Pet Parents

I wouldn’t say that I am a pet person. The only pets that I’ve ever had are fish … and they never lasted long. But I do know that there are “cat people”, “dog people” and apparently “ferret people” – although I can’t imagine why people would want ferrets. I was watching television yesterday when I saw an advertisement for Petsmart. It was showing what “pet parents” are like – and how it’s OK to be a good pet parent. First, if you are a bad pet parent then you are just a bad person. Second – if someone needs to be reassured that it is ok to love their pets, then they need to watch a Dr Phil episode on self confidence. In this advertisement, a lady was showing off a photo of her dog on her cellphone to all of her friends. Of course her friends were not pet parents so they didn’t appreciate how well the dog could catch a ball, or what a great friend he is to this lady. The only person that could understand this pet parent was a Petsmart employee. Now this all sounds well and good – but here’s the scandal. The Petsmart employee was not an authentic employee at all – he was Oscar from NBC’s The Office! So clearly no one understands pet parents so they have to hire actors to fake it.