Kathie Lee has never thrown a birthday party for any of her pets, and she can’t imagine attending one for someone else’s, either.
“Having it yourself, I get it. Oh gosh, I get it, but going to one?” she said, incredulous at the idea.
Apparently, she’s in the minority.
A new report from Couponcabin.com found that one in five adults have held or attended a birthday party for a pet. After learning that statistic, the ladies put the call out online for photographs of birthday parties TODAY viewers have thrown for pets. The response was overwhelming.
“Everybody’s doing it. It’s crazy!” Hoda said. “”We got inundated with pictures.”
Sara Burton sent in a picture of her and the dog-friendly birthday cake she created for her pooch, Charlie.
Wendy Spaulding sent in a picture of the well-attended party she threw for Dexter.
And then there’s Baldton. Michaele White sent in a photo of poor pooch looking a tad humiliated by the colorful leis around his neck and the colorful birthday hat with paper candles on his head.
While KLG thought birthday parties were strange, she understood why people would go through the trouble: “They’re family members."
Hoda said she used to think it was odd when people placed framed pictures of pets on their mantle. No longer. Now she's a believer, and a picture of Blake sits proudly on her mantle along with her other loved ones.
“Now I know. There it is, sitting there in front of my whole family,” she said. “I thought, how funny how quickly you can become one of them.”