Know the animal before you bring one home
Most writing about pets is written to sell you one. This isn't. Every page here tells you what the animal is like to live with over ten or fifteen years — including the parts that will make you decide against it.
Cats
Forty-odd recognised breeds, one species, and an enormous amount of variation in what living with one is actually like.
Dogs
The widest range of size, drive and need of any domestic animal — and the one where getting the choice wrong hurts most.
Small Pets
Sold as starter pets, priced as impulse buys, and almost universally under-housed.
Birds
Long-lived, intelligent, loud, and the group most often bought without any idea of the timescale.
- It will tell you when an animal is wrong for you. Every profile has a "Wrong for you if" section and it is not padding.
- It will not tell you what the law is where you live. Keeping rules vary by state and country and change; that part is yours to check.
- It will not cover exotics. No primates, no big cats, no native wildlife — not on this site, not later.
Availability, registration and keeping requirements differ from place to place. Check the rules where you live before you commit to any animal — we describe animals, not law.