With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, we’ve just tabulated the results of our recent survey in which we asked participants to give us their nominations for the “top-10” Valentine’s Day pet gifts. The results surprised and delighted us and we want to share them with you.
As you would expect, the list, see below, includes gift items that you can buy in a store and carry in your pocket (or car trunk). But as much as people want to express their love by giving their pets tangible gifts, the gift they most favor is the one that has no price tag on it. The simple truth is that when all is said and done, it is the only gift whose price cannot be measured in dollars: quality time.
Here are the results, in order:
#10 A new sweater or coat
#9 Enrollment in doggy daycare
#8 A Valentine’s card
#7 A sibling (dog/cat/other)
#6 A new dog bed
#5 Prepare their favorite meal
#4 More trips to the park
#3 A stuffed animal
#2 Special dog treats
#1 More quality time together
“Quality Time”: What does it mean?
It’s a phrase we often hear, but what does “quality time” mean when we’re talking about our pets? WebVet wanted to know. We invited survey respondents to be interviewed so that we could understand just what quality time means for different people and different pets. We were delighted by the number of enthusiastic responders—so much so, that choosing a representative sample was no easy task.
The WebVet community is a diverse one, encompassing pet lovers from around the world. We are dog and cat and bird owners, single and multiple pet households, in cities big and small, suburbs and rural towns. This writer had the distinct pleasure of talking to a number of survey respondents, and here is some of what I learned.
Who: Linda & Eric Kutche
Where: Flower Mound, TX
For Linda and Eric, the love and companionship of their six-year-old Chocolate Lab (Bailey) and their ten-year-old Beagle (Ginger) are gifts without price. “They bring me a lot of peace; some days it’s laughter, other days, it’s calm,” Linda said. “It would be unthinkable not to have them.” She wishes that she could “bottle up their unconditional love and passion for life.”
As Linda explained, quality time may be something as simple as a long walk in the park with Bailey and Ginger, filled with play, instead of just the ordinary “walk around the block” to take care of business. Or, it might be rolling around on the floor with each of them, followed by a long back-scratch for Ginger and a game of Frisbee with Bailey. The dogs appreciate and respond enthusiastically to these seemingly small gestures.
Linda reminds us of something that we sometimes forget: “Dogs define unconditional love. Everything that happened yesterday is wiped clean. They have a short memory for any act of unkindness they may have experienced. Every day is a new day.”
Who: Kristin Canonaco
Where: Huntington Valley, PA
When Kristin Canonoco found an abandoned Tabby kitten, about two weeks old, in a dumpster in Philadelphia, he was so “cool and calm” that she decided to name him “Fonz”, after the “cool cat” played by the actor Henry Winkler in the old TV show Happy Days.
At first, she had to bottle-feed him every three or four hours. But in spite of his tough start on the mean streets of Philadelphia, Fonz—now five-and-a-half—has thrived under her care and, like his TV namesake, never loses his cool.
A busy travel agent who often has to travel herself on business, Kristin hates being away from Fonz and calls her sister when she’s away to find out “how’s Fonz?” He can sense when Kristin is approaching the front door and greets her upon her return, something he doesn’t do for anyone else.
