EBSCO is an information company that supplies databases to libraries.  This past May they conducted an informal survey of information professionals who follow several of their Facebook pages to see which pets are most popular in their households.  Most of the respondents reside in the United States and Canada, but they had answers from as far away as Australia and China.  The results were interesting.

           

Nearly 90 percent of librarians who took their survey had at least one pet mostly cats or dogs.  Cats outnumbered dogs by only one percent, but academic librarians preferred cats and school librarians dogs.  Public librarians split right down the middle 50/50.

           

There were also a wide variety of other pets including horses, rabbits, chickens, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians, snakes, iguanas, bearded dragons, turtles and frogs.  Only one librarian reported owning a ferret and none owned a pet pig.  The most unique pets were a hedgehog, hermit crab, axolotl, and a tarantula. 

           

In 2017, some 68% of all households in the United States owned pets up from 56% in 1988.  More than 50% of people worldwide have at least one pet mostly dogs.

           

They received numerous personal stories about the librarians’ pets, several they named after characters from Harry Potter and other book series.  There was even a mischievous dog named “Loki” who allowed children to cover half his body in purple paint as well as a hound who ate a bag of potting soil.  One even reported that her cat, “Mister Wednesday,” alerted her family that their apartment building was on fire.

           

The library has a new book that fits just perfectly for dog lovers.  Everyone here has been “awing” over it.  “Puppy Styled” consists of before and after pictures of dogs getting haircuts, more like style makeovers.  The results are sweet and hilarious.  Some dogs just look so happy and others look highly offended.  “Puppy Styled” demonstrates the Japanese art of dog grooming and although a few tend towards the haircuts you see at elite dog shows most are just creative.

           

This is a fun book as is another new book designed for the youngest readers, “The 12 Pets of Christmas” which is a sweet sing-along based on the classic carol,  but featuring adorable animals.  So, animal lovers can find tons of books about pets as well as tons more featuring pets as characters in picture books, chapter books and mysteries.