Pet Chair

A collapsible pet chair for dogs and cats which is comfortable, sturdy, easy to use and attractive in appearance. This pet chair includes a four-cornered chair cover having attachment pockets at the four corners thereof. It also includes a metal rod support frame having upwardly extending support members for engaging the attachment pockets and downwardly extending leg members for engaging a support surface such as the floor. The support frame is provided with pivotal joints for enabling the support frame to be placed in a collapsed condition for transportation or storage.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1 , there is shown a representative embodiment of a pet chair constructed in accordance with the present invention. This pet chair 10 includes a four-cornered chair cover 11 and a support frame 12 for suspending the chair cover 11 in an elevated position. A cat 13 is shown laying in the pet chair 10 . A plaything 14 is suspended over the chair cover 11 by a bent rod 15 which is clamped to an upper portion of the support frame 12 . FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. 1 , but with the cat removed. FIG. 2 shows the location of a removable cushion 16 in the cradle formed by the chair cover 11 . FIG. 3 shows a plan view of the underside of the four-cornered chair cover 11 . As there seen, chair cover 11 has attachment pockets 17 - 20 individually located at different ones of the four corners thereof. The open sides of these pockets face toward the center of chair cover 11 . FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of the removable cushion 16 of FIG. 2 . FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of the support frame 12 of FIG. 1 with the chair cover 11 removed. The various parts of support frame 12 are made of interconnected shaped steel rods. Twelve pivotal joints 21 - 28 and 30 - 33 are provided to interconnect the different segments of the support frame 12 . These pivotal joints enable support frame 12 to be placed in a collapsed condition for facilitating transportation and storage of the pet chair 10 . This collapsed condition is shown in FIG. 6 . A top view of the support frame 12 of FIG. 5 is shown in FIG. 11 . FIG. 11 is useful for keeping track of the different parts of the support frame 12 . With reference to FIGS. 5 and 11 , the support frame 12 includes a first pair of wing members 35 and 36 which extend upwardly at divergent angles to engage attachment pockets 18 and 20 on a first set of opposite corners of the chair cover 11 . A perspective view of this pair of wing members 35 and 36 is shown in FIG. 9 . FIG. 10 shows an end view of the FIG. 9 structure and clearly shows the divergent angles at which wing members 35 and 36 extend. It is also noted that wing member 36 is somewhat shorter in length than wing member 35 . Wing member 35 includes segments 40 and 41 interconnected at their upper ends by pivotal connector 21 . Wing member 36 includes segments 42 and 43 interconnected at their top ends by pivotal connector 22 . As seen in FIG. 9 , pivotal connectors 23 and 24 are located at the lower ends of wing members 35 and 36 for connecting the lower ends of these opposing wing members 35 and 36 to one another. The support frame 12 further includes a second pair of wing members 37 and 38 oriented at ninety degrees relative to the first pair 35 and 36 and nested in the first pair 35 and 36 . This second pair extends upwardly at divergent angles to engage attachment pockets 17 and 19 on a second set of opposite corners of the chair cover 11 . Wing member 38 is somewhat shorter than wing member 37 . Wing member 37 includes segments 44 and 45 interconnected at their upper ends by pivotal connector 25 . Wing member 38 includes segments 46 and 47 interconnected at their upper ends by pivotal connector 26 . The lower ends of wing members 37 and 38 are connected to one another by pivotal connectors 27 and 28 . As seen in FIG. 5 , each of the wing members 35 - 38 is in the shape of an arch. An inter-wing pivotal connector is located at each point where a wing member from the first pair 35 and 36 contacts a wing member from the second pair 37 and 38 . There are four such points, as represented by the locations of inter-wing connectors 30 - 33 . Considering, for example, the case of inter-wing connector 32 , it serves to pivotally clamp segment 42 of wing member 36 to segment 47 of wing member 38 . The enlarged view of FIG. 8 shows in greater detail the construction of one of the inter-wing pivotal connectors 30 - 33 , namely, the connector 32 which attaches wing segment 42 to wing segment 47 . Connector 32 has a small plate member 50 welded to the side of wing segment 47 . A second small plate member 51 is welded to the side of the other wing segment 42 so as to extend along side the first plate member 50 . Both of plates 50 and 51 have bolt holes which are in alignment with one another. A bolt 52 is inserted through these holes and is bolted in place on the far side of plate 50 . Flanges 53 and 54 on plates 50 and 51 , respectively, extend outward a short distance and function as stops to limit the maximum divergence of their respective wing segments 47 and 42 by engaging the side of the other wing segment. These stops prevent undue stress on the chair cover 11 . The other inter-wing connectors 30 , 31 and 33 are of this same construction. The enlarged view of FIG. 7 shows in greater detail the construction of one of the pivotal connectors 21 - 28 which interconnect the ends of adjoining wing segments. Using connector 28 as an example, the adjoining ends of wing segments 45 and 47 are cut to provide overlapping tabs 55 and 56 . A connecting bolt 57 is passed through aligned center holes in tabs 55 and 56 and bolted in place on the far side of tab 56 . The other pivotal connectors 21 - 27 are of this same construction. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the support frame 12 of FIG. 5 in a collapsed condition. When collapsed, support frame 12 provides a compact bundle which facilitates transportation or storage of the pet chair 10 . The various pivotal connectors 21 - 28 and 30 - 33 enable the frame members to be brought together to provide a compact bundle. While there has been described what is at present considered to be a preferred embodiment of this invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the invention and it is, therefore, intended to cover all such changes and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention.