Yuma, Arizona (NAPSI) - More than 90 percent of pet owners consider their pet a family member, and most of them worry about leaving their pets home alone.
Studies by the American Animal Hospital Association and DogVacay.com found that 75 percent of pet parents feel guilty about leaving pets home alone while at work and 72 percent worry about their pets when traveling without them.
Fortunately, technology can help pet owners care for their furry friends. For instance, the home control market is growing rapidly, giving pet lovers a variety of ways to remotely manage their homes and their pet’s well-being, from anywhere at any time. Driven by innovation, increasing affordability and consumer demand, home automation services such as XFINITY Home®—Comcast’s security, control and energy management service—deliver a peace-of-mind solution to pet parents.
Initially used by animal boarding and day care facilities, streaming live video is now becoming more popular among pet owners who want to keep an eye on their animals while away from home. For instance, with XFINITY Home, you can access cameras from your computer, tablet or smartphone to see what your new puppy is up to or if your cat has enough food in the dish. Other ways home automation services and technologies can help pet parents provide the best possible care for their four-legged friends include:
Keep Your Pets Cared For
Pet parents who are XFINITY Home customers can get text or e-mail alerts when doors at home open and close. This way, you can confirm that the pet sitter is on time and stays for the expected length of time. You can also remotely disarm your door for the dog walker and set the system to record and send you a video clip of the person opening the door.
Keep Your Pets Safe
Hundreds of thousands of pets go missing every year, and according to the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy, only 15 to 20 percent of lost dogs and only 2 percent of lost cats are returned to their owners. You can pair your pet with a GPS tracking device, such as Tagg—The Pet Tracker, which has wireless capability for pet owners to know where their animals are at all times.
Keep Your Pets Comfortable
Experiencing an unexpected cold front? Leaving work later than expected? Home automation services like XFINITY Home let you adjust the thermostat and turn lights on or off remotely or by automated schedules.
You don’t have to worry about finding someone to change your cat’s litter box or to feed your dog when you’re away. Automatic self-cleaning litter boxes such as Litter-Robot and LitterMaid minimize cleanup time and frequency, while remote pet feeders such as PetSafe’s 5-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder can dispense up to five meals at times you set.
Keep Your Pets Entertained
From automatic tennis ball cannons to interactive laser toys, motion control toys can provide hours of fun for your pets while you’re away. A growing number of mobile apps for cats, including Friskies’ Happy Wings and JitterBug, can also provide interactive fun for felines.
For more information on XFINITY Home, you can visit www.comcast.com/XFINITYHome.
