Hoping Canines Will Lap It Up

By that she means the demographic of K9 Water Co., the Valencia firm she started two years ago to sell flavored and enriched bottled water for dogs.

While Goldberg won't divulge her revenue or profit beyond claiming that "we're holding our own," she says K9 water is currently available in all 50 states and several foreign countries. She says sales are growing at a pace that she hopes will allow her eventually to give up her day job as an accountant to work full time selling pet supplies.

Goldberg is tapping into what is unarguably a vigorously expanding consumer market. The devotion of Americans to their pets is a byword. There are 65 million owned dogs in the United States and 78 million owned cats, according to the Humane Society of the United States (which is apparently agnostic on the question of whether anybody ever really "owns" a cat).

It's probably fair to say that at least half of all American households have at least one cat or dog, or both. A few years ago, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that veterinary services would be among the fastest-growing industries of the decade, expanding at three times the pace of the general economy. One reason, it said, was that a larger percentage of dogs and cats belonged to aging baby boomers willing to spend lavishly on their pets' health.

Pet-owning families tend to anthropomorphize their animals, which creates great marketing opportunities. A couple of years ago, Hasbro and Petsmart teamed up to create Paws'n More, a line of pet toys (Puppy's First Key Teether, etc.) directed at what a company executive reportedly identified as "people who think of and treat their pets like children."

A 2000 survey published by Ralston Purina Co. determined that 43% of all dog owners celebrated their pets' birthdays, a statistic that evokes troubling images of glum Labradors stuck wearing silly party hats. (I can honestly say that in my house, we have never celebrated our dog's birthday. On the other hand, she does celebrate all our birthdays and is known for the invariably high standards of taste and wit in her choice of birthday cards.)