[CjChris]

We get to bring our kitties home out of quarantine Monday, and we are so excited!!!

We need to shop for them this weekend: dry cat food, clumping kitty litter, litter boxes, etc.

While the grocery stores carry much of this stuff, prices seem high and selection slim. (for example, I saw what I considered a tiny box of clumping litter at New World for over 11.00!!:eek: )

If anyone could suggest any good pet supply stores, I'd appreciate it!

:D

Christine

[sizzlingbadger]

How exciting, it'll be like getting the family back together again :D

Animates on Old Hutt Road, road that runs alongside the highway, is the only one I can think of, other than that the Warehouse do some pet things as well.

[Questor]

Yeah I'd say Animates in Kaiwharawhara, or the one in Lower Hutt is pretty good too

[CjChris]

Thanks!! I'm so excited about this shopping trip (it's almost as exciting as buying shoes!!:laugh )

I can't wait to get my boys here!! I've missed them so much....we've been luring the neighbor's cat over today just to get a quick fix..can't wait until Monday!! Yay! Charlie Parker is the one pictured as my avatar; Li'l Kitty Coltrane is his brother :D

[k-k]

Hi Christine,

If once the kitties arrive you are too busy playing games to go out and get their supplies why not try one of the pet food delivery companies eg, petfood2u or petpost. The first one is based in Wellington and I think they do free delivery within the Welly area. It's handy if you buy in bulk.

Happy kitty days
Karen and Archie then mischievous kitten

[Nathan]

We got the stuff at Animates. Nice staff there and it's a convenient location for us. They have a sale going on litter, so we'll stock up if it's good. Thanks.

[victoria]

Animates! We actually drive especially to shop for our boy. You get reward points too & all sorts of sale offers. Lovely staff & an excellent selection of stock. Ooh give the babies an extra back tickle from me.

[Carol]

I find Animates extraordinarily expensive for everything!

There are loads of pet places in Welly - Johnsonville Porirua etc.

[CjChris]

Animates seemed cheaper to us than the local supermarket or the Warehouse on the items we needed (which both only had 2-3 brands of food and litter to select from).

Sadly, of the places I've looked so far (about five), I find that pet supplies overall are outrageously expensive in NZ compared to the US (but I'm not surprised, I guess). We usually feed our kitties Iams dry food, and we had not seen it anywhere until we went to Animates--and a medium bag is 47.00! We would have paid about 9-11.00 for that in the US. :(

They also had Science Diet and ProPlan, which we had not seen anywhere else, but those were in the 60.00 range for a medium bag (and would have cost about 12-15.00 for that size bag in the US).

As for litter, we had only seen one brand of clumping litter in the supermarket, and it was a tiny little box for 11.00. At Animates, they had at least three brands, but a large bag runs average 43.00 :eek: thankfully, they had some medium bags of one brand on sale for 15.00 each (normally 23.00).

Water dishes and self feeders were 20.00-50.00 (luckily we already had those). Litter boxes (the covered kind) were 100.00 each....!!! And they are just made of cheap plastic :eek: :eek:

So, while we were thrilled to find lots of selection there, I do think the prices are high...but frankly, most everything we've shopped for has seemed high to us (and we did know this would be the case coming over).

It doesn't make it any easier to swallow, though.

I figure everyone goes through the trial and error phase of paying too much because they didn't know any better...until I know better, I'm glad that I found Animates because we really needed to get our supplies before Monday (kinda sneaked up on us).

Carol, if you recall the names of any of the better-priced places, please let me know. I've been on the lookout but haven't seen anything (I'm sure I just don't know where to look yet).

Thanks to you all for your suggestions and the well-wishes for getting our kitties home. I'm sooooooooo excited! I know it may seem silly to some, but they really are a part of the family!

Cheers,
Christine

[zardell]

We couldn't bring our dog and I still could cry an ocean over her if I allowed myself to...

Yes, they are part of the family and soon you'll all be back together - however much it costs !!

I can sense happy days ahead for you all.

Julie

xx

[CjChris]

We couldn't bring our dog and I still could cry an ocean over her if I allowed myself to...

Yes, they are part of the family and soon you'll all be back together - however much it costs !!

I can sense happy days ahead for you all.

Julie

xx

Oh, so sorry, Julie. If we had not been able to bring our kitties, I would be crying a river, too. It has been hard having brought them, though, knowing they were scared and unsure of what was happening at the airport, not getting to see them for several days after they arrived and were in quarantine (our fault, because we weren't driving on the left yet), then seeing them in quarantine and having to leave them.....so hard on all of us! :(

But tomorrow they'll be with us again, and I'll love 'em up good to make all the scary stuff up to them!

It has cost a small fortune, and we decided a long time ago that this would be one large expense we had to allow for (many personal reasons that I won't get into here).

I was thinking about my post about Animates and I hope it didn't seem that I was being too harshly critical of them...mainly because we were super thankful to find all the things we needed (we really wanted to keep the same brand cat food they are used to eating rather than subject them to the trauma of totally new food and new house!!).

And it was quite fun going to Animates because there were lots of little doggies in there (on leashes) with their owners, and we saw some cutie-patootie puppies up for adoption. Always fun to oooh and ahhh the puppies! :laugh

[zardell]

I was thinking about my post about Animates and I hope it didn't seem that I was being too harshly critical of them...



Not at all.

You're quite right in the respect that when you first arrive here the cost of some things is absolutely extortionate when compared to the price that you are used to paying 'back home'.

Maybe initially a bit more shocking to you in the respect that you are used to paying in US$'s and until you've done the actual conversion to NZ$', seeing something priced at $100 when you are used to paying say $40 would psychologically seem expensive....does that make sense ?...:confused:

I was used to paying in £'s, so when I did the conversion from NZ$'s back to £'s sometimes I got a nice surprise (but not often...:laugh )

Julie

xx

[Balkan]

Hi Zardell

I am sorry you could not bring your dog with you as pets are so very much part of the family. Can I ask why you couldn't bring it with you. Was it due to quarantine problems.
The reason I ask is that we have 2 dogs and 2 cats we would want to bring with us. I know this will be difficult as we will be bringing them directly from Bulgaria, but is there anything in particular I need to worry about?

[victoria]

I was thinking about your post CJ & wondered how the reunion & settlement went. Was it all violins & slow motion or did they do the cat thing & completely ignore you? You know , where they'll sit in front with their back to you pretending you're not there.