Share My Pet visits Wellington on a pet sharing mission.

Pet friendly Wellington

Dave and I are the founders of Share My Pet. Last Wednesday we embarked on an adventure to New Zealand’s capital city. Dave and I were on a mission to explore how pet-friendly our capital is and promote pet-friendly Wellington. We had a packed four-day agenda full of meetings, explorations and some delightful discoveries. Our plans included meeting up with some great pet-friendly organisations and establishments in the Windy Wellington. We arranged a first pet sharing date at a great inner-city restaurant on Oriental Parade called Beach Babylon.

Day One, Massey University

• 

• 

Upon our arrival, we headed straight off to Massey University where we met up with Laura McDonald, editor of the student magazine, “Massive”. Here we encountered our first trip highlight in the form of black fur-beauty, Pocket. She has been the office cat at the university for the past five years. However no-one knows where she goes at night when the offices shut. But every morning she is waiting by the front door, ready to claim her bean bag, have a snack and bring joy to those on campus. She is one cool cat and super smart, too! She is currently on a bit of a diet; the crafty kitty is getting a bit rotund after getting snacks from different offices at different times. As said, she’ s a smart kitty!

We had a great chat with Laura and Share My Pet will feature in Massive magazine in a few months time. We are really thrilled to be reaching out to students throughout NZ. Pet sharing offers the potential for students to de-stress, get some fresh air and to get some wholesome companionship with a new fur friend. As such, Share My Pet is a perfect solution if you are studying away from home and miss your own pets.

Day two, Distribution

Today we drove around most suburbs within Wellington visiting Vet clinics and pet stores delivering our rack cards and flyers. Welcomed warmly with interest we had a really positive response from everyone we met. A special thank you to;

Central Vet Hospital

Aro Cafe: a lovely spot to re-tank with a drink or a snack, four-legged friends welcome.

Karori Vet Clinic

Oties and Louie: an amazing dog grooming salon and daycare for dogs. https://www.otisandlouie.com/

Raw Essentials Pet food

CareVets Johnsonville

The Pet Centre, Lowerhutt

HUHA Vets clinic

PetVet Lower Hutt

Smack Bang: an inner-city store for super cool pet and animal-lover related items. Incredibly chic, I wanted to buy everything!

In the afternoon, we met up with Richelle and Ken who own Neko Ngeru Cat Adoption Cafe. Located in Petone just outside of Wellington, this cafe is every cat lover’s dream.

For further reading, check out my blog on the cat cafe: www.sharemypet.co.nz/blog/

Day three, exploring Wellington

Today, the rain and wind really came in with force. Windy Wellington on steroids! We parked the car and travelled on foot around Wellington CBD distributing flyers and business cards to dog-friendly cafes, bars and restaurants. We were blown sideways, but not just by the wind – WOW!!! As a result of finding so many great places to go with your four-legged friends, we are tempted to come back soon with our pups! We were especially delighted by the following places:

Rouge and Vagabond: hip, doggie-friendly bar in the CBD.

Golding’s Free Dive bar: also with a dog-friendly outdoor area.

Spruce Goose: best fish ‘n’ chips we have possibly ever had! This beach front restaurant is very popular with dog walkers, surfers and the general public and I can totally see why. Fantastic location, service and food!!

Beach Babylon

Not only do these bars, cafes and restaurants welcome dogs with open doors, they provide fresh drinking bowls and safe places for our four legged friends to chill out. Most importantly several establishments are also part of events such as Bark ‘n’ Brews which help fund-raise money for animal welfare groups. We would totally frequent these great hangouts if we lived locally with our dogs!

Wet and cold, halfway through the day Dave and I needed a nice cosy place to warm up. Ahhhh bliss – Martha’s Pantry, a perfect cafe to don a fancy hat, sip on a hot cup of tea and eat some cake.

First Doggie Date Night

Friday evening had something special in store for four Wellington residents and one very cute dog. The most wonderful and very well known cafe/restaurant, Beach Babylon on Oriental Parade, allowed us to host a doggie first date. We set up a date with one dog owner, Ellie, and her lovely little border terrier pup, Pascal – as well as three local people keen to see what Share My Pet was all about and how it could benefit their lives.

Christine and her son, Tom, live in Wellington and currently do not own their own pets. But both would love to be a part of a pet’s life. They were therefore super excited when they heard about us a while ago and jumped at the opportunity to meet one of our Sharers and her pet.

Mary recently moved to Wellington from Canberra and is now living and working in the city with her partner. However Mary misses her horses, dogs and other pets back in Australia. She is thrilled to now have the opportunity to join Share My Pet and start spending time in the company of animals.

It was a great meet up with these four strangers and have a chat about Share My Pet. We talked about pet sharing over a pot of cheese fondue and a local photographer joined us to cover the story. The write up in the Dominion Post can be seen here: Click here.

Day four, almost home time

The sun came out briefly today and shone upon us as we drove to Upper Hutt. We had high tea with the cutest kittens you can imagine at Kitten Inn. With every fur colour on display, the kittens were a sight to behold. They played, explored and caused sweet havoc around our feet. It was a purrfect way to start the day and end our trip.

We had a lovely long chat with Susan the owner of Kitten Inn. She has been running Kitten Inn for over 20 years and is incredibly passionate about cats. Her mission in life is to help reduce the number of stray and feral cats in NZ. She spends every penny she has on desexing, treating, looking after and nurturing the many cats that come her way. Kitten Inn is a sanctuary that takes on abandoned kittens. Cared for and socialised by Susan and her team of volunteers, once they are in top health the kittens are ready to be adopted by the public. Susan works with a big team of other caring members of the public that help to foster the kittens and mother cats.

Homeward bound

Dave and I had a great time exploring Wellington and can happily say it is a city with considerable options for pet owners to bring along their four-legged friends. We feel like we barely scratched the surface of all the wonderful beaches, walks, and parks around the capital. No doubt there are many more wonderful establishments that open their doors to our canine friends. If you know of any others, we would love to hear about them! Please send us some details at help@sharemypet.co.nz