matter what. The same can't be said of her neighbors, who generally shun her. And I've never seen any human "family" with her.

And by the way, you sure seemed upset when you threw words around like "obscene" to describe a completely innocuous shelf on a wall. I'd hate to see the way you describe things that really get you worked up.

[stuntcat]

52. "Buy, buy, consume, consume, and dump, dump, " comes more from making babies than from having pets

We are SO proud of being a couple who's not squirting out innocent little #7,000,000,000.
It's 2010 and a "family" these days does not have to look like the Cleavers.
We ARE a family, without the kind of growth that signals success to people stuck in the last century.

[Withywindle]

34. None of this stuff in the pictures looks all that expensive to build.

Why is it more offensive to you than building new bookshelves, or a loft bed to maximize space, or any number of kinds of human toys people build? :shrug:

[stuntcat]

50. exactly.

What if the people adding these little colorful shelves work for humanitarian groups? It's not like they're showing off their Hummers.

Every time I come to DU I see a bunch of bitter pointless Hate, it's so disappointing.

[dionysus]

55. your name is quite apropos for this thread!

:rofl:

[TlalocW]

6. The only problem with this is...

None of the pets I've ever had ever play or use the things I get for them. :)

TlalocW

[valerief]

7. I guess you're not getting them small corrugated boxes. They LOVE

climbing in and out of them. Kinda like the kid who gets the big refrigerator box.

[niyad]

9. or brown paper bags, or the rings from milk jugs, or rubber bands, or cigarette wrappers, or. . .

[TorchTheWitch]

19. carboard box, plastic bottle, roll of toilet paper

The three things that if my dog had all three at once he'd think he died and went to doggie heaven.

[valerief]

21. I just realized something. Pets are lobbyists for the Packaging Industry!!!!

:rofl:

[blondeatlast]

36. *snort* nt

[SPedigrees]

23. Don't forget the ball of crumpled aluminum foil!

When my dogs were puppies, they loved the cardboard rolls that paper towels are wrapped around. Since before they were housebroken I used LOTS of paper towels, they had access to many such cardboard treasures. By the time they had mastered peeing outdoors, the newness had worn off the cardboard rolls and the supply dwindled.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. My kids want to build a "catio" for the kittehs. :^)

[niyad]

10. I LOVE IT

[KatyMan]

18. we did that last year

Built an 8x8 room out of 2x4s, covered the outside with plastic lattice, and the roof is some garden fencing and corrugated plastic on one part; we keep the litter boxes out there, and the cats have a little cat door that fits into the window, and the catio is up against the house; not attached, but close enough that they can't squeeze out. We plan on expanding it by another 8x8 later this summer. I'll try to find a pic and post it when I get home tonight.

[valerief]

22. That sounds SO cool! nt

[SPedigrees]

24. I have two friends who both built screened-in outdoor cat porches

for their cats, who loved them.

[LWolf]

12. I like the cat stairs.

Those of us who have both dogs and cats in the house tend to feed the cats on higher surfaces that dogs can't reach. In the last 10 years, my current cat's food and water have perched on a filing cabinet, a dryer, a dresser in my bedroom and is currently on an empty book shelf.

She's 10. She can still jump up to reach it, but I see that she does so more carefully, just as I go more carefully up and down steps than I did when I was younger. Someday, she might need some stairs. :D

[niyad]

14. have you seen the pet stairs that walgreens was selling earlier this year?

only three steps high, but about $10 (lots cheaper than the models at the pet stores)

[LWolf]

15. No, but I'll keep an eye out. Thanks! nt

[catrose]

30. We thought about teh kittehs

utility room big enough for the boxes and food/water dishes, wider window ledges, screened porch...but I see we didn't think enough. Mustn't let them see these pics.

[Withywindle]

33. I've done this on a low-budget scale.

I have an old metal futon frame that I haven't had a mattress for in ages. Probably ought to get rid of it, as it takes up space, but my cat really loves to climb it and sit on top of it. So I keep it turned on its end in my living room, it's about six and a half feet high. And I hang a sisal scratch pad from it.




I don't get the poutrage. Most of the modifications in the pictures don't look very expensive at all. Certainly no more so than building some new bookshelves or a loft bed or installing a new door...the kind of stuff people do all the time with no judgments.

[InvisibleTouch]

40. Yes, but some jerk with a hate-on for animals will always find an excuse...

...to attack any bit of extra expense spent on a beloved pet, as though it's a crime against humanity. (If anything it's a blessing to humanity when different species live happily and affectionately together.) I wonder how much *they* spend on frivolities when that money might go toward feeding the hungry?

[Withywindle]

43. It all depends on how "frivolities" are defined, doesn't it?

I'm sure that person has things they spend money on that don't go to directly help the poor and aren't strictly necessary to sustain life. I'm equally sure that if someone went after them about it, s/he would have an eloquent and passionate rationalization already prepared.

I don't even think people like that really hate animals per se...I think they resent people who have the ability and desire to strongly bond with animals and make special arrangements in their lives for the animals' enjoyment.

And whenever I meet someone who has that particular hangup, I have an instinctive desire to avoid them, because, wow, how bitter and grudging is that? If something as small as a nice water bowl or kennel run for the dog or a few climbing shelves for the cat is some kind of decadent obscenity, I can't imagine how they'd handle the much greater demands of an elderly parent or a child or a friend on hard times. Pets cost SO LITTLE relative to the joy they bring, I can't understand begrudging them anything.

And it's good for humans too. I love watching my girl play. It's very rewarding and healing to me after a stressful day. I wish I could afford to do the apartment-wide ceiling shelves; she'd love it. Maybe someday.

[InvisibleTouch]

45. Quite. The animal's joy is also joy for a human who loves him/her. n/t

[grace0418]

53. My 17 yr old kitty wouldn't use those shelves much these days. He prefers to stay

closer to the ground. Loves this little one-story carpet tower I keep next to my desk. Gosh I love having him next to me while I work. It's been 18 months since I went freelance and I still can't get over how much better my life is.