New York has no shortage of trust fund babies. Now, some city residents are also leaving five- and six-figure bequests to their pets.

Sizeable pet trusts ensure that pooches like Freebo and Bumper won’t be pound-bound should anything happen to their guardians, Richard and Patti Brotman. According to a 2003 trust agreement, the dogs and their six feline roommates stand to inherit a cool $200,000 collectively should their owners die.

“We thought it was important to plan ahead for an unfortunate eventuality,” Mr. Brotman, 51, a filmmaker who lives about a half-block from ground zero with his wife and their pets, said. “We saw what happened right across the street.”

In a two-page legal document, the couple specifies a caretaker for their animals, as well as a trustee to dole out money for food, grooming, toys, medical bills, and other pet-care expenses. The Brotmans are among the growing number of New Yorkers making formal contingency plans for their pets, according to several area lawyers specializing in trusts and estates.

In New York State, pet trusts are legally binding documents that, unlike wills that name pets as beneficiaries, can be enforced in the courts, the Brotmans’ attorney, Frances Carlisle, a longtime pet trust advocate, said.

Ms. Carlisle, who has four cats and two horses of her own, estimates that about one-third of her practice is devoted to estate planning for animals. Most of her clients have two or more pets, she said, and trust funds average between $50,000 and $100,000. Also specified in these trusts are the people or organizations that would receive any funds remaining after the pet or pets die, Ms. Carlisle said.

“If you’re not an animal lover, you might say, ‘Oh my God. Why are people worrying about their pets as if they were children?'” she said. “What they don’t understand is that, for many animal lovers, their pets are their children.” Ms. Carlisle will be a panelist during a session on pet trusts this summer at the annual American Bar Association conference in Honolulu, Hawaii.

New York and New Jersey are about 30 states with pet trust statutes, with many enacted in recent years, an attorney specializing in pet trusts, Rachel Hirschfeld, said. Pet trusts can cost more than $1,500 to draw up, she said, though many lawyers offer sliding-scale discounts or draw up agreements pro bono for those unable to pay the fee.

Ms. Hirschfeld, who has several New York-area offices, said pet trusts should provide the most specific pet-care directives possible. She compared the instructions to those a parent might leave with an infant’s babysitter. “Your pet can’t speak,” Ms. Hirschfeld, who has a dog and a cat, said. “She can’t say, ‘I love my little kennel because that’s where I feel safe’ or ‘I love other dogs, but I’m scared of Chihuahuas.’ You have to be her voice.”

Ms. Hirschfeld, whose basic pet trust agreement runs 19 pages, said the terms of the documents vary dramatically. “Some people leave no money,” she said. “They just want to make sure that Fluffy and Puffy are cared for by their friend, Joan. Some leave $600 a year, and others leave $600 a month.”

One of her clients recently earmarked $500,000 for a pet trust, Mrs. Hirschfeld said.

Some owners want to ensure that, even after they die, their pets can maintain a life of luxury. “There are some dogs who are accustomed to living in a very fancy townhouse, or traveling to the vet in a limousine,” she said.

Ms. Hirschfeld recently established a more modest pet trust – worth about $20,000 – for another client, Helen Beichel, a 45-year-old, Brooklyn-based financial planner. Ms. Beichel, who is single, feared that her cats, Priscilla and Red, would be euthanized in her absence. “If I die, I don’t want them to die, too,” she said.

She established a trust stipulating that, in the event of her death, custody of the cats would be awarded to a friend in Boston, and that a portion of her life insurance payout would go toward taking care of the cats. Ms. Beichel appointed a trustee to administer the fund. Any money that remained after the cats’ deaths would be split between the guardian and the trustee.

Such facilities generally require one-time, non-tax-deductible donations, ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 a pet, with some institutions offering discounts for multiple animals.

For a flat fee of $15,000, cats and dogs age 8 or older can live out their days in dormitory-style accommodations at the Bide-A-Wee Golden Years Retirement Home in Westhampton, N.Y. The 9-year-old facility has indoor playrooms, outside exercise areas, and on-site veterinary care for 35 furry residents predeceased by their owners.

Each year, more states are adding pet trust laws to their books, a Michigan State University law professor who edits a Web site about animal law, David Favre, said. “More and more people are approaching their probate attorneys to say, ‘I want to take care of my animal when I die,'” he said. “There’s no way to say how many of these trusts have been written, but my sense is that it is happening with increased regularity.” Pet trusts are rarely contested, Mr. Favre said.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which will host an estate-planning seminar at New York’s Yale Club on May 25, does not keep statistics about how many animals annually are euthanized when their owners die. For those unwilling or unable to leave large sums for animal care, trusts can grant custody of pets whose owners die before them to dog and cat retirement communities.

In a city where many pampered pooches go to day camps, get massages, wear designer accessories, and have themed birthday parties in Central Park, the trust fund trend is the next logical step. “These days dogs are being treated more and more like people,” an Upper West Side dog owner, Jay Turkkan, said. Ms. Turkkan, 56, said she did not have a pet trust.

Other dog owners, however, think the trend is one dog biscuit too many. Molly McEneny, whose dog, Seamus, was a refugee from Hurricane Katrina, said she had no plans to establish a pet trust. “People get very attached to their pets, and I understand they want to take care of them, but I have two kids I’ve got to worry about,” Ms. McEneny said as she watched Seamus frolic with other canines in the Riverside Park dog run.

While playing fetch at the dog run with her dog, Elvis, Sali Rakower, a lawyer from Hoboken, N.J., scoffed at the idea of hefty pet trusts. “I understand leaving some money to a relative for your pet’s food and shelter, but leaving any significant amount of money so that a dog can sit on a velvet bed all day – that’s ridiculous,” Ms. Rakower, 33, said. “There’s so much suffering in the world, and I find it disturbing that someone would donate that kind of money to a dog, as opposed to, say, hungry people.”