Christmas can be a tough time financially for families. Children want so many things these days, and many are spoiled by so many gifts from extended families. Some wise parent came up with the idea of the 4 Gifts 4 Christmas Challenge. The premise is that they would only buy each child 4 things: something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.
Those of us who have pets in addition to or instead of children, also often have spoiled “pet children”. I know mine are. I buy stuff for them all year long, not to mention all the products we get to review for the blog. But I still can’t help myself from wanting to buy them Christmas gifts as well. So when one of our fellow blog friends at Kol’s Notes came up with the idea to do the 4 Gifts for Pets blog hop, we wanted to play along. But what would we narrow those gifts down to (we chose to change “read” to “eat”)?
Samantha:
- Want: Sam just loves this warm bed from Drs. Foster & Smith. In most of the photos you see of her, she’s lying on it. It has a self heating core. She would love a second bed to keep in one of her other favorite spots in the house that she sleeps in.
- Need: Samantha needs a new house, and we are trying to sell ours and buy one with only one level. She is too tired and lazy to traipse up and down two flights of stairs when she needs to use the litter box (who can blame her? She’s 13 years old!). Plus those annoying dogs are often blocking it or waiting for her to come out the hole in the door from her room.
- Wear: Sam doesn’t wear a lot, but she has modeled collars for us for some giveaways. She seems OK with wearing a bell collar from K9Bytes Gifts, and why shouldn’t she have a nice holiday one just like the dogs do?
- Eat: You’ve probably heard me say how fussy Sam is. She loves these Greenies Dental Cat Treats
, and I love that they’re good for her teeth! There are other treats she likes, but she doesn’t chew soft treats very well, so they sometimes “come back up”. So we stick to what works, and any fish flavor is her favorite.
Cricket:
- Want: Cricket is obsessed with the West Paw Design Zogoflex Jive Ball
. They are the only balls that she’ll play with, and even though we already have a few, she wants a new one every Christmas.
- Need: In order for the Momz to quit making excuses to not go for walks in the rain, Cricket needs a raincoat. We would really like this one from Made By De. It is custom, handmade, and of high quality.
- Wear: Luke got a leather embroidered collar from Hot Dog Collars, and I absolutely love it. This one is personalized and embroidered. Cricket will be getting one soon too.
- Eat: Cricket is not fussy when it comes to treats, but last Christmas these Fruitables Vanilla Snowflake Yogurt Treat
were a huge hit! They are made with Greek yogurt and real snow!
Sheba:
- Want: Sheba loves nothing better than de-stuffing toys. She is closely supervised because she can quickly zero in on the squeaker. I will pull the squeaker out and then let her have a blast pulling them apart. These plush toys from Drs. Foster & Smith are soft, loaded with stuffing, and inexpensive.
- Need: Sheba loves swimming more than anything, but we don’t get to go as often as she’d like. If we can sell our house and buy the one we’re looking at, she’s going to get her very own pond. That’s a big gift, a whole house and pond! It’s really for all of us though.
- Wear: A good part of Sheba’s side is shaved from her recent surgery, so she’s going to need a coat to wear over that once her stitches are out and we spend more time out in the cold. We recently saw these nice jackets from Hurtta on a friend’s blog; The Adventures of Zoe and Phoenix. They are holding a giveaway for these coats through December 12th if you want to enter to win too (or don’t, then we have more chances to win 🙂 ). Thank you to ZoePhee for allowing us to use their photo as well!
- Eat: It looks like there’s a chance Sheba is going to be fighting cancer again. So we are trying to keep her on a healthy grain free diet. I know she would love these special One Dog Organic immune support treats, in a fun keepsake tin.
Luke:
- Want: Luke has had toys similar to this Spunky Pup Squeaky Gems Diamond Toy
, and he loves the bounce and the squeak. Hopefully this one holds up to his strong jaws longer than the others have.
- Need: Luke’s reactivity has been worse lately, especially in the car. He barks at everything. I’d love to try one of these Calming Collars to see if it helps.
- Wear: Luke loves wearing bandanas and I love how handsome he looks in them. We recently got Halloween collars for all the dogs from Collarific. I love how these slip right over their collars so that they stay on nicely. He definitely needs more of these for all occasions!
- Eat: Training is ongoing with Luke, so we can’t get enough training treats. Luke would like to try the Sojos Dog Treats – Bacon Cheddar
flavor.
What four things would you get for your pet(s)?
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Thank you to Kol’s Notes for hosting this fun hop, please visit other blogs through the links below.
Do you think if we got Mr. N that self warming bed, he would stop hogging all the space on ours and sleeping on multiple blankets?
Probably not. 🙂
Love your lists and the way you presented them!
I love the way you added the photos and broke it down for each dog. I love your choices for each of the animals. My dogs zero in on the squeakers too. Generally they pull that little bit that makes the squeak out, then they play with the plastic that’s left. We call it their ‘bubble gum.” 🙂
I think a whole pond for yourself is a really good gift!!
Thank for sharing our giveaway! 😀 I always try to get my dogs new puzzle toys whenever I can, Phoenix also really loves soft toys. Of course they would love more treats and food, too.. Haha! 😀
You’ve given us a lot of cool things to check out!
We’ll have to think about this. There’s so many things we want…and would eat…and really need…but not many things we would wear. 😉
Cool idea!!
I’m not going to give away my ideas just yet. I still have to write my post for this hop; but I may save it for Friday. I love all your ideas; but you didn’t tell us what YOU want/need/wear/read
It took me so long to put all this together, I didn’t even have time to think of myself! Well, I want and need that new house too…that is #1 on my list. I could use a new pair of gloves, I have some really good ones from REI but they get really dirty playing outside with the dogs. I could use an extra (clean) pair for driving! Like you, I am reading Jackie’s book House Trained!
All our Christmas money will be going to make boat repairs so we can get on our way south. But Honey WANTS to play, NEEDS love and affection, WEARS leaves she picks up from rolling on the ground and EATS anything that comes off our plates. 🙂
The best things in life are free, right? 🙂
Love this hop! I’m getting such great ideas 🙂
Great ideas!
Lily & Edward
They need nothing – but they will get treats and toys!
How cute! They all have very nice lists. We somehow missed this hop, so we aren’t joining. Mom says we have pretty much everything a dog could need. I figure we always need more treats. A dog can never have too many.
These are some terrific ideas! We have already purchased some of the gifts on your list!
That’s a great list. Roxy would love the self warming bed for sure.
hahahaha those were all great prezzies! Hope the gang gets them all.
I just love your gift ideas! BTW – those snowflake fruitables… my huskies LOVVVVVVVE them, and they smell great event to me!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
I know, I was tempted to try one myself! We’ve gotten other flavors too, and they all smell yummy!
LOL we buy the dogs what we think they would need or like. Sometimes it is four things, sometimes it is more and sometimes it is less. I think it is the thought rather than the quantity that counts. 🙂
I agree! We only practiced this in theory….I really just bought what inspired me at the time I was shopping. 🙂
What a wonderful idea this is 🙂 we have bought one thing for all the kitties here..a big tunnel with tent (meant for little kids so will take up the entire loungeroom and look like a deranged day care of sorts ) have not done the pups yet..our kids are all adults now and two are married and the other two have partners.,so we draw one person each and buy for them..we all buy for our grandson so he is the winner really 🙂 and hubby and i will be donating to a program that gives free vet care to homeless peoples pets..called Pets in the park..a busy time and yes not all peeps are in a good position so this idea is wonderful ) hope Sheba is feeling better each day..loves Bev xxx
I love your idea of donating to that program for homeless people and their pets. We have made a donation to Morris Animal Foundation which specializes in cancer research. This year we did it in memory of a human friend who passed on recently and was a true animal lover. He was actually the one that we got Sheba from, he and his wife.
I have one adult stepson, and we won’t buy for he and his wife (though I usually get them one small thing) but we buy for our two grandsons…they are definitely the winners!
Sheba is feeling well, thank you, but the lab results show that the lumps were cancerous and the prognosis is not that good. 🙁
Damn Janet…what can i say…why do they break our hearts this way..:( so much love coming your way..<3 <3 bEV XX
Thank you, Bev. xxoo
I’m with you Sam… greenies are great… and the color fits for christmas :o) I cross my paws that Santa reads carefull what you want and what you need… and I hope he delivers even the pond… hope the sled is waterproof :o)
Ha ha, splashdown for Santa!! He will need to get some pontoons on his sleigh to come to our new house!
What a fabulous post – we love the “FOUR THINGS” idea too. Sam is old enough now that he really doesn’t play with toys – he sleeps a lot – I think his “four” would be FLEECE, FLEECE, FLEECE, and more FLEECE! He loves the warmth and cuddly-ness of fleece blankies and he has a lot of them but can you have too many? HAHA
Love, Pam and Sam
You can’t have too much of good thing, can you? Samantha agrees….plenty of warm places to sleep is really all that is needed! ♥