Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and if you’re a guy you’re just hoping for a day where you don’t disappoint your honey and wind up in the dog house.  On the flip side, ladies get to sit in judgement all day of whether or not their guys deserve to sleep with the dogs.  What fun!

So it really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that a fifth of adults polled say they’d rather spend the day with their pet than with their partner.

Presumably that’s because pets have the whole unconditional love thing down to a science.  It’s the ultimate no-effort relationship.  As long as you remember to feed them, they’ll be there for you.  (And should you have trouble with that, have you considered a Dog-e-Minder?)

Fortunately for me, Kim has no pets.  In some ways, perhaps I am the pet.  She feeds me well, and isn’t above giving me a scruff or a scratch under my chin.  In turn, I get furrier by the year and more and more of my day is consumed by eating, napping, and other essential bodily functions.  It’s a nice gig.

As the Toby Keith song says:

They say that an old dog, can’t learn a new trick
Well she taught me to stay the first day and I learned real quick
There’s a doghouse, a fence and a gate latch
I keep my tail waggin’ and I don’t mind beggin for a good scratch

I used to howl at the moon, yeah I’ve been known to roam
Then I met this girl one day that brought this old stray home
I ain’t the same, she knows how to pull my chain

Woof!