Pet Quenchers ® Water with your pet in mind!

Paw Prints Editorial by Stu Tarlowe

PET QUENCHERS

By Stu Tarlowe

Every bag of dog or cat food ever sold bears the instruction: “Keep fresh water available at all times”.
Our pets give us so much, and ask for so little in return, you’d think that making sure they have fresh, clean water to drink would be a simple enough task.
But, for one reason or another, we sometimes make our pets go without fresh water for longer than they’d like.
If you travel with your pet, or even if your pet accompanies you on your various errands around town, you can’t always count on finding sources of water. Just as many of us humans have taken to carrying drinking water with us, it can help to carry water for our pets.
It’s often not enough to just carry water, you have to have a way for the dog to get a drink. Some dogs have learned to drink from a stream of water from a water fountain, hose, or water bottle, but generally as much water gets wasted as gets used.
Over the years, and through several successive dogs, I’ve tried various methods of carrying and providing water. One that I still use is a plastic G.I. canteen, in a canvas case with shoulder strap; the case has room for a small folding pet bowl, so the canteen can be used for my own water and the dog’s. Before I started carrying the folding pet bowl, I’d often use my hat for a field-expedient doggie watering bowl, in emulation of a cowboy using his ten-gallon hat to give his horse a drink.
Just as an aside, though, the term “ten-gallon hat” has nothing to do with its liquid capacity, not even as an exaggeration. Obviously, a hat that actually held 10 gallons would be enormous!
Rather, the term likely derives from a corruption of the Spanish word “galón”, which was a thin braid worn by Mexican vaqueros as a hatband (By the way, it’s from a corruption of vaquero that we get the term “buckaroo”). It’s said that the more experienced and “seasoned” the vaquero, the more galónes on his hat, giving rise to the expression “a ten galón hat, which then became a “ten-gallon hat”!
Now along comes a new product called Pet Quenchers®, which consists of 14.5 oz. of purified and filtered water (it meets the EPA’s “A” standard for human consumption) in its own sealed little clear plastic tub (the plastic is also human food-grade, and is recyclable). The tub makes a convenient drinking bowl, and has a lid like the one on a cottage cheese container, so if your pet doesn’t drink all its water at once, it doesn’t have to go to waste.
Because the containers are sealed until their initial use, they can be stored indefinitely in a car trunk or emergency kit, as well as just tossed into a purse or knapsack. I kept a number of ‘em in odd positions, even upside down, for long periods, just to see if they’d leak; as far as I could tell, they don’t. I already have a few stashed away for emergencies.
I even tried freezing them, although I doubt the manufacturer recommends this. The containers are not filled to the brim, so there is room for the expansion caused by freezing. I found that freezing stressed, but did not break, the seal. So, if you’re taking Pet Quenchers® on an outing and want your pet to have cold water, go ahead and freeze ‘em, but at your own risk.
Even at home, it couldn’t hurt to have some Pet Quenchers® tucked away. You never know when the regular water supply might be interrupted or otherwise compromised.
“Deployment” of Pet Quenchers® couldn’t be simpler. You remove the plastic lid, peel off the clear plastic seal, and set the bowl down where your pet can have a drink. If there’s water left, put the lid back on (it’s pretty leak-proof also, as long as it doesn’t become dislodged) and offer your pet another drink later.
Obviously, this is a convenience item that some will see as analogous to bottled water for people; whatever you may think of that idea, it’s certainly become a billion-dollar business! I certainly wish the Pet Quenchers® people (Allen Ranch Products, of Knob Noster, MO) the same degree of success!
My dog seems to enjoy drinking from the little Pet Quenchers® bowl at least as much as he enjoys drinking from my hat!

I think I’d like to do a TV commercial for Pet Quenchers®. First, I’d be shown filling my hat with water and letting my dog drink from it. Next, I’d be shown opening up a Pet Quenchers® and giving my dog a drink; the camera would pan from the dog’s smiling face to mine, and I’d say, “With Pet Quenchers®, you can give your best friend a refreshing drink of pure water any time, any place. AND you can leave your hat on!” Naturally, the soundtrack would be either Randy Newman (who wrote it) or Joe Cocker singing “You Can Leave Your Hat On”!

Stu Tarlowe, 60, lives in the Kansas City area with a dog and two cats. He writes on a variety of topics.

Pet Quenchers

Paw Prints Editorial by Stu Tarlowe

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