Focus on Fido: My trip to the Posh Pet Store

Last weekend while visiting friends in Maryland, Laura and I made a stop at Bark!, which I would describe as the most posh pet store I have ever been in. Now, Laura claims she doesn’t frequent this store, but she needed a new I.D. tag with her new phone number on it for her canine companion Parker, so we stopped by after our first stop at Starbucks. Since PetSmart is about the nicest pet store I’ve been to in the Midwest, I was somewhat shocked as we made our way around the perimeter of the store to find the frozen section. That’s right—the FROZEN section of this organic pet store, that makes the following claim on its website: “Partnering with you, your pet, and the planet to enrich the human and animal bond by providing products that are healthy, ecologically sustainable, and socially responsible.”

Already, I had a blog post in mind. If people that belong to groups like PETA and HSUS think animals kept as pets are treated with cruelty and deprived, they are so WRONG! Yes, there are bad people in every group of society, but the pets I know personally--Sammie, Rocket, Parker, Buddy, Mollee and Angus—see most even have human names—are treated like members of the family! And, if anyone shops in the frozen section of Bark!, well, they probably pay more their pet food than for the food they put on their own dinner table!

Here are just a few examples of what your dog or cat friends could choose from in the frozen section:

Frozen Yogurt treats—Peanut Butter/Banana Flavor and at a low, low price of $6.99 for this teeny tiny box.



Beef & Lamb—The farm girl in me was glad to see that they had the Super Beef Dinner and the Dandy Lamb Dinner. I’m kicking myself for cutting the prices out of the pictures, but I believe the 6 lb. bags ran somewhere between $29.99 and $34.99, and as you can see they come in large patties.




Sea & Air—For the seafood loving dog or one who prefers foul, those options existed too! Here, you can see the Surf & Turf dinner. Seriously! I rarely have that at a restaurant! And next to it is the Duck, Duck Goose Dinner and Chicken Dinner. It runs a similar price point as the above.




Watch out Easter Bunny—No wonder the rabbits go crazy my parents’ house when the dog ventures off the deck. Yes, there was even the “raw frozen rabbit dinner.” It sells for $33.49, or $5.58 per pound!




I couldn’t take much more of this store without laughing out loud. I did make a purchase, though. They had some really cute cards with photographs on them of different animals and very appropriate sayings. As we were walking out, something else caught my eye and triggered my fancy—Yappy Hour at the park! Laura explained it was a BYOB social where dogs could “have a play date” and their owners could socialize. Now, that sounded kind of fun, but I doubt if any of the farm dogs I’ve ever owned would “play well with others”.

So, animal activists. I just want you to know, whether you spend nearly $6 a pound on frozen rabbit or $3 a pound on dry dog food, pet lovers DO love their pets. They are our family. They are the kids we’ve never had; the little brothers that replace the “empty nest” when the kids fly the coop, and the companion we need to ride in the truck with us to the farm. They are family! And we don’t have to buy special yogurt to show them that. Just an extra game of ball or a scratch behind the ear is all they really need. You can’t put a price tag on that kind of love.