You already know you can have movies delivered to your front door. Jumping on the Netflix bandwagon, companies such as Bag, Borrow or Steal now offer rentals of designer bags. You can rent video games. You can rent books. You can even rent jewelry. But did you know you can rent dogs? Here in our city? What’s next, rent-a-baby?
FlexPets is a company with locations in Los Angeles, New York City and London. The concept is that they fulfill a need, providing dogs for people with busy schedules that do not have the time to be full-time dog owners. The dogs are fully trained and are each equipped with what my husband calls “doggy low-jack”, a GPS tracking collar. You can either stop by to pick up your rented pooch or have him delivered to your door. Once you purchase the membership, it is valid in any of FlexPets’ locations. You could have a dog in every city, you poochie-player, you. Seriously, you could have bitches in different area codes. Okay, that wasn’t funny but I couldn’t resist.
Membership is $99.95 with added fees such as a “Daily Doggy Time” charge. There’s also an in-home orientation with a trainer where they make sure you’re not a freak like my downstairs neighbor. That costs $150.00.
So, I understand what the humans are getting out of this. The customers are either busy, finicky or lazy but they really like dogs. Or maybe they’re Paris Hilton? Okay, I get that, I do. But, what does the poor dog get out of it? Constantly being shuttled about from one stranger’s home to the next? It sounds mean to me. When my dog was adopted from the pound, it took him months to get comfortable around us and to come out of his shell. Now he’s happy and well-adjusted. He’s a good boy. He knows he’s loved. Do these dogs ever get that chance? Do they ever get to know what it’s like to be part of a family? I don’t know. I know, who am I to judge? I’m just a dog lover that thinks this concept is sad.
So I have a suggestion to the people keeping this place in business: make a commitment and adopt a dog! The adoption fee is less than the monthly fee for this place.  If you truly love dogs, you can find time in your schedule for them. But, if you’re still intent on getting your rent-a-dog, here’s the info:
- info@flexpets.com
- 888-211-7830
If you want to adopt a dog, check out an animal shelter in your area and save a life!
Subscribe to our RSS Feed And checkout our coffee competition to win a $30 gift voucher to your favourite coffee shop : click here
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
2 responses so far ↓
1 Trill42 // Jul 5, 2008 at 5:08 pm
If people can’t make the commitment of adopting a dog, or are unsure about it, it’s better that they don’t adopt. Instead of paying to spend time with dogs, after a bit of training people can volunteer at an animal shelter - walking and caring for dogs who are waiting to be adopted, instead of walking and caring for dogs who already have homes.
2 solegnave // Jul 6, 2008 at 11:05 am
This is one of the funniest articles I have seen. Your wit was perfect!
Leave a Comment