Do You Consider Your Pets To Be Part Of The Family?-[POLL]

In a recent Harris Poll nine out of ten pet owners in the U.S. say they consider their pets to be part of the family and 67% of those polled said they occasionally share a bed at night with their pet.Thirty-three percent say they rarely or never sleep with a pet. My house would be in the 67% or better, 'cause our dog sleeps in the bed every night. I thought after we got our daughter to sleep in her own bed, I was done sharing. Not so, Cocoa has been sleeping with us for probably seven years now.

My wife treats him like he's a kid, buying sweaters, jackets and doggie shoes for the wintertime when he goes outside to handle his business. Never thought I would be in this situation, but it's been so long now I've  grown used to it.

Other findings in the poll:

• 60 percent of Americans have a pet. Among these pet owners, two-thirds have a dog while just over half have a cat.  About one in ten have a fish, and less than one in ten pet owners have a bird or some other type of pet.
• 61 percent of dog owners have just one pooch, while 28 percent have two dogs and 11 percent have three or more dogs in the house.
• 46 percent of cat owners have just one cat while one-third have two felines.  Twenty-two percent have three or more cats. Four percent of the surveyed cat owners admit to having six or more in their home.
• 31 percent frequently purchase holiday presents for their pet, while another three in ten occasionally do so.
• 18 percent frequently buy their pets birthday presents and 22 percent do so occasionally.
• 19 percent admit to frequently or occasionally dressing up their pet in some type of clothing. Eighty-percent say they rarely or never do.
• Ten percent of pet owners have taken their pets with them to work, while 82 percent say they have never done so.