I’ve been working on quite a few kitchens lately, which is most probably why it feels as though I’ve spent the last couple weeks tripping over dog bowls.

It isn’t that I’m particularly clumsy (although, come to think of it, I do bump into walls, knock my hands into walls, and say “ow” on not a small number of occasions, but that has much more to do with moving around very quickly than it does being clumsy). But you know how it goes, when one is carrying a box taller than one can see over, and the next thing one knows one has kicked the stainless steel out of an unsuspecting water dish, which careens across the floor, sloshing puddles of pet water all over everywhere.

One usually finds it rawther challenging in such moments to bow to a sense of professionalism, and thereby swallow the “shit” that threatens at any moment–sock to sog especially- to spurt forth.

Now listen, I want the blessed creatures to nourish their furry bodies as much as the humane society, I’d just prefer if their feeding didn’t practically ask me to fall over all myself, okay?

Which is why, dear crew, today’s ideal room feature is, in fact, so ideal that I find it quite difficult not to go out and get myself a canine, the custom cabinetry installed, just so that I could gush over the genius of it in person.

The pull-out pet food drawer.

(!)

The people who think of these things- don’t you feel it’s only appropriate for us to send them a fan letter?

The drawer comes out at feeding time, the feast commences; the meal is completed, the drawer is closed. It’s close to magic if you ask me.

A second option, for good measure, is the pet bowl alcove.

For the dog who is more of a grazer than a feaster, and therefore requires more consistent access to its dining room, the pet bowl alcove is still amicably out of way of under-feet.

Let’s hear it for the dogs-