Abstract:
A pet housing/carrier including a base having a floor with a rim mounted thereon and projecting around the periphery thereof, a collapsible canopy defining a crown for mounting on the rim and detachably attached thereto, the crown constructed of multiple triangular panels rising upwardly from the rim and turning radially inwardly, and being constructed to be self-supporting.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority from China Patent Application No. 201520862638.6, filed Nov. 2, 2015, incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to small houses for housing small or mid-size pets. 
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
       [0003]    Numerous different styles of pet carriers and houses have been proposed, including rigid helmet shaped housings. Many such devices provide an integral housing which renders the interior difficult to access for the purpose of cleaning and sanitizing. Some such devices are of rigid construction, making shipment and storage somewhat of a challenge. 
         [0004]    Numerous different pet houses and carriers have been proposed of a shape to simulate sports caps and headgear. Examples are in U.S. Patent Nos. D706,491 to Bratton, D616,159 and D608057 to Zagar. Bratton has also proposed a sports cap shaped pet house/carrier as shown in U.S. Pat. No. D706,492. While such devices may prove useful for camouflaging a pet house they do not provide a convenient and practical collapsible house or carrier which would be convenient to fold into a compact package for shipping and storage or transport to a vacation home or the like and which would provide for quick and convenient erection for use at a new location. 
         [0005]    Many pet owners prefer to keep their pets in their own living quarters in close contact for companionship and monitoring. It is desirable to have a pet housing where the pet might retreat to a comfortable and familiar zone for rest and sleeping quarters. It is desirable to have the pet housing of a style and configuration which is attractive for the family members and house guests alike. 
         [0006]    Many pet owners have affiliations and loyalty with various athletic teams in sports such as baseball, soccer, football and basketball. These teams often have mascots, logos and colors which are incorporated into novelties such as caps and the like, identifying the colors, logo and style of the team of interest. There thus exists a need for a pet house structure which is convenient and attractive for displaying in the resident&#39;s living quarters, and which might exhibit a configuration and décor identifiable with the owner&#39;s favorite athletic team. It is this need to which the present invention is directed. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    A housing device including a base formed with a rounded floor and a forwardly projecting planar visor. A rim of a predetermined configuration is mounted on the floor and is formed with a perimeter having an outwardly facing surface. A pad is received within the rim and first attachment element mounted on the exterior of the rim. A collapsible, spherically-shaped crown wall is constructed to define a living space and terminates in a lower extremity to fit over the rim and is formed with an inwardly facing second attachment element to releasably attach to the first attachment element. The wall is constructed of triangular-shaped panels having opposite edges tapering upwardly and inwardly and abutted together along their adjacent edges for being connected together along such edges to form flexible joints with one or more of the panels being cut away in the lower portion to form a doorway for ingress and egress. 
         [0008]    The features and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description which should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  is a top plan view of a pet housing apparatus embodying the present invention; 
           [0010]      FIG. 2A  is an elevational view, in enlarged scale, showing a crown wall incorporated in the invention shown in  FIG. 1 , disassembled and being folded on itself; 
           [0011]      FIG. 2B  is a view similar to  FIG. 2A  but with the crown wall in the fully folded position. 
           [0012]      FIG. 3  is an exploded perspective view, in a reduced scale, of the housing apparatus shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0013]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view in enlarged scale of a compression fitting incorporated in the housing apparatus shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0014]      FIG. 5  is a left side view of the pet house apparatus shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0015]      FIG. 6  is a back view in enlarged scale of the pet house shown in  FIG. 1 ; and 
           [0016]      FIG. 7  is a perspective view of a cushioning pad included in the house apparatus shown in  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0017]    Referring  FIGS. 1 and 3 , the pet housing apparatus of the present invention includes, generally, a base  15 , formed with a circular floor  17  and forwardly projecting planar visor  19 . A circular band defines a rim, generally designated  21 , surrounding the floor  17 . A pad device  39  is received within the rim  21  to rest on the floor  17 . A crown housing  26  is formed by a plurality of triangular shaped panels  27  to cooperate in forming a living space over the pad device  23 . In a preferred embodiment, the panels  27  are constructed of a coarse, self, supporting cloth material and connected along their edges to form flexible joints and cooperating to closely simulate the appearance of a conventional design of an oversized baseball cap. A pair of panels at the rear are cut away in the lower portion to form a pet doorway  20  ( FIG. 6 ). 
         [0018]    In one preferred embodiment, the triangular panels  27  are constructed of coarse cloth material to cooperate in simulating the configuration of an oversized baseball cap. Baseball caps, sometimes called snap-back caps, are often worn as a fashion item and frequently are adorned with the trade dress and logos of one&#39;s favorite sports team. Such caps typically incorporate a bill or visor at the front to shade the wearer&#39;s eyes. 
         [0019]    It is known that cloth is typically either woven or knitted and can be made of a large variety of fibers, which in turn can be natural, cellulose or synthetic. The main difference between types of cloth include how the cloth is made, i.e., woven, knitted, felted, how these techniques were implemented, what fiber it was made from, and what weight the cloth is. Different types of cloth used for different types of clothing include fabric made of cotton, flax, wool, ramie, silk, denim, leather, down (for down-filled parkas) and fur. Some clothing is made of synthetic fibers, which are primarily from petrochemicals. Common man-made materials include nylon, polymers, including naturally occurring chemicals and synthetics, and Spandex (elastane). For the purposes of this application, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art that the cloth material for the triangular panels may include any of the foregoing cloth materials or others that will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art, it only being important that it have sufficient body in this construction to, in the deployed configuration, remain erect over the floor to cooperate in forming a pet living space. 
         [0020]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 3 , it will be appreciated that the floor  17  may be constructed of rigid or slightly flexible pad material and the rim  15  constructed of, for instance, a combination of hard plastic band having an outwardly facing pile material  31  around the major circumference thereof, and possibly a smooth plastic section  33  at the back thereof to define the lower perimeter of the doorway  20 . Referring to  FIG. 6 , the lower extremities of the panels  27  defining the doorway are releasably fastened to the rim by respective snap fasteners  30  and may be released to from opposite door flaps. The edges of the two panels and the panels themselves may be trimmed by binding for an attractive finish. 
         [0021]    In a preferred embodiment, the visor  19  is planar and of semi-rigid construction to lay flat on the underlying support surface projecting forwardly to define a lever arm to stabilize the apparatus from tipping forward with the base. 
         [0022]    The panels  27  may be constructed of a coarse cloth or woven fiber, preferably having sufficient body to be self-supporting in the overall construction. The edges of the panels may be turned inwardly toward the living space and the abutted edges sewn along the respective seams  37  with stitching to form flexible joints so that for the contracted position they may be folded to the flattened configuration shown in  FIG. 2B . 
         [0023]    Referring to  FIG. 7 , the pad device  39  in some embodiments is formed with a circular foam disk  23  having a thickness of quarter to one-half inch. A flat cylindrical envelope  38  may envelope the disk  23 . The top wall  26  of the envelope may be permeable and the bottom well  28  impermeable. The envelope may be formed with an opening to be closed by a zipper fastener  42 . 
         [0024]    The panels  27  rise upwardly and curve inwardly to cooperate in forming an overall spherical shape simulating the crown of, for instance, a baseball cap, and terminate in respective top apexes  43  joining together at a joint. At the joint, the apexes are cut away to form a through vertical bore. A compression fitting, generally designated  45 , is received within the bore. The compression fitting  45  includes a female nut  49  on the interior of the crown. The nut  49  is formed with an internally threaded, upwardly opening bore  51 . A male connector, generally designated  53 , is formed with a downwardly projecting, externally threaded shaft  55  received in the bore  51 . The male connector  53  is formed with a circular head  57  for cooperating as the shaft  55  is threaded into the bore  51  to compress the material at the respective panel apexes to cooperate in maintaining the overall structure. In practice, the head  57  is covered with a colored fabric matching the color of the panels  27 , as for instance a royal blue color, to simulate the conventional button on top of a baseball cap. 
         [0025]    To facilitate collapse of the housing, the panels forming the opposite sides of the doorway  20  are left unconnected along the abutting edges above the doorway to leave free edges  70  and  71 . Hook and pile fastening tapes  72  and  73  are sewn to such edges for selectively fastening such edges together when the crown in fully erected. 
         [0026]    The interior of the panels  27  are lined with a felt liner, which extends down to the lower extremities  61  forming the bottom perimeter of the housing to releasably connect with the pile material  31  on the exterior surface of the rim  21 . 
         [0027]    Thus, in operation, the base  15 , with or without the pad device  23 , may be packaged and shipped to the customer with such crown housing  26  in the collapsed folded position shown in  FIG. 2B . 
         [0028]    The user may then conveniently assemble the housing apparatus by placing the pad device within the rim  21 . The crown housing  26  may then be unfolded by deploying the panels  27  to form the dome shape depicted in  FIG. 1 . The lower extremity of such crown housing may then be fitted over the exterior surface of the rim  21  with the felt liner adhered to the pile material  31  and fasteners  30  snappped to releasably attach it in place, closing the forward portion of the housing apparatus and leaving the rearwardly facing doorway  20  open for ingress and egress of the pet. To shore up the self-supporting of the crown housing, the fasters  72  and  73  ( FIG. 3 ) may be closed on one another and the compression fitting  45 . The pet can rest comfortably on the pad device and should it bump the wall of the housing  26  the visor  9  will provide support against tipping over. The pet may then enter the living space defined by the crown hosing  26  and to lie on the pad device  23  in a comfortable position. 
         [0029]    For access to the interior, the pet owner may conveniently unfasten the fastener strips  72  and  73  and unsnap the ring fasteners  30  to access the interior for cleaning and the like or for collapse of the crown. 
         [0030]    As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the house/carrier of the present invention is particularly convenient for use with mid-size and larger animals where the house would have considerable bulk and size, rendering shipping and storage relatively expensive and inconvenient. With the device of the present invention, the crown of the house may be easily detached from the base and folded into a compact package per  FIGS. 2A and 2B  for convenient shipping and storage. The device can be readily erected at a new location without any significant consumption of time or requirement of mechanical skills. 
         [0031]    The invention may be embodied in other forms without departure from the spirit and essential characteristics thereof. The embodiments described therefore are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. Although the present invention has been described in terms of certain preferred embodiments, other embodiments that are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art are also within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is intended to be defined only by reference to the appended claims.