pet connection

You can have a beautiful home and pets, too. The New York Times said so — and they quoted Pet Connection BFF Kasie Maxwell to prove it.

Kasie’s the founder of SF Raw, the buyers’ group Gina and I belong to, which focuses on sustainably and locally-raised foods.

No, the Times isn’t writing about SF Raw. They’re writing about what they see as a growing trend for pet owners to decorate their homes to accommodate their pets’ beds, bowls and other accouterments.

(I had to qualify that “growing trend” with a “what they see as” because my cat enclosure was actually featured in a similar piece around 7 years ago, for USA Today.)

Regardless of who got the scoop, it’s an interesting piece, and they feature Kasie’s home both for the cool custom dog beds, shown above, and the agricultural tank they used to create a little piece of turtle paradise in their living room.

“When I tell people how many animals live in my tiny space, they always think they’re going to walk in and be overpowered,” said Kasie Maxwell, 39, who shares her 660-square-foot Bernal Heights home in San Francisco with her partner, Ron Love, 40, and a dog, a cat, three doves, three turtles and one goldfish.

A home with such a menagerie might be expected to look like a scaled-down Petco, but Ms. Maxwell, who owns an online holistic pet supply store, and Mr. Love, who works in finance, have managed to maintain their style.

“I hate how pet stuff looks,” Ms. Maxwell said. So instead of buying a pricey aquarium for their 40-something Reeves turtle, Martha Mayhem, she bought a 150-gallon galvanized-steel livestock tank. The makeshift pond serves as a home for the turtle and a room divider that separates the couple’s bedroom from the living room.

To make tank cleanups easy, Ms. Maxwell kept decoration to a minimum, with basic rocks, an ultraviolet lamp and simple plants.

Check out the whole article here.

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