Thursday, January 23, 2014

PetBox and The Crew - sponsored post


On New Years Eve, @Blogpaws and @PetBox had a twitter party and gave away a LOT of PetBoxes. There were a significantly more dog boxes given away vs cat boxes, so I attempted to win a dog box just looking to win something, figuring I might be able to either find something that would work for me, or I could find something that work for one of my bipetual friends, or I could do a give away, or I could donate it to my local shelter.. Well as my luck goes, I won, and I won a dog box.

A few days later I was asked to submit my information, and I explained my situation in form, and I was contacted and told that they would be sending me a cat box instead - YAY!!

A few days after that I was contacted by Lilli Lovberg at PetBox asking me if I might like a free box to review. Having seven cats, and gobs of fosters, I agreed. Two boxes would be better than one. This review is because of Lilli. I was under no obligation to review the box I won.

A few days later a box showed up at my door right as I was leaving for work. I put it on the counter and left for work. It wasn't in the house but two minutes when this happened.


She was CONSTANTLY on this box. I mean if I could see this box, it looked exactly like this. Two days later another box showed up moments before I headed out to work. I put it next to the first box, and said to Fleurp "now you have two so you can choose".. to which she responded..


and once again she was constantly on them. She was a bit obsessed, so I figured I'd wait her out... eventually she'd be somewhere else.. well the other day when I was getting ready to go to work I saw this..


OK fine, I got the hint.. I'd break into the boxes and see what we received.

One nice thing about PetBox is that you can get to pick what is in the boxes or you can choose to have them send you items they picked. I was not given an option, I simply got a box so I had no idea what was in them which made it kind of fun.


At this point I wanted to open the second box to see if I got the same thing in both (I did but the brand of catnip was different. It was Sojo's in the first and Kong in the second) I tried to make nice with Fleurp.. but as you can see above and which I did not really see when I took the photo, she looked like she was totally not willing to make nice with me or surrender the box. Well it wasn't just looks. She actually nipped at me when I tried to remove her from it!! She was going to protect that box as it was very much hers!! (I did kick her off and I peeked in the box and then closed it back up for her. I normally don't put up with such insolence, and I should have taken both boxes and removed them from the room, but darn it if it wasn't just a little bit cute)

So I went back to investigating the items we got. The treats were off limits because of Jack.. Catnip is catnip, and we have a catnip nanner and that is loved, so that was a nice treat. I figured the rattan balls were going to be completely ignored. I had no idea how they would react to the SuperCat catnip caves, and I had always been quite curious about the cat shaped rubber brush from Kong so I tried it out on Muffin - who I almost never get hair off of when I brush her, but she's been having hairballs lately. The first few strokes produced nothing, the next few gave me a nice bit of hair.. I intend to keep that by my bedside as she seemed to really like it when I used it and every piece of fur I get off her is one more she doesn't have to try to digest.


So yes, I was totally wrong about those rattan balls.. :) It is nice to be pleasantly surprised. The "cat cave" is about the same size as a regular grocery bag, but a regular bag is about half an inch to an inch wide and no handles to worry about.

Boiled down.. the good, the products were all well received. The box is ADORED.. I don't think I've had a box in this house they've so overly loved like this. It is well packed, and there is one small piece of tape (huge bonus points from me for ease of opening, and not wrapping the whole darn thing up with tape - I really hate excessive tape) They also do regular donations to help feed rescue animals, which is always nice.

The not so good.. well I'm not a fan of the website. You can not see the products they are offering until you sign up with them and give them your email address. I know a lot of websites work like this, and I don't like them all... it is a personal thing. I would like to know what is being offered before I give up personal information. Since they already had it I signed up and surfed through the products to see. Another issue I had with the website is their really really large header/banner. It is really nice looking, but it takes up the entire screen and it is the same banner on each page so when you click on a link the page does change but you can not tell because as I said, that banner takes up the entire page. It makes sense on the 'landing page' as well as the sign up page, after that they really should either make it much smaller or eliminate it all together so you do not have to scroll past it each time.

For you bipetual people, they offer both cat boxes and dog boxes, but at this point in time they do not offer a cat/dog box. This means you can either pick cat items or you can pick dog items, but not both. While there is some cross over items in the list of cat vs dog (I know, I pretended I had a dog to look at them) but not much. Yup, pretty small petty negatives.. but I do like to include them so you get a full picture of my experience with a product.

They wanted me to include their blurb about their product..


PetBox is more than just a monthly delivery service that introduces its members to fun and healthy new pet products every month. Instead, they have decided to go the extra mile and personalize each member's monthly subscription by providing a better user experience that allows members to pack their own PetBox each month with products and supplies that actually make the most sense for their furry friends. The PetBox pet experts scour the planet looking for only the best products to offer its members. You won't find thousands of products to choose from, rather only products that make your furry friend's life more healthy and enjoyable.

Now, the cost.. If you want just one box to try it out it is $39.99 (shipping included) The more you are willing to commit to the lower the price drops. Lilli did offer my readers a 20% discount if you use the code "KITTYBLOG20" You get six "credits" per box, and most items are worth one credit so you can get six of those in your box, but some are two or more. But you do get to choose. (or not if you want a surprise they'll surprise you). The products change every couple of months, so you should be able to find things to choose from that aren't the same things you just got if you decide to sign up for a monthly subscription.

All and all six paws up and a big thumbs up from me.  Tweedle declined to participate, because well frankly she isn't a joiner.. and new things just kind of really bug her, so I never push trial things on her..


13 comments:

  1. We'd love to try these boxes but the green papers are a little tight with Mom Paula's surgery. They look great.

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  2. Aw, love the pics of Fleurp on the boxes, how cute! Well it looks like it was a hit with your gang and looks like some high quality, good fun stuff! Enjoy kitties!

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  3. We really enjoyed our PetBox! My human still has the box, but she is holding out on us! BTW, my human thinks you had some really good constructive criticism about the website.

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  4. The Petboxes look fantastic, with more appealing contents then their predecessors in the marketplace. We hope to get a chance to try them out in the future, but we are really enjoying everybody's reviews right now and getting peeks at the sorts of things they offer!

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  5. Anonymous8:42 AM

    Looks like you got some great stuff!

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  6. Fleurp you are such a funny girl. I loved the photo of her on both boxes. I've heard of "bark boxes" for dogs and it's nice to know they offer cat ones too.

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  7. Wow, that's a lot of good cat stuff! Fleurp is so cute with the box. I love the pic of the three of them staring you down. Awesome review!

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  8. oh my....wonder what those boxes are made of to get that kind of attention - and to think Fleurp broke out the troops to get you to open the box. :)

    We have some of those ratan balls and love them. We have seen those bags now a couple of times on different blogs and gotta get mom on that one.....

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  9. It looks like there's some really good stuff in those PetBoxes. And the box itself may be worth the green papers!

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  10. We loved our PetBox too and yes, the actual box is very, very special!

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  11. Your reviews are always so thorough and thoughtful! Thanks! We loved how the kitties gravitated to the boxes, We hope you kept them for the kitties to enjoy. (Our first Chewy box will be 2!)

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  12. Lilli was sooo very nice when we corresponded with her! Those PetBoxes look FABulous!!

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  13. Fleurp certainly did give you the stink-eye. The desire for the kitties to have you open those boxes is a recommendation in itself. We have seen those boxes on several other blogs, but our mom says keeping us in food and litter costs enough without adding this to our monthly tab. And she says we have plenty of food and catnip. We do think they look quite nice, however. Great photos, by the way! Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Misty May, Mauricio, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

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