Animal toys and treats

Right now holiday pet toys are on clearance. Its a great time to stock up on toys, treats, and bones!

A few weeks ago we bought 4 HUGE rawhide bones normally $40 for $10. We're careful with rawhide the dogs get it occasionally and not for very long to prevent them from eatting too much.

Yesterday we bought

A stocking of rawhide chews $.70 normally $2.99
A stuffed boot toy for dogs $2 normall $8.99
A vinyl pengun $.70 normally $2.99
A stocking of cat toys $1 normally $5.99
Bag of treats $7.99 (full price!)

Sub total $12.39
After tax $13.46

Full price $28.95
Saved $16.58

Frugal? OUT THE WINDOW!

We're having quite the run of bad luck here. Our youngest cat was not acting like himself Tuesday/Wednesday. I took him to the vet Wednesday to get checked out. Xrays and blood tests didn't show anything $270. Took him home, was force feeding per instructions. He got worse. Thursday I took him back in, to be hospitalized. They gave him an Iv and pain meds. Tested him for a horrible, deadly, highly contagious (to other cats) disease. He was negative! YAY! Then he was given a Barium xray series. There were 2 definite blocks in his digestive system. Friday morning he had surgery, part of his intestine had to be removed because the blockage had killed it. We went to see him, he was highly doped up and quite sick of the poor vet tech! Today he gets to come home. We're estimating this bill to be around $1,400. HOLY COW! I'm very thankful we can afford it. Paying to save his life was never a question for hubby or I. Most of the guys on his boat find us crazy, and maybe we are. But that little boy is worth every penny of that. I would spend that much to save any one of our babies. We have been in a position before where we had no way of paying it. (and thankfully the vet was very wrong) That's not a position I want to find ourselves in ever again. I'm thankful this vet is so wonderful. I'm thankful baby cat deviated so severely from his normal behavior to shock us into taking him in right away. Most of all I'm thankful my naughty little kitty will be healthy again. He is so very loved.

I wonder

What does it say about you as a person when taking your corgi across the ferry you bring his coat? A coat that was purchased for a now huge dog but still fits your small one. And because you have to ride outside (in a partially enclosed, unheated very cold) dog area on the upper deck you bring a blanket. Then you spend a minute or two figuring out the best way to cover your lap while covering the dog. (folded in half so that he can lay on the blanket and be covered on top as well)Or that in the morning when its cold you have 3 cats on your bed, all covered in blankets. And when you go to take off the fleece you were wearing you be sure and place it body heat side down on a grateful cat. Because you know she will love the warmth but even more she wants it because it smells like you. Lets say you even went so far as to make blankets for these heat loving cats. Maybe even a rice hot pad. What would it say about you?

On a side note

The cats love the feline greenie treats. The orange menace followed me around the house while I gave them to his sisters because he wanted more! And yes, he got what he wanted. :) I'm excited they like them because the greenies should do the best job teeth cleaning. I fully intend to brush their teeth we even have the animal supplies but with dh working so many hours it is not possible right now. Not to mention being a horribly unpleasant experience. Our vet even said she could understand not doing it, she recommends it but does not do it either. :) Our oldest cat has to be wrapped in two towels with just a paw showing to get her nails clipped because she hates it so much. The though of brushing her teeth makes me shudder. But like I said their health is very important so we will attempt it. Eventually. With full body armor on.

Pets mart

I love petsmart. I find them to be almost always cheaper then petco. They have great sales. Last year after Christmas they had tons of toys and bones clearanced. We bought a lot of things to donate to the animal shelter and will be doing so again this year, as well as stocking up for my beasts. We were almost out of dry dog food so we headed over to them yesterday. We make the choice to feed our animals quality food and it definitely comes with a more expensive price tag. I used to feed the kitties (when it was just me, and 3 cats) friskies it was $17 for a huge bag at Costco. But when I switched to Nutro i noticed a change in their coats, they were much silkier, and they eat less. Usually we find a big bag on sale for $26 it feeds 5 cats for a month. That works out to $26/ 28 days in a month (for purposes of comparison) = 93 cents a day. About 17 cents per cat per day for dry food. I can live with that! Their health is very important to us. We feed them indoor weight management and out vet wants us to continue, but she also recommended feeding them tooth cleaning treats. The dog food is usually around $30 for 44 pounds and I think it last a little over a month but I'm not sure. $30/ 28 days = $1.07 a day. $1.07 a day / 2 dogs = .54 cents per dog per day for dry food. I marked the date we bought the food on the calender so I can figure out how long their food lasts.

PetsMart total

Total before coupons and sales $71.25
Total after sales $65.89
Total after coupons $52.23

We bought (prices include sales)
44 pounds of nutro sensitive stomach for dogs $33.99 (#30.99 after $3 coupon)
4 bowls of meow mix $1.96 (.98 after buy 4 get 2 free coupon)
2 cans 22oz purina dog food $1.68 (.68 after $1 off two coupon)
1 big box nutro bog biscuits for sensitive tummies $3.49 ($2.49 after $1 coupon) 1 whiskers lickin treats $1.59 (used coupon to get friskies treats free w purchase)
1 pouch friskies tarter control treats .99 (free after coupon)
3 bags chew eez dog rolls $9 ($6 after buy 2 get 1 free coupon)
1 bag meow mix treats $1.49 (.10 should have been free after coupon but I did not catch the cashier's error till now)
1 box busy bones $2.50 ($1.50 after $1 coupon)
1 pouch feline greenie dental treats $2.99 ($1.99 after $1 coupon)
a plastic silencer for dog tags $1
For some reason the cashier rang my $3 off coupon twice so I saved an additional $3 off everything. Strange! When I walked up to her and plucked my stack of coupons on the counter she sighed and said 'oh man! You want to use all of these??' duh. Why else would i hand them to you? To show off? To be fair this is my first cashier who gave me a little bit of a hassle since I started using coupons. I don't really care if it irritates her its completely legal and I won't pay extra because she sighs at me. Her coupon phobia is her loss! :)

Frugal play

Animals are not frugal. Properly cared for they require good food, shots, flea meds,surgery and toys. I have never added up our animal cost as we don't want to know. They provide us with joy and that's good enough. There are a few ways to keep costs down. I'm going to start with toys.

A few minutes ago my 2 dogs were joyfully sliding across our floor chasing after a toy. What was the toy? A Kong ball? A tennis ball? A stuffed animal? Nope. An empty, rinsed plastic milk jug. Their very favorite indoor toy. That's right theres nothing my dogs like to play with indoors better then a milk jug. Big dog grabs it by the handle and flips it into the air while he prances around, teasing little dog. If it should fall it glides easily across the hard floor. Outdoors they love, LOVE sticks. When we take them out to play and they will no longer chase their soccer ball, volley ball, or tennis balls they will run for a stick! lol my pampered pooches love the simple things. That's not to say that they don't like stuffed things that squeak, they do. But they could care less about it being a $10 petco animal or scrap fabric that i stuffed and added a squeaker. (i save squeakers from animal they tear up, and petsmart sells a package for $2)

Dh and I joke that the more expensive the item is the less likely the cats are to like it, when purchased for them. But an expensive coat carelessly left on a couch is wonderful to lay on. :) My cats favorite toy is a real fishing pole, with a rubber ball and scrap of fabric tied to the end. They love it! I don't know how much it cost to put together my dad did it for us, but i bet you could find good deals on fishing poles at garage sales. The black demon loves twist ties. The orange menace loves hair ties but that isn't frugal as every few months I have to replace the ones he hid! The cats love feathers on sticks usually $3-$5 at a petstore. Unfortunately so do the dogs, and they shred rather then play. I'm planning on taking the left over plastic stick and attaching feathers to it with floral tape. We'll see how that goes. I have feathers left from another project that i will try it out with but i would like some bigger ones if its successful. Like i mentioned earlier we are building a massive (over 5ft) cat scratcher and i will try to post photos of it when completed. We have some carpet but i don't think it will be enough even though i plan on wrapping part of the posts with sisal rope. If i need more fabric i will look at a remnant store down the street from us.

Rabbits are big chewers. Our bun has chewed through and on countless cords even though we try very hard to rabbit proof his room. He's sneaky! He enjoys chewing baskets till they are nothing but twigs. Just make sure its not a coated basket. I pick them up from the thrift store spray with vinegar and leave in the sun to sanitize. He chews cardboard boxes. Oatmeal tubes make great chewable tunnels. Black and white newspaper in a big box is fun to shred and dig in. Pine cones are good to chew as well. Some rabbits like toys, mine isn't a fan. but i know several people who buy baby rattles at the dollar store for the rabbit to toss.

My best recommendation is to know whats safe and what isn't and let the animals experiment under supervision. Last night my husband gave a hunk of leftover wood to the dogs. They chewed it into little chunks in no time! We took it away because small chunks can be swallowed and cause problems. (something you need to watch with any chew) I used to let the cats play with string in till they started eat ting it. Now i pick up every piece I find. But if we didn't experiment we wouldn't know how much fun a used milk jug is!

EEEEE!

We broke down and bought the $40 paint sprayer we decided against. OH MY GOODNESS! We were stupid! Should have bought that in the first place. We got more of the house painted in 3 hours then 6 days!!! If you need to paint your house and dont have tons of help, buy a paint sprayer!!! It DOES make a huge mess, which i dont like but given the huge time savings i'm willing to look the other way.

Dh and i bought supplies to make a cat stand. So far we've spend $20. We have some carpet, and free wood. I think we'll pick up 2 more 2x4s for another $3. Most decent cat stands cost 100-200 dollars. Plus its something we enjoy. A year ago we took an old cheap set of shelves (no back) and carpeted them, then wrapped the sides in Sisile rope. The cats LOVED them! It was 3 shelves of scratching, lounging bliss. It was fun, and it used up a piece of furniture we were planning on throwing out. I was bummed when it fell apart on my husband during the move. AFTER i lugged them up a 2 flights of stairs! :)