Packages

Shopping for Marley can get to be expensive, so we watch how much we purchase and look for good prices. It wasn't always that way.

When we first brought Marley home, the emphasis was on just getting enough of the right stuff, regardless of price. I went down to the local Petco, which is about a 1/2 mile from the apartment, and bought collars, leashes, balls, tug toys, stuffed animals, soft treats, rawhide, etc. They didn't have Marley's brand of dog food, so I also went to Petopia, which is just a few blocks further away. Although Petopia isn't as big as Petco, they have a really good selection of merchandise. But their prices aren't any better than Petco's.

We learned about a couple of good websites from fellow dog owners in the neighborhood. One is SitStay.com and another is jbpet.com. Jbpet tends to have better prices and is in NJ, so stuff gets here pretty quickly from them. SitStay is in Nebraska, so shipping to the East Coast takes 4 or 5 days. They both have huge catalogs, and if I can't find an item on one site, the other is almost sure to have it.

Another site I've visited is Petmeds.com. I haven't actually used them yet, but probably will come spring. Marley uses Frontline and Revolution. Petmeds sells Frontline, but you can only get Revolution from a vet.

I've been ordering food, treats, toys, and waste bags every 3 weeks or so. I've also ordered a couple of beds for Marley on-line. So, on a regular basis, we get packages from UPS. When I bring the packages upstairs, Marley gets excited, because he thinks he'll be getting something good. In a pinch, I'll get something from Petopia or Petco or from a pet supply store near my office.

Marley was a year old around Christmas, and around December 20th we had some extra special toys and treats delivered. One of the toys was a cloth multi-colored cube with open sides that was filled with 5 multi-colored balls of different sizes, shapes, and colors. Another toy was a plastic bone with a plastic ball in the middle. It unscrews and you can put rawhide wheel between the ball and either side, where the bone halves are. Marley loves both of these toys, but he really enjoys working the rawhide toy. I think his middle name is Tenacious.

Now Marley thinks that anytime we bring packages into the apartment, he'll be getting something. He gets excited, and we have to show him and say, "not everything is for you."