Can you Love a Pet too much?

By Dr. Marty Becker

January 5, 2010

I travel all over the country talking about what I call "The Bond," that amazing connection between human and animal that every person reading this understands.

But not everyone gets it. Way too many folks ask why we spend the money we spend on our pets' food or toys, considering their needs when buying a car, or making arrangements for them when we're on vacation or sick. Or why I sleep on six inches of mattress, and my wife Teresa on another six, and the dogs get the rest of the bed.

It's not because we are "spoiling" our pets. It's because a pet is what I like to call a life-support system cleverly disguised as a pet. Our pets keep us active, they keep us emotionally connected, and they're sometimes the only thing that lets us re-charge enough to really be there for our families after an exhausting day at work.

Exactly who is it that races across the front yard to greet me when I get home? I'd like to say it's my wife of 31 years, but it's the dogs. And I can rub their ears and bellies, and see them do their four-footed dance of joy, and it makes the tension of my day at the clinic, or my endless hours on planes and in airports, drain away.

Now, yes, we can "spoil" our pets by forgetting what makes them healthy and happy, by feeding them junk food or not getting them up off the sofa and out for a run.

But to value them? To honor the great contribution they've made to our happiness and that of our families? To be aware of, and grateful for, the incredible gift of stress management and emotional decompression they so effortlessly give us?

That's not spoiling. That's just paying it back.