How Important is Your Pet to You?

A Harris poll taken in 2011 found that 90 percent of pet owners think of their dogs and cats as members of the family.¹ For many of us, our pets provide a distinct type of “love” that we can’t find elsewhere. What pet owner hasn’t had the experience of coming home from a difficult day out in the world to be greeted by their pet(s) as it they are the center of their pet’s world? In fact, forty percent of married female dog owners, according to a survey by the American animal Hospital Association, believe they get more emotional support from their pet than from their own human families.

I know that virtually all my clients feel like their pets are members of the family. Just as not all families look alike, so too, our relationships with our pets differ. For some of my clients, their immediate family is made up of themselves and their pet. Their pets are their companions. Other families are made up of couples with no children. For many of these couples their pets are their children. Still, other families consist of spouses, and children, and pets. All my clients want what is best for their pets.

I was very impressed to learn one of my clients is even teaching a class at a local university about animals and religions. Click on the link below to hear SoundCloud podcasts produced by Dr. Molly Bassett’s students.

https://soundcloud.com/user-315792529

What is your relationship with your pet(s)? Whatever it is, I hope that I can be a part of that close and special relationship.