Brett Calloway
Writing at Smart Paw Picks
About
I'm 36, a freelance product designer in suburban Denver. My apartment has two cats and a dedicated corner for failed pet tech gear: Hopper, a 9-year-old tabby who runs a tight feeding schedule and holds me personally responsible for maintaining it, and Beans, a 4-year-old ragdoll mix who will enthusiastically interact with any object I bring home and has been burned by most of them.
Client meetings run long in my line of work. A Tuesday that starts at 9 AM often ends past 9 PM with no real gap to check on a food bowl. That made automatic feeders load-bearing infrastructure by 2022. Late 2023 was the failure cluster: three feeders, one month, three different failure modes. One jammed on the portion wheel. One dropped a scheduled meal when the app pushed an update at 2 PM on a day I was in back-to-back calls. One stopped pairing after a firmware push and the support response was a link to a FAQ page. Hopper's reaction to the third one is the reason this site exists.
I started keeping a failure log in a spreadsheet. That became detailed notes. The notes became drafts. Here we are.
No vet credentials, no behaviorist certificate, no retail background. I test gear the way a shift worker tests: leave the apartment for 10-12 hours and see what broke by the time I get back.
Articles by Brett Calloway
- The Night My Pet Camera Went Dark: Why I Finally Swapped to Pro-Grade Gear
- The Late-Night Deadline Test: Why One Smart Feeder Finally Stopped My Cats' Mealtime Standoff
- Best Stainless Steel Cat Water Fountain for Small Apartment Kitchens
- Best Automatic Wet Cat Feeder With Ice Packs for Work Days
- How to Use an Automatic Cat Feeder With Camera to Check on Pets
- Setting Up an Automatic Feeder for Two Cats With a Divider
- Best Automatic Slow Feeder for Cats That Eat Too Fast
- How to Stop Your Cat From Breaking Into an Automatic Cat Feeder
- Stress-Testing the Petkit: My 12-Hour Shift Survival Guide for Hopper and Beans
Disclosure
Some links here are affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you click through and buy, at no extra cost to you. Gear gets bought out of pocket first, tested for weeks, then either stays or goes back. If a brand drops its affiliate program, the recommendation stays if Hopper and Beans approved.