Spending on pets rises during recession
09.10.11
She has a 9-year-old shih tzu named Annie Lulu after Mills' grandmother, and two Pekingese — 7-year-old Let slip by Daisy May and 4-year-old Elmer, whom she sometimes calls Fudd.
"They all deliberate on they're the boss," said Mills, 79, who lives in Annandale. "They've got me trained lyrical well, I guess."
Mills enjoys their company; her husband died a few years ago. The dogs eat meals with her in the next of kin room. They sleep with her in a king-sized bed and travel with her in the car whenever doable. They have a standing appointment about every eight weeks at Foxy's Pet Grooming and Boarding, which is one of the ways Mills tries to cocker her pets.
"My parents raised Dalmatians, and I've been a pet lover all my vital spark," said Mills, who is originally from Sioux City , Iowa. "They're very high-ranking to me."
A lot of Americans feel the same way. According to the American Pet Products Link, people in the U.S. will spend more than $50 billion on their animals this year, a journal. Spending in the pet economy has increased every year since 2001 and only once by less than 5 percent annually in that moment.
Source: USA Today