Staycation At Cosmo Part I: The Pet Thing

It was Miles' birthday last week, so it seemed like just the right moment to check into the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and celebrate. And since the Cosmo is a pet-friendly resort, we decided to give it a whirl to see how exactly that works. The deal is you can bring dogs under 25 pounds and, while the policy is a maximum of two, we called and they let us bring all three. There's a $250 deposit per pet and you get $200 of it back regardless of your length of stay if nothing goes awry.

We'd never checked into a pet-friendly place before, and it was really kind of an interesting thing. When we arrived, the dogs were in their crates and were put on the luggage carts:


...although we could have walked them on their leashes in the public areas. We just weren't sure, so we played it safe. On the counter in our room was a whole spread of stuff...


...including treats, puppy pads, bowls and a small patch of astroturf for the outside terrace.

Unfortunately, our guys were a bit weirded out by the strangeness of the situation and just wouldn't make use of the pads or the turf. So instead, I walked them regularly in a fascinating outdoor pool area on the fourth floor.

It's this gigantic expanse of pools and cabanas with five tiers, many with turf on it. Here are some images:



The area was large enough to enjoy a decent walk with the dogs and it's open 24 hours a day. That, in and of itself, seems unique to me; most resorts shut down access to the pool area after a certain hour.

There were lovebirds all over this area enjoying the tremendous views at all hours...


...and even some taking swims in the middle of the night.


Traveling with pets is an interesting experience, but not one I'm keen to do again anytime soon. We were trying to relax but we felt guilty leaving the dogs crated in the room, we felt nervous when we were in the room that they might do something wrong if we didn't keep watch over them and I felt a bit freakish and pathetic walking around with three little animals when I needed to take them out.

The reaction of other visitors was mixed. Most people lit up at the sight of the dogs and several wanted to pet them; it was nice to have Aces, who likes anyone who likes her, because Black and Jack have always been defensive and noisy around strangers. In this setting and with their new little sister setting an example, they were very sweet to those who wished to pet them.

That said, we stayed on weeknights, so it seemed that many of the people at the Cosmo were conventioneers. Some found the idea of encountering animals delightful and told me all about their own pets. Others, I could tell, were in a business-like mode and found the presence of dogs a distraction from their conventioneering headspace.

I also had a particularly harrowing moment on the elevator. We were going down, the doors opened and Aces decided to saunter out just when the doors were about to close. I was able to yank her back in, but I had terrible images of the doors closing with her outside, the elevator starting to move and ... yikes.

The Cosmo staff couldn't have been more friendly and encouraging with the pets, but I do wish that they had provided us with some information as to where we were permitted to take the dogs. I've heard since that there's actually a dog-run of sorts in the back of the building near the Jockey Club connection.

So that's the pet report. More to come, but in the meantime, here's our guys and gal:

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