We never wanted a cat.
Fargo just showed up one day and wouldn’t leave. We posted signs around the neighborhood, called friends and family to find her a home, but as days turned into weeks it became clear that the skinny black stray had adopted us.
During the course of the next six months, Fargo introduced us first-time pet owners to a number of things: unconditional love, yes, but also fleas, hairballs, and—gasp!—more than $2,000 in vet bills.
My wife and I were complete newbies when it came to the increasingly pricey world of pet ownership. We had a 2-year-old daughter—and another child on the way—but we quickly learned it was far easier to spend more money on a sick cat than a healthy child.
Pet owners forked over about $11 billion on vet bills last year, a figure that’s increasing by about 9 percent a year, or three times the rate of inflation. All told, Americans spent about $43.4 billion on their pets in 2008 (triple the sum expended 15 years ago), on everything from kitty litter for their calico to $2,000 Burberry jackets for their beagle. Even in this economic downtown, the pet business has proven to be recession proof, as spending on pets is expected to actually increase in 2009.
Our parents’ generation—and their pets—would likely be stunned at the products and services we’ve written about in this issue of CL, our first devoted to the pet world. Pet psychics, beer for dogs, kitty acupuncture, doggie orthopedics, holistic medicine, organic cat treats, pet resorts with spas offering blueberry facials. (Can you imagine Grandpa ordering up a blueberry facial for his Chesapeake Bay retriever?) The trend here, of course, is that pets are now offered the same luxuries as their human masters, er, parents. Heck, we even give pets human names these days. As writer
Mary Zajac points out in “Tony, Come Home!” page 44, almost half of American pets sport names like Max, Elliot, or Ashley.
So what’s this phenomenon all about?
“The way we treat our pets has always reflected the changes in the way humans live,” says Michael Schaffer, author of One Nation Under Dog: Adventures in the New World of Prozac-Popping Puppies, Dog-Park Politics, and Organic Pet Food. “In the last couple generations, there have been some pretty dramatic social changes that at first blush would seem to have nothing to do with pets.” He cites, among other factors, the rise of two-career couples, suburbanization, increases in divorce, growth in the number of empty nesters, and our new focus on nutrition. Plus, he continues, “with more fractured human social networks, we rely on pets for a bigger emotional role in our lives—we’ve promoted them, in essence, to full-fledged family members.”
No, we don’t allow Fargo to sit with us at the dinner table (yet), but I must admit that after a year with our accident-prone cat, we’ve grown quite fond of her. She’s extremely affectionate, plays fetch like a dog, and the kids love her. So why not spoil her once in a while? Besides, I just noticed something online called “kitty caviar.” At beverlyhillscaviar.com, it’s only $40 for a 4-ounce jar ...
Until next issue,
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