Rent-A-Pet??

Ok, so my buddy Fritz barked at me with this crazy story, I just had to share! A company called FlexPetz, based out of San Francisco, CA, is offering part-time pet sharing...basically a "rent-a-pet". For the "busy" person who isn't able to care for a dog full time, they can rent hours, or an overnight stay with a dog when it's convenient to them.

WHAT??!! I'm sorry...to me this sounds crazy. How can this kind of instability be good for a dog? They are kept in a cage-free kennel, and then rented out on a per-need basis. As my buddy Fritz said, how weird to wake up to different "owners" all the time.

For an annual fee of $99.95, a monthly payment of $49.95 and a per-visit charge of $39.95 a day, (discounted to $24.95 Sunday through Thursday), animal lovers who enroll in FlexPetz get to spend time with a four-legged companion from the 10-dog crew of Afghan Hounds, Labrador Retrievers and Boston Terriers.

The membership costs cover the expense of training the dogs, boarding them at a cage-free kennel, home or office delivery, collar-sized global positioning devices, veterinary bills and liability insurance. It also pays for the "care kits" - comprised of leashes, bowls, beds and pre-measured food - that accompany each dog on its visits.

Ok...so it's not only a rent-a-pet...but with no real effort on the human side..the dogs come with pre-measured food?? All this for a day or night, then send them back the next day...seems like a lot of work just to "feel" like a real dog owner.

To me, dogs need stability...if people want to spend some time with a dog, they should check with their local animal shelter and volunteer as a dog walker. With the amount of packed shelters out there, it would be a great gift to a dog really in need of exercise and human interaction.

But of course, that's just my opinion. What do you think? I'd love to hear your comments on this!
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