Sharing Your Bed With Fido

Boy we like our pets!. 41% of our precious pooches now share our beds according to the National Pet Owners Survey. The figure is up from just about a third of all canines who cozy up for an overnight snooze with their owners revealed during a 1998 survey. Cat owners are just as nuts for cozying up with their feline friends. 51% said their kitties snooze anywhere they fancy, which is usually snuggled up in bed with their people. Other fascinating facts about our animal amigos revealed:

A whopping 63% of all American households have at least one pet. But contrast, only about one-third of homes have a child under the age of 18, according to the Census Bureau.

We spent a staggering $34 billion last year on pet products and services, according to the Census Bureau's reckoning of retail sales. That's more than we spend on hardware and even on jewelry.

90 million cats have places in our hearts and homes. That figure represents a 17% increase from the 1998 survey.

74 million pooches share our home and hearth, representing an 18% increase from seven years ago.

We're very democratic in our love of different species. 41% of homes with a dog also count a cat as part of the family, blowing the myth that the four-footers fight like, well, cats and dogs.