"Spoil" love | Pets raised in luxury: You can never imagine their happiness
"Spoil" love | Pets raised in luxury: You can never imagine their happiness
The 2022 Pet Healthcare Products Consumer Attitude Insight White Paper points out that at present, the pet-keeping population in my country is mainly composed of people born in the 1990s and 1995s, most of whom are highly educated and have high incomes. Cats and dogs are the pet categories preferred by pet owners. Among pet owners, 88% regard pets as important roles such as family members, friends, and children. Pets are no longer just simple tools for guarding the house or gaining the owner's pleasure, but also a part of the happy living space that can be harmoniously shared with the owner.
There are 670,000 members in the Douban "Cat Lover Life" group. These people call themselves "cat slaves" and carefully prepare everything for their "masters" daily lives. Here, they share cat-raising tips and post adoption posts.
In this issue, the editor interviewed seven pet owners and talked to everyone about different concepts and interesting stories about pet raising.
PART 01 The enviable life of a dog
How much does it cost to raise a dog? You think it won't cost much if you just feed it some leftovers? You are wrong.
Li Feiyan (pseudonym) has a monthly salary of 7,000 yuan and has been raising a pet for three months. Her beloved dog "National Day" is her furry child.
When she first adopted Guoqing, Li Feiyan had a toothache. Should she buy Guoqing a 3,000 yuan bathing card or go to the hospital to see a doctor? Li Feiyan did not hesitate for too long. "No matter how hard it is, I can't let my child suffer." Li Feiyan felt that Guoqing needed to be taken care of like a child. She could bear the pain herself, but within her ability, she must give Guoqing the best.
Like Li Feiyan, Jinyu (pseudonym) is also devoted to his dog son, Maoqiu. As a qualified "father", he takes Maoqiu for a physical examination every two weeks, which costs more than 1,000 yuan. But for himself, Jinyu said: "I don't have the habit of regular physical examinations."
In order to provide "Maoqiu" with a better life, Goldfish sends his "son" to a pet shop for foster care when he is on a business trip.
For Goldfish, the encounter with "Fur Ball" is an important compulsory course in his life, and he is trying hard to play the role of "father" well.
When young people become obsessed with pets, they also pay a lot of attention to them.
The "2021 Young Pet Owners Survey" jointly launched by DT Finance and Weika shows that the top three things most people do for their pets are: playing with them on a daily basis, buying them various things, and learning about pet raising knowledge.
Looking at different age groups, those born after 1995 and 1990 are more enthusiastic about buying various things for their pets than other age groups.
Jingjing (pseudonym), a pet owner born in the 1990s, also believes that pets should be well-raised. Jingjing spends nearly 600 yuan a month on dog food for her beloved dog "Gege", nearly 400 yuan on canned food and snacks, 400 yuan on grooming, and about 100 yuan on toys such as dog sticks. Jingjing calculated that the basic monthly expenses for "Gege" are 1,500 yuan.
Since she went out to work during the day, Jingjing was worried that "Gege" would not eat or drink well at home, so she spent 500 yuan to buy an automatic feeding machine for "Gege" and another 300 yuan to buy an automatic water dispenser.
In order to make Gege sleep comfortably, Jingjing chose a dog bed for Gege that cost 2,499 yuan. In addition, Jingjing also bought Gege educational toys worth 2,000 yuan and an automatic poop scooper worth 500 yuan.
PART 02 Cats also go to "kindergarten"
Have you heard of "pet kindergarten"?
Pet kindergartens are an integrated place for pets to "care, learn, and live". Unlike pet stores, there are no cages in pet kindergartens. Pets have their own activity space and attend classes according to a fixed "schedule". They use the time they would have spent alone at home to learn skills, swim, exercise, or take psychology classes.
According to CCTV International Finance Channel: In 2019, a kindergarten specifically for pet dogs appeared in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, and was favored by many office workers.
This type of pet kindergarten, which was created to solve the problem of pets being left alone at home while their owners are at work during the day, has gradually developed in China in recent years.
Meng Riyue (pseudonym), a cat lover born after 1985, sent his cat masters "Fan Tuan" (Ragdoll cat) and "Jianhua" (Abyssinian cat) to the pet kindergarten in March 2023 when the school started. Meng Riyue also experienced the feeling of an old father sending his children to school.
On the first day when the school bus came to pick up the cats for school, "Fan Tuan" hid under the sofa and refused to come out, while "Jian Hua" jumped around on the cat climbing frame and almost bit the pet teacher. Seeing the cats' resistance, Meng Riyue couldn't help laughing.
The kindergarten informed Meng Riyue about the cats' daily lives in a booklet, and sent him videos every once in a while to let him know what the cats were doing in order to prevent him from worrying. Watching the videos of "Rice Ball" and "Jianhua" wearing school uniforms and attending behavior correction classes and fixed-point defecation classes, Meng Riyue said, "I finally understand how my mother felt when she sent me to school."
"Fantuan" and "Jianhua" adapted to kindergarten life in about a week, and from then on they would wait at the door every morning for the school bus to pick them up.
Meng Riyue’s friends all said he was crazy for sending his cat to a pet kindergarten that charges 5,000 yuan per month (the cost of one pet).
Meng Riyue explained that he did this for two reasons: first, cats need socialization, and he himself does not have the time or the knowledge to train them, so he can only entrust them to professionals for education and training. In addition, in the more than two months in kindergarten, "Fantuan" and "Jianhua" have indeed changed their bad habits of eating, biting and peeing everywhere; second, overtime work is the norm for him, and he goes out early and comes back late. He does not want to see cats alone in an empty room, and hopes to get along happily with cats of the same age.
In his opinion, the high tuition fees are nothing. He would rather spend a lot of money every day to make the cat live comfortably. This not only fulfills the cat, but also fulfills himself.
PART 03 Travel with your pet
I really envy those pet owners who travel around the country with their pets. If you meet such an owner, the dog’s and cat’s life couldn’t be more perfect!
Pet travel is a new development direction in the tourism industry in recent years. With the improvement of pet owners' economic strength and the importance they attach to their pets, the development potential of the pet travel market has increased dramatically. Taking pets on a trip has become the favorite travel method for more and more "poop shovelers".
As a senior pet lover, Da Mie (pseudonym) takes her beloved dog "Eleven" to travel around the country every year.
In August 2021, before departure, Da Mie saw the "Pet Siri Shipping Accident" on Douyin, so she changed her strategy and decisively gave up asking the transportation department to ship "Eleven". She bought a car and took "Eleven" to start a self-driving tour for one person and one dog.
Although spontaneous travel is full of surprises and challenges, once you choose to bring your pet along, you need to make a thorough plan. In order to ensure a smooth trip during the National Day holiday, Da Mie has done a lot of research online, including preparing pet daily necessities, food, and medicines, choosing hotels and restaurants that allow pets, and doing all kinds of homework... But every time I see my pet running happily during the National Day holiday, I feel that it's all worth it.
Talking about the first experience of traveling by car with her dog, Da Mie said: "This trip is very special and worthwhile." From Yunnan to the Wumeng Prairie in Guizhou, the journey is more than 500 kilometers. Despite the tips on how to prevent carsickness in dogs, Eleven still vomited several times on the road. What she didn't expect was that after arriving at the destination, Eleven changed his usual quiet appearance and ran happily on the grassland. When he saw the cows and sheep on the grassland, he would chase them. He looked so happy that he was like a child who had liberated his nature and couldn't stop at all. When he was tired of running, he would lie down at her feet and roll around, and take pictures with her. During the trip, she also met many dog lovers who played with Eleven and fed him dog food.
Da Mie said: "Eleven only has a little over a decade to live. I want to squeeze out some time to take it on a trip, so that it can see different scenery in its limited life and make its short life bloom brilliantly."
PART 04 The main theme is "pampering"
Are pets also covered by insurance? Yes!
Nowadays, more and more people are keeping pets, and the high medical expenses of pets have become a financial burden for pet owners. Therefore, since 2004, many pet insurance packages have appeared in the domestic market.
In 2023, Nanjing Morning Post reported based on data from a pet hospital that the average minimum amount of medical expenses for each pet was as high as 401.85 yuan. At present, the reimbursement rate of domestic pet insurance for pet diseases and accidental injuries is between 50% and 80%, which reduces the risk of insured pets facing accidents to a certain extent.
Xiao Fan's (pseudonym) decision to buy insurance for his beloved dog "Dora" is closely related to the high pet medical expenses.
In 2021, Dora developed a skin disease, and the hair on his back fell off in clumps, accompanied by redness and swelling. Xiao Fan sought medical treatment for Dora, and the high medical expenses, plus other auxiliary drugs and nutritional vitamin supplements, eventually cost more than 8,000 yuan to cure Dora's skin disease.
After this incident, Xiao Fan became particularly concerned about Dora's health and came up with the idea of buying insurance for Dora. After consulting and comparing online, Xiao Fan finally chose Dadi Property & Casualty Insurance for Dora, a pet medical insurance that costs 1,168 yuan per year.
Xiao Fan said: "Not to mention the high cost of illness, insurance can help balance the expenses. I just want my cute kids to have what I have."
If the purpose of buying pet insurance is to allow the pet to accompany you better, then how should you deal with it when the pet dies?
Xi'an's most powerful cat owner, Wuxianmi (pseudonym), chose to turn his hobby into a career.
Wuxianmi owns more than 200 cats. Having achieved financial freedom, he hired four cat managers to take care of the cats in turns. He feeds the cats 12 kilograms of cat food, an average of 3 bags a day, and spends nearly 70,000 yuan a month on the cats.
Why did you choose to raise cats as a career?
Wuxianmi recalled: "My first Ragdoll cat died in 2019. This incident touched me deeply. I heard that cats will be reincarnated after death, and my cat will come back to me again, so I bought 19 Ragdoll cats without realizing it."
These ragdoll cats continued to breed and add new members to this big family. Later, after some people learned about Wuxianmi's situation, they sent their cats to him for foster care, but some people never contacted him again after sending their cats to him for foster care.
Faced with these cats "abandoned" by their owners, Wuxianmi took the initiative to assume the responsibility of taking care of them.
As the Wuxianmi incident was exposed by the media, some people wanted to buy his cats, and some suggested that he open a cat cafe to reduce his burden, but he refused.
At present, the number of cats in Wuxianmi's home is still increasing because fans keep asking him to help adopt cats.
Contact ：Aine Fan
Shandong Lize Pet Products Co.,Ltd
TEL: +86 18553707508 WeChat: +86 18553707508 WhatsApp： +86 18553707508
Email:fanmingyue@lizechong.com ainefan@qq.com
ADD:Xiaomeng Town Industrial Park, Yanzhou District,Jining, Shandong