Neater Feeder – For Dogs and Cats

Ah! It is impossible to keep my floors clean! Sure, I have a child. Yes, we did just get a dog. What drives me nuts are the paw shaped mud smears leading through kitchen and through the living room. Well, we lave laminate floors so I can’t really see those dirty prints but I can feel them… I know they’re there… Where do all these little tracks originate? They all start near my puppy’s water bowl!

Speckles, my puppy, is a drink slob. She slurps all over with the majority landing everywhere but in her mouth. While I was watching her drink the other day, it reminded me of when you have overspray on your car. You know, that effect when you tap the lever to spray the cleaning fluid on your windshield but it’s not adjusted right so it ends up flying over your roof onto the windshield of the car behind you? Yeah, that. Speckles will scoop up the water in her tongue but before reeling it into her mouth, 75% of it makes a graceful exit on surrounding items and leaves a trail of water on her nose.

When my puppy would drink from her ever-so-cute water bowl, there would be a massive puddle around the area. Her fur would collect in nasty little clumps and if she had just a speck of dirt on her paws. The trail of mud and stepping on wet patches with new socks was not the worse though. I tried to wipe down her area daily but typically left the mat in place, only washing that once a week. Look what I found the last time I picked it up. MOLD!

Okay, enough was enough. This was not going to work for us. I contacted Neater Feeder in hopes that their product could save my floors and my sanity. I order the Cranberry Neater Feeder in medium size with 4-cup stainless steel bowls and anxiously awaited it’s arrival. I had a hard time choosing the size but I was afraid the large would be too tall for her.

As soon as we received the packaged, I immediately opened it. Pieces came out and assembly commenced. There’s really not much to assemble though. I decided to attach the optional height extensions that were included and move the rubber feet from the base onto the extensions. The only thing left was to place the top piece on the base. Voila!

I love how the functional the Neat Feeder is. The unit is self-contained so any place you decide to put it will fit well. It’s also surprisingly light and easy bring elsewhere if you feel like all having a backyard picnic. The mat and separate bowls were a pain to move and clean but this takes two seconds to scoot over or put in another room when mopping. Look how seamless those leg attachments are! It’s not the prettiest thing on the planet but it does look pretty neat.

Back to the water-slurping-drooling issue. It works! After one week, look how much water was collected in the basin:

1-1/3 cup! That’s what was normally spewing across my kitchen floor every single week! The premise is so simple yet effective. Have high sides that catch any splashing, have everything drip through the opening in the front into the lower basin, empty. It’s sturdy and easy to clean. In case you are wondering, the holes in the top portion are just the right size so none of the puppy kibble falls into the basin and get mushy. Plus, with the bowls being raised up, Speckles is no longer bending over strangely while eating her meals.

Here you can see her messiness in action:

So the Neater Feeder has found a permanent spot in my home. As we need to fill it so often I will probably order the ‘large’ size in a few months as Speckles gets larger and spills, I mean, drinks more.