“‘Pethood’ is a specific lens, one that reveals more about us than it does about the inner lives of the animals we have domesticated.”
dogs
Lucky’s Last Run
“One dog and two complete strangers set out to run across America.”
How America Saved Millions of Dogs—By Moving Them
“It is a good time to be an American dog. In the 1970s, as many as 20 million dogs and cats were euthanized each year. That number has declined precipitously. The ASPCA now estimates 390,000 dogs and 530,000 cats are euthanized each year, down from 2.6 million as recently as 2011.”
A Dog’s Inner Life: What a Robot Pet Taught Me About Consciousness
“‘Clearly this is not a biological dog,’ my husband said. He asked whether I had realised that the red light beneath its nose was not just a vision system but a camera, or if I’d considered where its footage was being sent. While I was away, he told me, the dog had roamed around the […]
The Cats and Dogs Who Eat Cats and Dogs
“Pets, like humans, don’t expect the call of the wild to arrive in their faces.”
Life and Death with a No-Good, Grumpy Dog
“The other thing people say when a pet dies is, ‘She had a good life.’ But did she?” Shay Castle pens a moving obituary for her dog, Sydney.
A Woman’s Work: Becoming a Home of One’s Own
Carolita Johnson considers what it takes to recover from grief, build strength for the future, and become one’s own center of gravity again.
I Will Outlive My Cat: A Reading List on Pet Death
Alison Fishburn shares seven longreads on how humans experience the death of their pets.
How to Predict the Unpredictable
After the death of her dog, Katie Gutierrez grapples with the ripple effects of her decisions — and how to live with uncertainty as a mother.