Pets are the family we can afford—both financially and emotionally—amid our collective crises of inequality and intimacy. How did we get here?

Against all this insecure, anxiety-ridden backdrop, pets provide the warmth of the familial in a world of work that devalues us. 

Pets offer companionship without complication and, unlike a significant other, allow us to keep our options open—not only romantic options but where and how we live, what we do, and even who we are as we grope for stable adulthood. 

In loving our pets, we simulate and satisfy a deep yearning to belong with others as mother, father, or friend. 

Please don’t misunderstand: A society that cares about animals is a better society. My pet has soothed the wounds of inequality, and as I like to remind him, I literally saved his life by rescuing him by adopting him, or him adopting me.

The problem isn’t that we love our pets too much, but that we love each other too little.