Friends, the time has come. The terrible reign of hideous, useless, and straight-up terrible pet-related gifts must end! Only together can we defeat the kitten sweatshirts, the cutesy needlepointed Scottie-dog pillows, the gingham food-bowl mats, the cheap-looking mousepads and the non-hilarious novelty lawn ornaments in the shape of pet poo. We have pets; we also have taste! (Usually! And even if we don't, please stop giving us mousepads!)
Maybe you collect Scottie-dog-iana; no judgments. Have fun with it. But Shine Pets has had it with the horrendous Swarovski pawprint earrings, so we've put together a list of gifts we'd like to get, and give. Buy them for your pet-adjacent friends; recommend them to Hanukkah Harry and Kwanzaa Ken; and for the love of little apples, step away from the handcrafted ceramic "jokes" about cat hair.
Today's gift spotlight is on a handful of science-y or tech-y gifts we like. First up: the Canine Genealogy Kit (SkyMall, $59.95). The results take a few weeks to arrive, but if you've ever wondered exactly what your mutt is made of, this kit can help you find out. And if you want to mount the results in your foyer, a quick DNA swab can be turned into wall art by the folks at DNA11; you can even memorialize past pets ($199 and up).
On the tech tip, get your dog into social media with the Puppy Tweets gadget. Attach it to your hound's collar, then sign in to your Twitter account to see if (and/or what) he's barking when you're not around (Discovery Store, $29.95; comes in pink or blue). It probably gets boring after a few days, but we'd be riveted.
Last but not least, Cooper -- the orange tabby who's taken hundreds of photographs of Seattle using a lightweight automated digital camera strapped to his collar -- has a book out that features his best snaps, Cat Cam: The World of Cooper, the Photographer Cat ($14.06 at Amazon).
For more gift ideas -- good AND bad -- follow Shine Pets on Twitter! And make sure to vent about awful pet gifts you and your dogs, cats, and fish have received in our comments section.
