Another Day To Put Pooch On A Pedestal
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By RITU KALRA
Hartford Courant Staff Writer
As Erica Stebe dropped off her 60-pound boxer, Leo, at West Hartford’s
new luxury doggy day care on her way to work last week, a flash of red
caught her eye.
Next to the black leather futon at the front desk of Planet Bark was a
display draped with feather boas, jeweled collars and hand-sewn
Valentine bags lined with hearts and full of homemade biscuits. She
bought two bags for $18.50 each - one for her 4-year-old "flashy fawn,"
and one for a friend’s dog.
"Leo gets something on every holiday," said Stebe, a manager at
Prudential Financial. "When I saw those cookies, it was just cute. It
was a little something for Valentine’s Day."
>From diamond-studded collars to heart-shaped gourmet cookies,
Connecticut’s pet lovers are showering their four-legged family members
with Valentine sweets, a phenomenon repeated across the country as an
estimated nine million people shop online and at specialty gift stores
this holiday to declare their love for their pets.
Americans spent $34.3 billion on pet accessories last year, more than on
candy or toys, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers
Association. At a growth rate of 7 percent a year, the pet industry has
doubled in size over the last decade, and there are few signs of it
losing pace.
The shift in American demographics is largely behind the growth.
Empty-nested baby boomers, younger couples delaying the start of their
families and single professionals such as Stebe, who are delaying
marriage, are transferring the pampering - and expenditure - that is
normally aimed at kids onto pets instead, said Bob Vetere, chief
operating officer of the American Pet Products Manufacturers
Association.
"We don’t have children, so the dog is our son and the cat is our
daughter," said Lisa Russo, a Prudential executive from Newington who
bought a bag of Valentine cookies for Cruzer, her English springer
spaniel. The cookies were made by two Andover women who started their
own pet gift business last year selling homemade treats, jeweled
necklaces and hand-sewn beds.
"People tend to spoil their dogs," said Jodi Clark.
Clark and her next-door neighbor started For the Love of Millie, named
after the pug that inspired the company.
Spoil indeed. Myra Wahl, Planet Bark’s owner, had a waiting list of 65
before she even opened the doors of her 9,000-square-foot doggy day care
and overnight resort in June, and has clients who regularly spend
upwards of $10,000 a year on their dogs.
In West Hartford, which boasts the largest number of licensed dogs in
Hartford County - 3,213 - pet-related businesses are not only booming,
they’ve become destinations.
The Three Dog Bakery on Farmington Avenue is a case in point. The
gourmet bakery has the ambience of an upscale European pastry shop, and
brims with dogs during Thursday evening "Yappy Hours" as their parents -
ahem, owners - sip wine and drool over wheat-flour and carob-based
Harlequin Heart cookies made by a French-trained pastry chef, but only
for canine consumption.
Helen Imbernino, a single "mother" of two and a nurse at the Hartford
Physician Hospital Organization, is a regular. She’s throwing her
English shepherd, Chauncey Gardner, a Valentine’s Day party today to
celebrate their one-year anniversary together.
While Imbernino already spends about 10 percent of her income on
Chauncey and his sister, Gilligan, no expense is too extravagant for the
party. A whole-wheat sheet cake from Three Dog Bakery for 50 (dogs, that
is) will be the centerpiece of the celebration to be hosted in the
climate-controlled playroom of Planet Bark - where, by the way, dogs can
take a vacation of their own while their owners are away, accommodated
in $40 a night "suites" replete with leather futons, ergonomically
correct elevated feeders, and leopard-print blankets from home.
Ah, the lap of luxury.
Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant