Great Gifts for Pet Lovers

If you have a little furry child you will find yourself spending a lot of your time and money on making their lives happy, healthy and comfortable. It is estimated that we spend more than 60 billion dollars on our pets each year with dogs being the most expensive pet.

That is a lot of kibble, toys and pet beds to be sure. I think it is about time we reward the pet owner with some well deserved pampering. Here are some great ideas for the pet friendly people in your life, as well as perhaps some much needed personal pampering for yourself.

All the images you see here are from designs I have created, inspired by my own furry companions and in certain cases they posed for me.

Pillows

As I am typing this, I have one of my little furry kids soundly snoozing on top of a pillow right next to me (and occasionally on top of me...). What could be more natural than having pillows with a kitty design on them:

Throw Pillow

Tabby Cat Throw Pillow

This cute little tabby cat throw pillow was inspired by the personality of a cat I currently have and the coloration of a cat I helped foster. His charming little face shows a sweet disposition and his handsome tabby looks match up perfectly with his green eyes. Just image how his sweet image will perk up a couch or bed. view at society6.com

Rectangular Pillow

You Can't See Us
Rectangular Pillow

This rectangular pillow shows a lovely example of what often happens in my house as soon as I wish to find my cats. They have a special way of blending into the background, or at least that is how they see it. It is definitely a case of 'if I can't see you, you can't see me' but I also am sure the true problem is that my tubby little kitties have no idea just how plush they really are. view at society6.com

Mugs

When it is cold, a hot beverage can go a long way in warming us up and our favorite hot beverage is something we desire all year long.

Ceramic Coffee Mug

Yawning Dog
Mug

This yawning dog will connect with many people who need that first cup of caffeine laden beverage to get started in the morning. The art wraps around the mug offering three different views of a cute puppy's yawn. It is dishwasher and microwave safe and comes in an 11 oz and 15 oz size. view at society6.com

Travel Mug

Basic Border Collie
Travel Mug

When we are on the go we don't need to sacrifice that hot beverage, not when we have a travel mug. This one is double-walled and has a press-in suction lid. It holds 12 oz and can maintain your beverages temperature while keeping it safe from spilling. It is 6 inches tall and features a wrap around artwork of my lovely border collie. view at society6.com

T-shirts

When it comes to our pets we often wear our heart on our sleeve and now we can also wear our heart on our chest with a wonderful T-shirt. Short sleeve and long sleeve T-shirts are always a great gift idea.

Short Sleeve T-shirt

Horse on Parchment
T-shirt

This all over print T-shirt features a bold and simple design. The color of this shirt is the color of the buckskin mare Daisy I had as a child. It is sure to delight the horse lover on your gift list. view at society6.com

Long Sleeve T-shirt

Big Fish
Long Sleeve T

This bright and colorful big fish makes a splash on this long sleeve T-shirt. I like long sleeve Ts because they bridge the gap between the temperature extremes of fall and winter. This shirt comes in seven different colors. view at society6.com

Hoodies

Schnauzer Witness
Hoodie

Hoodies are great for staying warm without feeling encumbered with something like a thick jacket. The hood can keep out the wind and the rain as well as keep our ears warm. The schnauzer on this hoodie is the image of my beloved Dewey, long since departed over the rainbow bridge but still judging us all with his intense stare. It comes in 6 different colors and the image can be placed on the front or back. view at redbubble.com

Throw Blankets

When the wind is howling outside and the temperatures dropping there is nothing better than cuddling up under a throw blanket with your little furry loves.

School
Throw Blanket

This throw blanket features a school of brightly colored fish that will swim their way into your heart. It is available in three sizes and feature vividly colored artwork on one side. A very cozy fleece that is machine washable. view at society6.com

Tote Bags

I don't know how I would live without tote bags. Whether I am using them to bring home my groceries or sherpa-ing around my oodles of stuff I almost always have a tote bag over my shoulder.

Ounces of Pounces
Tote Bag

The image on Ounces of Pounces is one of my all time favorites because to me it captures my littlest cat Sandy as she pursues one of her favorite past times, stalking the insect life in our back yard. Her spirit is willing but that butterfly is in no danger. Her body is built for comfort, not the aerodynamics necessary to catch a winged creature. It is however great fun to watch her try. These tote bags are very sturdy and they come in three sizes. The artwork covers them front and back. view at society6.com

Pouches

Peacock Tabby
Pouch

This zippered pouch is just the thing for keeping organized. I use these pouches for everything from holding pens to phone accessories and organizing random things in my purse. The artwork wraps around the pouch and they have a black interior lining. They come in three different sizes. view at society6.com

Rugs

I have wooden floors at home and although I like them, I also like having area rugs around to keep my feet warm in the winter.

Basic Cat
Rug

The furry children also love these rugs and they make a great pet mat. They are 100% woven polyester and are soft, durable and machine washable. They are available in three sizes. view at society6.com

Hopefully these ideas will help you with your gift giving. If you liked a particular image, keep in mind that each image shown can be placed on any of these items listed so if you like what you have seen on a pillow, you can have that image on a shirt or a rug, etc.

To view more of my designs check out my shops at Society 6 and Redbubble.

Front Door Cats

We used to be reasonable people when it came to cats.  Yes, we always had a couple and sometimes more than a couple but never enough to be called crazy cat people.  Crazy cat people designation is reserved for anyone who has over three cats.   We in fact had settled down to a very reasonable two cat and two dog life and although we sometimes hankered for another dog, we never looked at one another and said "What we really need is another cat."

Not that we didn't always have applicants.  Some of the strays that came to check us out were very endearing and we were sympathetic to their plights.  Our sympathy in the past was where we arrived at the two cats we currently owned.  They both arrived as strays.  We loved them and cared for them but my husband expressed a desire to no longer have cats when the life expectancy, which could be up to twenty years, on our current two ran its course.  He was not in any hurry but he felt he had reached his threshold of catness.  He was over cats and would like to in good time just become a dog person.  "Cat's lead such tragic lives," he often mused as he would watch the plight of another stray.  There were always strays in our neighborhood.

This was what made it a little unusual when he drew my attention to a cat that had been lurking around.  "Have you seen him?" he asked me and I said no.  "I think he is an albino.  I am going to call him Bino," he said. "Oookaay," I said wondering what was happening in my husband's brain.  This was going to be interesting.

Bino

For several weeks all I saw of the mysterious Bino was a disappearing tail as I would pull into the driveway.  My husband denied feeding Bino.  "Of course not.  I don't want another cat," he said.  In spite of this Bino came around every day.  I eventually saw Bino and although he was not completely white he was a very pale cream color with a white chest.  Bino's eyes were very large and had the look of siamese heritage.  My kitty radar was letting me know something else.  I have always been able to know the sex of a cat just from seeing it.  It isn't something I consciously think about, I just know.  There must be some physical characteristics I am picking up but the kitty radar is foolproof.  Kitty radar said Bino was no boy.

This was confirmed the next week when my husband said a mother cat had appeared with two kittens.  Two starving kittens.  He had put out food for them immediately because, well because that is what you have to do even if you are 'over' cats.  I said, "Do you think it is Bino?"  He said "No.  Bino is a boy."  The next day I saw for myself.  It was Bino and she did indeed have two starving kittens in tow.  The kittens were tiny and nearly skeletal, especially the smallest one.  We immediately set up a feeding station with food and water just outside one of our windows.  We watched as Bino and her children ate but we had to be extra quiet.  They would startle at the slightest sound.  Those kittens were as wild as they come.  I was very worried our help would not be in time for the smallest kitten.  It was half the size of its sibling and very bony.  We made sure food and water were available constantly and also put out wet food to try and save the tiny one.

Beener and Beenie

It worked and they began to thrive.   It became apparent to me that at one time in her life, Bino had a home, but she was almost completely feral now.  Although she would tolerate our presence after a while, she would not let us touch her.  Her kittens, a male, a bright orange tabby we named Beener and a female, a solid sand colored we named Beenie, eventually let us touch them if they were eating.  Gradually they were getting used to us, but then we noticed that Bino was looking, well...  it was very apparent she was pregnant again.  Great.  We were at at loss as to what to do about it.  The kittens were still at a stage where they stayed with her constantly even though they did not nurse.  If we trapped her to take her in to be spayed we might lose her kittens.   Then we got distracted due to an impending natural disaster.

That disaster was hurricane Ike.  It started out as a tropical storm on September 1st and by September 4th was a category 4 hurricane.  Ike hit Cuba hard on September 7th and was into the Gulf of Mexico by September 9th.  The projected pathway showed it heading right towards us and the predictions were for huge storm surge that could potentially wipe our home out.  They called for mandatory evacuations of our neighborhood by the 12th.  We grabbed a few essentials and headed towards my father's home to ride out the storm.  Of our most precious things we had with us our dogs and our two cats, but Bino and the tiny Beenie were no where to be found.  On the last trip to the house my husband said he found the male, Beener, who was the friendliest of the trio.  He nearly had him in hand when a huge gust of wind blasted the house and Beener ran off.  We were heartbroken that we could not take them with us and expected the worst with the predictions.

Hurricane Ike

The hurricane had tremendously powerful winds which tore up quite a bit of the city, so much so that we lost power at my father's house.  In the morning the city was in shambles and most streets were unpassable.  We did not get back to our home for two days and when we finally made it there having backtracked multiple times around downed trees, utility poles and debris we came upon something we had not expected.  Our house was fine.  Aside from a tree that had crushed a back fence there was minimal damage.  There was also no evidence of any water.  The storm surge had not occurred.

When we got out of our car little Beener came running up to us crying and eager to greet us.  His tiny sister also appeared and we quickly gave them food and water.  Mama Bino appeared later.  A very slim Bino. She had given birth to her kittens during the storm.   That week due to lack of power we stayed at my father's and came by the house every couple of days.  Things came back to normal two weeks after the storm when our power was finally restored and we resumed our life.

Beener becomes Ike

My husband was now permanently bonded with Beener since that fateful day of the failed rescue.  He renamed him Ike in honor of the storm.  I decided since apparently we were now the proud owners of this new crew of cats to rename little Beenie to Sandy because of her solid sandy colored hair.  Bino remained Bino.  She also remained elusive.  Her new batch of kittens seemed to be located under our neighbors house.  We felt in time she would bring them out to the feeding station we had set up and we were certain we would be able to quickly domesticate her newest litter and find homes for them.

Beenie becomes Sandy

Weeks went by and Bino kept her kittens to herself.  Finally one day my husband said he saw one little kitten.  He said it almost seemed to glow in the light.  Day after day there was an elusive sighting of just one kitten.  So we thought she had a litter of one.  Then came the day we saw two kittens.  Okay, we said she had a litter of two, just like her first litter.  They were very skittish and we could not get close to them.  A couple of weeks went by and then magically there were suddenly three kittens.  Just how many did she actually have?

How many kittens?

Three kittens.

It turns out there were only three.  One was a bright orange tabby just like Ike.  One was solid white with gray ears like a siamese.  One was just like her mother, white chested and pale cream tabby body.  So now we had our two backdoor cats and six front door cats. Eight cats - definitely crazy cat people territory.

We started trying to find homes for our abundance of cats.  The thing is, nobody wants cats.  Oh, they might like kittens, but they don't want barely domesticated kittens.  If you say to someone, "How about a nice cat.  She is almost tame and she will probably use a litter box and she hardly every freaks out when she comes inside," they do not seem overly interested.  The thing is there is a glut of cats on the adoption market.  Many of those cats have fine qualities that would make them perfect indoor companions.  For slightly feral, past the cute kitten stage and in the awkward juvenile stage there are far fewer willing adopters.  We were able to re-home exactly one of the kittens.

Cat math equation.

So you would think this would mean that we now had only five front door cats.  No.  Cat math does not work that way.  Once you are feeding several cats, other cats join the group.  Suddenly we had an adult manx cat join our crew and he was such a goofy and inept cat we let him stick around.  We had many other candidates as well, especially tom cats who began to pester our females.

The goofy manx.

I took quick action on this and one by one took Bino's kittens in to be fixed.  Bino however remained very elusive and eventually disappeared never to return.  Then the manx who was never very hearty took a bad turn and we had him euthanized by the vet to end his suffering.  So we went back up to six front door cats and then down to four which is thankfully where we remain today.

Some people may criticize us because we do not give these cats an indoor home, but in fact they do have an indoor home.  We took our front porch, which used to be just a two columned open area and enclosed the walls.  We created special cat flaps and also made special kitty furniture for them.  They have heated sleeping nooks, shelves to sit on and a raised floor.  This summer we will install a fan and who knows, if my husband has anything to say about it they will probably get their own air conditioner as well.  See, crazy cat person symptoms.

Currently due to one of our back door cats reaching the end of a very long life we are at five cats total - two cats above the crazy cat person quota.  Break a mirror and you only get seven years of bad luck.  Adopt four kittens and you get twenty years of crazy cat person luck.  Great.

Border Land

I never set out to become the mom of a Border Collie.  It just happened, sort of like an unplanned pregnancy.  Granted we were looking to adopt a dog following the death of our beloved Schnauzer but Border Collie was not even on the list of dogs we were considering.

We have had several dogs since we have been together, the first being a Mini Schnauzer, who basically taught us everything we ever needed to know about being the parents of a fur child. Dewey set the bar for any other dog we will ever have.  I would tell you more about him here, but he deserves an entire post of his own. Suffice it to say his life embiggened our own and his passing nearly crippled us. But he was not our only Schnauzer. During his life, for reasons I will eventually reveal, we acquired a second Mini Schnauzer, Chewey, who was also a peerless entity.   Also eventually, we brought into our family a Westie, our dear little Lewey, who happily still graces our lives with his bold presence.

It was after the death of Chewey, an event we had seen on the horizon like the approach of a train, steaming its way unstoppable and unwelcomed. We had always talked of having a third dog and had discussed the type of dog we wanted. We said a big dog, something rugged and protective. The type of dog we wanted changed after his death when we realized that Lewey was not taking to being an only child very easily. We decided after a few weeks to begin the search for another dog.

Here is the list of the dogs we were considering: Schnauzer mixes, Corgi mixes, and Poodle mixes.  All of these small, fun, intelligent, and active dogs. I scanned the Petfinder listings daily. We wanted a younger dog because we felt that would help Lewey accept them faster. Ideally, this dog would be between 4 months to a year old. I fell in love again and again with Schnorgis, Schnoodles, and Porgis, but there was always something that made the choices less than ideal for our situation. Usually it was because they were already adopted. Sometimes the listings were out of date and the 'puppy' that was listed was now a full grown dog. Sometimes the candidate was listed as being bad around cats or other dogs. Sometimes they were over a hundred miles away. We were taking our time and began to visit the pet adoption events at local pet stores.

My brain began to be consumed with the search. I began to get a thrill when looking at the Petfinder listings and felt withdrawal symptoms when I couldn't check them for greater than 3 hours. Little did I know but I was setting the stage for what came next. I was in the zone.   The trap was set and I was about to trigger it.

It was just after we had spent another fruitless time searching a local pet adoption event. We were this close to adopting a pit bull mix puppy. I know, not at all on the list but apparently this puppy put its little feelers right into my husband's canine center (a dog shaped area just below the limbic area of the brain) and pulled really hard. We would have gone home with that little guy except someone else had already put in adoption papers on him. We left dejectedly. I should have known by that event that the decision making part of the 'getting a puppy' had ended and the universe was now in charge.

It was this same evening when I received an email from a friend regarding a puppy needing a home. Two pictures and a sentence. That was all it took to lock my brain in. I emailed right back and, as fortune would have it, we were the first of many others to request her. We found out more about her and talked to her foster parents. They had found her abandoned at a hunting lease in 100 plus degree weather. She was desperately trying to survive in a dried up mud puddle. She was 7 weeks old.  According to the vet she was a Border Collie maybe mixed with sheepdog. He said she would end up being about 50 pounds. Currently, she was about 6 pounds, recovering from dehydration, and had about a million bug bites. We set a time to go get her for the next weekend.

I was all excited but also all "Dear God, what have I done". I spent the rest of the week looking up everything I could find on Border Collies. The news was less than comforting. Apparently we had just adopted a furry human-dog who would need a tremendous amount of appropriate parenting or else would end up as a neurotic destructive whirlwind. Also, Border Collies take about two years to fully mature. Great.

We picked her up on Sunday. I think that if someone were to have listened very closely they could have heard my heartstrings being plucked. Or probably, if you want to get all scientific about it, they would have heard a gushing noise from the gallons of oxytocin my brain released. I was a mommy and she was my baby, that was what the biological imperative was screaming in my hindbrain. Granted she was a baby riddled with mange, but my baby all the same.

We took her home, took her to the vet, and treated both her and Lewey for mange (mange mites are very transmittable, but also very easily treated these days). We found that she was obsessed with always having water available and drank about six cups a day. We let her have all she wanted considering the ordeal she had endured. She also needed a personal fan because getting hot seemed to panic her. She was nowhere near housebroken and what with all the water produced copious amounts of urine every hour. She would only rest for about four hours at night before howling to get out. She had needle-sharp fangs and liked to sink them into my hands at will. She learned how to sit, lie down, and stay the first three days we had her. I was head over heels in love.

But love was not the only thing offered to her. Lewey made it very clear that "I do not like the puppy." He also, in what I am sure was just an example of sibling rivalry, expressed a desire to kill and eat her. She was oblivious to his clear expression of his feelings and would do her best to get close to him. We kept an indoor kennel fence between them. Lewey bit that fence several times during the first two days. Then on the third day as I was monitoring them in the back yard she worked her magic on him and he began to play with her. After that, he stopped trying to kill and eat her and only occasionally told us that he did not like the puppy. After about a week she finally told us her name was Trudy.

Here are some things I have learned about Border Collies in the months since we adopted Trudy:

 1. You must do routine things exactly the same way each time. There can be no break to the pattern or there will be puppy hell to pay.
 2. Your arms are just another chew toy.
 3. It is possible to take apart any toy in less than an hour. Just today the inflatable child's ball I got for her went from "Wee this is fun to chase around the yard" to deflated in less than 60 seconds.
 4. She understands sentences, not just words and she speaks a very physical language that involves pokes, prods, nudges and body slams.
 5. If you let her she will gently but exuberantly mouth your neck, which my husband said brought visions of being savaged by a wolf from some deep recess in his brain the first time it happened to him.
 6. Everything can be herded, including other dogs, people, cats, birds, and lizards. Also, some bugs.
 7. Water is the best thing in the world. It is important to stand in your water dish and dig to the bottom. If the water is deep enough, you can stick your head in and blow bubbles through your nose. If anyone is having a bath then the resident Border Collie is allowed in the tub with them.

 I am unsure if number 7 is a Border Collie thing or just a leftover from her abandonment but I have never met a dog more focused on water. I can only water the garden if she is allowed to bite the stream. Her first useful talent was pulling the hose around the garden for me. So far this remains her only useful talent.

She is a delight and she is exhausting.  Every time she does something right I feel full of pride.  Every time she does something wrong I feel like a failure because I know she could get it right if only I knew better how to instruct her.  I always said if I ever had a child I would home school it.  Well, I have a child.  She wears fur.  Class is in session.