I think it's a great idea for someone with pets! Here's some I saw today at the flooring store here in Milwaukee and loved. Very realistic looking and loved the warmth and color variation. Sandal Wood in "Coconut".

We live in the Deep South and it's not in a room that we use often. By cheap, I mean, lowest grade, thinnest crap that he could find on a job site. This house was put together on a wing and a prayer using anything the subcontractor owner could barter or find. My laundry room had three different mismatched tiles in it and a scrap of carpet to cover the rest. We've replaced every light fixture, floor, appliance, window...pretty much jacked the old house up and ran a new one under it. This is the only room remaining that hasn't had the flooring redone.

For your situation and this room, the wood-look tile is a great option. I would go with it.

Since you have pets, be sure to use an epoxy or urethane grout with the tile for low maintenance and easy clean up (if there's any more accidents)

http://www.ergontile.it/en/collections/woodtalk/ The engineered tile wood look is great and you can also put a warmup ( http://www.warmup.com) Flooring heating system in to help with the cold floors. Good luck :)

I bought this tile for my living/dining room floor. We have two little kids and I don't want to deal with scratched-up wood floor :). It's very realistic looking, and it comes in different finishes too. It's MSI redwood mahogany 6x24 porcelain tile.

You could also look into the Vinyl Plank Flooring. Home Depot has a brand called Allure made by Trafficmaster. We just put it in our basement. Waterproof and it snaps together.