Gourmet pet food - it's a dog's life!

It just doesn't get any better for dogs. Not only do their loving owners dress them in designer outfits and pay heavily to make them work out on the treadmill, they also buy them gourmet food now, writes Vijay Dutt.

Dogs of the world were possibly blessed most when the new millennium dawned. These days their loving masters and mistresses dress them in designer outfits, and pay heavily to make them work out on the treadmill. They accompany the masters on holidays and get luxury accommodation.

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Hopefully people would stop smirking about the Nawab of Junagadh who reportedly spent a fortune at the wedding of his pet dog. He should be remembered as a pioneer for creating celebrity status for dogs. So should the singer in Mumbai whose pets were reportedly driven in an air-conditioned Mercs on Marine Drive.

While pet pampering may once have been seen as a sign of a lonely life, it is now increasingly linked with celebrity culture, says a report in the Independent. The hotel heiress Paris Hilton dresses her chihuahua in Chanel, the former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell buys her shih-tzu diamond collars and even Kimberly Quinn, famous after reports of her affair with Home Secretary David Blunkett, sent her Dandie Dinmont to a counsellor in an attempt to curb its hatred of her lover's guide dog. A wag said she should have, instead opted for counselling.

The report is that sales of top-of-the-range dog food have increased by 61 per cent in the past two years. "And now a gourmet food range originally launched for cash-rich, time-poor humans is being extended to the canine market." The shelves for pet food, packed in attractive cans, are now very prominent at all major superstore retail points.