[ken21]

that's funny about the cat!

the cats and dogs are the "children" in many families.

btw, that's how we got in this mess:

in the 1960s the boomer generation opted for feminism, abortions, and birth control. the birth rate dropped to 1.7 where 2.1 is replacement in the late 1970s. also, as the country got richer, many people stopped having their kids work in high school and college. mowing lawns, cleaning motels, flipping burgers became immigrant work.

then, in the 1980s the race across the border intensified.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

the cats and dogs are the "children" in many families.

I recall a study done by a European sociologist on the birth dearth in Europe. He found that as the birthrate went down, the number of cats and dogs went up. He concluded that people got the emotional companionship with less responsibility and less cost.