The Federkevic-Kolbe family at our cottage in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada. From left to right: Slavo, Markus, Steven & Karen. Summer 2009; about 6 months before Kritter Klock™ was patented.

Kritter Klock™, the world’s first pet timer, was invented by our family to help monitor our tabby cat Tammy, especially during the freezing winters and scorching summers of our home in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  She came to us as an outdoor stray via our local Humane Society and already used to going outside. When we tried putting her on a tether, she nearly strangled herself so we needed something to help us monitor her and not keep her out too long.  We were definitely not perfect pet owners but we were “pursuing pet owner perfection”!

Tammy or Tammy-X as our boys call her; the inspiration for inventing Kritter Klock™.

We started with a door hanger with cartoon pictures on both sides, and text indicating that the cat was in or out.   We found that we were still apt to forget about our cat if the hanger was out of sight – that’s when we added a countdown timer and realized that we had a unique and important product – the world’s first pet timer!

Now, our goal is to make our Kritter Klock™ pet timer available to all pet owners who, like us, are “pursuing pet owner purfection”, are concerned about pet safety and want to be more responsible when letting their pets outside or monitoring their pet’s routines.