And also the cats. NBC News tells us that Americans will spend at least $60 billion on our pets this year. Why is that? Well, we have a lot of pets: about 70 million of have total of 82 million pets. But there’s more to the fact that pet spending has gone up 25% in the past few years: we have gone a little goofy with our pets

The pet industry is changing. I almost call it a revolution…. We treat them with the same kind of respect and style of life that we treat each other…The two main areas we’re seeing is you’re adding to the pets’ safety or you’re adding to their enrichment.”  NBC News

Safety can mean facial recognition scanning for your dog. Enrichment can mean having video chats with your dog while you’re at work. People have always said, “My JoJo thinks he’s PEOPLE!” Today, JoJo’s gotta be REALLY confused!

Well, it’s your money, I guess. So where does that money go? Let’s take a look!

• $1580: first year expense of owning a dog
• $1300: cat version of the above
• $700: spending each year after that, dog or cat
• $230: annual healthcare for dogs
• $160: annual healthcare for cats
• $200 rough estimate for pet health insurance

The first time I saw an ad for pet health insurance, I thought they were kidding. But, as soon as people decided that their pets were so much like family that they would spend $4000 on radiation treatments for the dog, SOMEBODY was going to invent insurance!

To each his own. Don’t mean to sound cynical, but I watched my cat get killed in the street and, well, I got cynical.

How about you? Is your pet “family”? How much do you spend on pet expenses? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page.