Our pets are full-fledged members of the family. For many of
us, they’re as close to children as we ever plan to have. We watch them do all
manner of stupidly cute things, occasionally dress them up in demeaning holiday
costumes, and share our entire lives with them. We know going in that, odds
are, we’re going to outlive any domesticated animal we bring into our home, but
we push this to the periphery and ignore it like we ignore death as whole.
