"Puppy" Love?!?

A home without a cat—and a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered cat—may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?

-Mark Twain

If one puts any stock in Twain’s words, then beyond a doubt, I hold the title on a perfect home. For not only is Mindy, the cat, well fed, petted and properly revered, so is her housemate, the guinea pig, S’Mores.

As long as I can remember, I have always had a love and fascination for all animals, but I harbor a special soft spot for those considered to be domestic pets.

Current statistics prove I am not unique in my devotion to Mindy and S’Mores. There are at least sixty-eight million pet dogs and seventy-three million pet cats in the United States alone. Moreover, as owners, we are not shy about displaying affection to our furry, feathered and finned friends. More than forty-six million Americans admit to buying a holiday gift for a pet; fifty-eight percent celebrate their pet’s birthday in some way. Even in these tight economic times, people are willing to open up their purses and wallets for the benefit of their pets. From stays at luxurious kennels to packages of premium pet food, spending on household pets hovers at around thirty billion dollars a year.

Several dollars from my own pocket have found their way into that staggering total. I confess I regularly cater to the whims of my two: from the guinea pig who has a taste for fresh parsley to the cat who has at least a half-dozen toy mice, which somehow have all ended up wedged underneath the couch and quickly forgotten, it seems their every desire is met.

Like people, our pets each possess their own unique personality, and mine are no exception. Mindy is a shelter rescue who was unceremoniously dumped off by her previous owners. At the start of our relationship, she was angry, distrustful of humans, and in desperate need of someone to love and care for her. Now happily a part of the family for almost six years, she is like most cats: independent, self-important, and (to put it nicely) quirky. S’Mores is a retired classroom pet, as different in temperament from Mindy as night is to day. She is a “people pig:” charming, outgoing and the life of the party.