A pet feeding station? It's about time

This item falls under the category of "Duh." With 74.8 million owned dogs and 90 million owned cats in the United States (according to a recent survey by the Humane Society), you kind of wonder why pet feeding stations are not standard in new homes.

The feeding station pictured here was built into the Glassell Park kitchen remodel done by Kristina Johnson and David Franke. This couple had the same problem with their pet dishes that I have with mine: kicking. And that means I keep kicking the dishes once they're on the floor.

Rather than continue that sorry tradition, Kristina and David decided to get the cat dishes out of the kitchen's traffic pattern. This nook required a little bit of advance planning, as the Drinkwell pet fountain ($40 at PetSmart) requires an electrical outlet to keep the water moving. The benefits of the fountain, the couple say, are that it filters the water and cats drink more water when it's clean and moving. And well-hydrated cats are healthier cats.

For me and my kicking problem, this needs to go into my Kitchen Remodel Ideas notebook.

(Photo: Los Angeles Times)

Comments

[Aimee]

They did a great job! I think it should be standard in new homes!! You could always make it work for extra storage if the owners didn't have pets too.

[Kristina]

I'm so glad to know people like this! I thought people might think us weird. But since we have no plans of selling any time soon, I wasn't worried about it effecting resale value.
A couple things to note; the drawer above the feeding area is large enough to hold a plastic tub with lid which holds all the extra cat food.
While it has certainly cut down on the mess of kicked food and water bowls, it does not keep them from being underfoot. That area is right below our coffee maker and for some reason, they have to eat every morning right when we are making coffee.

[Isa de Luca]

That is a great idea for my 16 cats. I forwarded the link to my architect to see if he can build one like that for my babies.

[Alanna]

This is something that I've been giving some consideration, though I'm not in the market yet for a remodel.

My thoughts are that there must be a way to create an "endless" refill station for your pets food and water so you don't have to bend down and feed/water them every day or even every week (I have two cats and a dog and this is one of those daily chores that kind of bug me with the general inconvience).

If you think in terms of larger built-in (and hidden) water and food reserves? I think the water dish should be self-refillable when connected directly to your water supply, whereas the food dish should access directly that 25/50lb bag of pet food you loaded up above it.

Surely someone has put some thought into solving this before...