Patent ID: 7918186

Claim:
A watering device for simultaneously hydrating an animal and growing plants, the device comprising: a plurality of seeds at least some of which collectively provide an average seed thickness; a container having an open upper end portion, which defines an opening in the container, a bottom wall, and one or more curved sidewalls that extend outwardly from the bottom wall and terminate at the open upper end portion to define a container interior; a basket having (i) opposing first and second sidewalls defining a basket interior and (ii) one or more basket apertures penetrating the basket in open fluid communication with the basket interior; a majority of a bottom portion of the basket being open between the opposing first and second sidewalls of the basket; the basket bottom portion including a support bar that extends between the opposing first and second sidewalls of the basket; the basket being secured to the container and at least partially disposed within the container interior; the basket occupying a minority of the container interior to define an open, animal hydrating portion of the open upper end portion of the container; the opposing first and second sidewalls of the basket having curved shapes that approximate the shape of at least a portion of the one or more curved sidewalls of the container, whereby the first sidewall of the basket fits closely adjacent at least a portion of the one or more curved sidewalls of the container and the opposing, second sidewall of the basket curves in the same direction as the first sidewall of the basket; whereby intrusion into the animal hydrating portion of the upper end portion of the container is minimized; the animal hydrating portion being sized to permit access to the container interior by the animal; and a seed-holding unit, having (i) a top wall spaced from a bottom wall by one or more side-walls to define an open seed-holding unit interior in the seed holding unit, the top wall being secured with at least one of the one or more sidewalls, and (ii) a plurality of seed-holding unit apertures penetrating the top wall in open fluid communication with the seed-holding unit interior and having a width less than the average seed thickness; the seed-holding unit being at least partially disposed within the basket interior and the container interior; the seed-holding unit being removably attachable to the support bar via a mechanical engagement between the support bar and the seed-holding unit; the plurality of seeds being disposed within the seed-holding unit interior.