So many people attended Sweet Pea’s last birthday party that party guests scrambled to find a parking space. They packed into a Lisbon Street storefront to sing “Happy Birthday,” eat cake and drop off presents.

Colonel Bixby’s birthday parties are smaller, but with a colorful Mexican theme. Six to eight guests – mostly friends of Mom and Dad – lavish him with attention and toys while they enjoy margaritas, tacos and fajitas.

Duke’s birthdays are a little more low-key: just family. A homemade cake. Lots of gifts.

And the fact that Sweet Pea, Colonel Bixby and Duke are dogs? Not a problem.

“He has a birthday,” said Duke’s owner, Rachelle Cromwell. “He should be able to celebrate like humans.”

Once relegated to backyard doghouses and corner cages, pets are rapidly becoming full-fledged members of the family. For many, that means having their birthday commemorated, sometimes with festivities that rival those for a child.

“I think that’s just the way society is now,” said Erin Dunbar of Auburn, who celebrates the birthdays of her beloved Jack Russell terriers – Skipper and Bailey – by lighting a candle in a specially designed, store-bought dog treat. “You could never find a dog cookie with a candle 15 years ago.”

Skipper, 3, and Bailey, 2, also get a selection of gifts (wrapped or in gift bags). They don cone-shaped birthday hats. Dunbar turns down the lights and serenades them with “Happy Birthday.”

“I try to make my husband sing,” she said. “Usually it’s just me.”

Connie and Tom Robinson of Auburn take it one step further. Forget a dog treat with a candle in it for their 3-year-old basset hound, Freddy. They buy a Hannaford cake decorated with Freddy’s photo. They wrap his gifts in special basset hound paper found only at a pet store in Freeport. They take out an ad in the Sun Journal to wish him happy birthday.

“We go all out,” Connie said. “He’s my angel.”

Laurie Ouellette goes “all out” too, for Sweet Pea, her 4-year-old Chihuahua. The owner of Sweet Pea Designs, Ouellette hosts a business open house/doggie birthday party every year. Last year, the party featured a $300, three-tiered purple cake.

This year, so many people clamored to attend that parking spots disappeared outside the Lisbon Street shop. Party-goers presented Sweet Pea with birthday gifts. Some brought their own pooches to offer congratulations in person.

“She means so much to me. I did it (birthdays) big with my kids, but my kids aren’t into it anymore,” Ouellette said.

Tammy Hallinan’s two sons are too old for the fuss of parties, too. But her 3-year-old umbrella cockatoo, Mick, isn’t. He revels in the attention – and the steamed hot dogs and tissue-paper-wrapped toys – he gets each year on his birthday.

“I think he’s like a 2-year-old child. He doesn’t really know what’s going on, but he enjoys it,” said Hallinan, who lives in Boothbay Harbor.

Tim Hilden of Oxford is pretty sure his 3-year-old corgi, Bogey, knows it’s his birthday every year. He and his wife give Bogey a cup of doggie ice cream and a large rawhide bone.

“He gets a big one that night, so he knows it’s a special day,” Hilden said.

But what do pet owners’ friends and family think about celebrating pets’ birthdays? Hilden’s are used to the attention he and his wife lavish on Bogey.

“They realize he’s more than just a pet,” he said.

Karrie Watson’s friends, on the other hand, “think I’m crazy” for celebrating the birthdays of 7-year-old Brittany (a Brittany spaniel) and 2-year-old Duncan Oliver (a Shetland sheepdog).

But she doesn’t really care. It’s not going to stop her from hosting a small party with regular cake for the humans and a special dog cake and ice cream for the dogs. It’s not going to stop her from putting the pooches in party hats and giving them gift-wrapped squeaky toys and stuffed animals. It’s not going to stop her from snapping photos of the festivities and sliding them in the family albums among snapshots of her children’s birthdays.

“They’re not just dogs,” she said. “They’re part of the family.”

Have an idea for a pet feature? Contact Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or e-mail her at [email protected]