The United States and other countries celebrate today, April 11, as National Pet Day. And while I don’t have any pets – if I chose one it would be a close tie between a dog and a cow!

A dog would be the smarter (and only) choice since I’m not set up for a cow pet, but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to celebrate today with one.
This photograph is one I took at a county fair, and previously used in a blog post of The Daily Artisan – talking about photographing all sizes of creatures – entitled “From Cow To Ant.”

That post included some of my animal photographs (including giraffe, camel, and others) in full and close-up sizes.
No matter how many times I look at this photograph of the cow (and remembering the day I took it), I can’t get over the impossibly long, beautiful cow-eyelashes!
Survey results of people across the country revealed the following ranking of the most popular pets:
- #1: Dog (45%)
- #2: Cat (30%)
- #3: Fish (9%)
- #4: Bird (e.g. parakeet, cockatiel, parrot, etc.) (5%)
- #5: Hamster/gerbil/mouse (2%)
- #6: Horse (2%)
- #7: Snake (2%)
- #8: Guinea pig (1%)
- #9: Lizard (e.g. iguana, chameleon, gecko, etc.) (1%)
- #10: Tarantula (1%)
Hey, now, where’s the cow?!
Happy National Pet Day to all you pet lovers who make such wonderful homes for your animals and love them as part of your family! (And a special shout-out today goes to great dogs Molly in Georgia, and Reilly in Florida!)
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