Rivka,

I honestly have to say thanks for the tip!

I just had this conversation with my dad-in-law the other night. I have 3 dogs who are getting older. Two of my dogs obviously have a harder time getting on the bed than years ago.

I talked to him about building a step for them to get on the bed with me at night. Silly? Maybe. But I don't care. I sleep better when I can hug a fat puppy at night (even if its a 9 yr old 100 lb "puppy"). I've noticed that Mocha and Rusty have a harder time lately jumping up on our bed. Actually, so do I, and in our next remodel, I plan on getting a lower platform bed. In the meantime, I plan on building just such a step system for them.

Beautiful cat and excellent labor of love!!

I don't think you're crazy at all. I think you simply love your cat. Great job!

LOL! Not extreme at all! We bought some stairs when one of our last dogs became too arthritic to jump onto the bed easily (although our bed is quite low so we only needed two steps).

When we moved to a new house, those steps no longer matched the carpet, so DH took some extra carpet and recovered the steps.

A tip for those who might consider steps - we bought them for the old girl. Once she died, we couldn't bear to get rid of the steps right away, so left them in place. When we got the puppies, they were too little to jump on the bed, so the steps worked for them as well! Who would have thought it? The best part, since we do not allow the dogs on the couch, was that the girls grew up thinking that they were only allowed on furniture with steps! When housesitters came to stay, they would move the steps to whichever guest bed they were using and the dogs would sleep with them, but they never tried jumping on a bed without steps! Cool training trick.

People tend to get funny ideas in their heads though when they see steps leading to the bed :)

I don't think you're crazy, I think all pet lovers do things that non-pet people think are nuts, but are completely natural for the pet lover.

Created a special frontseat "box" for anxious traveler who does better in the front seat.
$50 a bag chow
Going to the ends of the earth to get them quality toys that will not get destroyed and make them sick.
Literally an extra mile to the walks
I have a system where I can call/radio home and speak to the dogs.
I lined every inch of the property fench with wire fabric so rabbits can't get in to poop in the yard. (They love to eat that poop) It has been a major problem.

Too cute! My friend built a ramp for her little dog to get up to her bed - she's in construction, so it is definitely sturdy!

As for me, well....
1. I drove 7 hours to first see my dog at the breeder, then 7 hours back. 2 weeks later, I missed her so much that I drove 7 hours to visit (when she was still too young to come home with me), and 7 hours back. And of course the same with picking her up.
2. $58 dollars a bag for food.
3. Took her to the ER New Year's Eve for what turned out to be a severe anxiety attack (of course, I didn't know that at the time...I thought something was significantly wrong). 4. Spent $6,000 for surgery to remove her spinal tumor, $5,000 for radiation therapy, $2,000 for my 3-week stay at a cottage while she was getting the RT 4 hours away from home (not to mention taking off 3 weeks from work!), $1,000 for a repeat MRI to see if the tumor came back (which it didn't...3 YEARS later, even though the oncologist and neurologist both said it had a 99% chance of coming back within less than a year..even WITH treatment - good thing I didn't listen), and a few thousand dollars more for follow-up care and meds and the like - and no, I am NOT wealthy in the least bit. The money I save is for emergencies, and my dog is included in this.
5. Taking her to a chiropractor every week for her back end problems related to the removed spinal tumor.
6. Filling up her Christmas stocking to the RIM, and even putting toys under the tree.

Great Job! I've done several similiar projects for my elderly and or handicapped pets.

When my cat Franny was old I put out a heating pad and set it on low for her, and she would lay on it.

More recently, I put out a snuggle safe for Sofie, in case she wants a warm spot in the house in the winter.

I put out extra mugs of water in Sofie's sitting spots so she can have drinks of water in extra places.

That is really nice looking!

I really, really like those steps! Not crazy AT ALL!

My 18 year old kitty (who I just had to put to sleep 3 weeks ago and still miss horribly...when exactly does the crying stop?...) had the same difficulty getting up on my high bed.

I bought a special foot stool that I found at an antique store. Back "in the day", those beds were high as well and many people used steps to get into the bed.

No you are not crazy!!! We all do things for the one's we love & our animals are truely loved one's to each of us. I always figure as long as I can aford to spoil my animals, then I will. DH has grown over the years to feel as strongly about all of them as I am, which really helps. Great work, Terri

I think the steps are great. I built Jerri an agility course.

Lisa

LOL Lisa, I expected to see a dobie coming out of that tunnel!

Maybe later in the year. I'm waiting on a litter now.

Lisa

Well, our Dog Room is the biggest room in the house. It's equipped with two futons, two crates, and a dog bed, along with food bins and bowls.

One of our dogs has to eat standing upright on her hind legs due to a condition called megaesophagus that prevents her from swallowing normally. We are remodeling our laundry room right now and I just talked to the contractor about the special shelf I want built at just the right height to hold her food bowl.

Another one of our dogs demands toppings on his food, and of course, we cave. The look he gives you if there's nothing there is just so pitiful that you feel like a lack of toppings is dog abuse. He doesn't care what the toppings are (bread, cheese, a few pieces of a different kibble) but there has to be something on there or he gets sad.

Oh, and we have had an ottoman next to our high bed for years to make it easier on the pups as they get up and down.

Almost one-forth of the top of my desk is covered by a cat bed. When I moved in here in September, I was unpacking and just tossed one of my pillows on top of the desk. My elderly cat found the pillow, which is a) right in front of the sunniest window and b) right in front of the only window that overlooks the back yard and the squirrels. For the first few weeks, that pillow was the only place she felt safe, other than my bed.

The other cat likes it, too. But once all the boxes were unpacked and tossed, the elderly cat could not jump up on the desk--she had been climbing up on the stacked boxes. So the other cat's little wicker igloo has been moved over to the desk. Elderly cat can hop up to the top of the igloo and from there to the desk.

It's a bit crowded on the desk, what with the pillow, and I can't open the file drawer because the igloo is right in front of it, but the cats are happy. Incidentally, an ordinary bed pillow makes an excellent cat bed. Pillowcases make good covers that can easily be washed in a load of laundry.

Other than giving up most of the desk, the only other things I do are multiple water bowls throughout the apartment. They prefer to imbibe outside the kitchen. And I keep one end of the bench at the foot of my bed clear of all clutter, so the cats can jump up there to reach the bed. The elderly one doesn't need steps just yet.

Almost one-forth of the top of my desk is covered by a cat bed. When I moved in here in September, I was unpacking and just tossed one of my pillows on top of the desk. My elderly cat found the pillow, which is a) right in front of the sunniest window and b) right in front of the only window that overlooks the back yard and the squirrels. For the first few weeks, that pillow was the only place she felt safe, other than my bed.

The other cat likes it, too. But once all the boxes were unpacked and tossed, the elderly cat could not jump up on the desk--she had been climbing up on the stacked boxes. So the other cat's little wicker igloo has been moved over to the desk. Elderly cat can hop up to the top of the igloo and from there to the desk.

It's a bit crowded on the desk, what with the pillow, and I can't open the file drawer because the igloo is right in front of it, but the cats are happy. Incidentally, an ordinary bed pillow makes an excellent cat bed. Pillowcases make good covers that can easily be washed in a load of laundry.

Other than giving up most of the desk, the only other things I do are multiple water bowls throughout the apartment. They prefer to imbibe outside the kitchen. And I keep one end of the bench at the foot of my bed clear of all clutter, so the cats can jump up there to reach the bed. The elderly one doesn't need steps just yet.

That's lovely! What a lucky kitty! :)

We have two dogs. They eat a home-made raw diet and we bought our house specifically for the large yard so they could run off-leash. However the big-yard house needs some work, and so here I am on GardenWeb. ;)

Now that you mention it, I guess we bought this house for the dogs. We were house hunting and hoped to see four houses that day. Our agent had not succeeded in contacting the listing agent for this house, so had not made an appointment. It was on our way to the third house on our list, so I mapped it out that we would "sneak" up to the house on the side street and check out the backyard (corner house) and not appear to be casing the joint! DH and I saw the hedge and got excited. We got out of the car and verified that there was a chain-link fence along the sidewalk with the hedge inside. Our problem was solved! The city will not let you put up a privacy fence along the side street side of your yard anymore and we had decided against a house already because we could envision our dogs jumping at people passing by, jumping as they barked. Add a teen to tease the dogs and you have a dangerous situation. The hedge would keep the dogs away from the fence and make it a safe yard for them!

Then our agent knocked on the door and asked if we could view the house later. It turned out that the other agent was out of town and had not answered the messages out lady left. We went inside and saw the rest of the house. It suited us, too, so we bought it. The corner lot gives the dogs an additional 30'x50' play area beside the house.

It broke my heart when we missed out on the place with the 300 ft deep yard for the dogs. In retrospect, we would have had possum and other critters crawling up from the drainage ditch behind the house, so it would not have been a peaceful existence. The eight lane road a few hundred yards away was a nuisance and a hazard, too.