If you’ve ever texted a friend a fake-sounding excuse when the real reason was that your dog looked so comfortable on your lap you couldn’t bear to move, there’s data now, and it says you have plenty of company.
A survey of 2,000 cat and dog owners, conducted by Talker Research for the pet-food brand Nutrish over a week in late August 2024, found that 48 percent of pet parents have canceled plans with friends or family specifically to stay home with their pet. And it wasn’t a one-time lapse: on average, respondents said they’d chosen pet time over human plans about five times over the course of their pet’s life.
It’s not just weekend plans
Bailing on brunch is one thing. The survey found the priority runs deeper than that. Thirty percent of respondents admitted they’d called out of work to spend more time with their dog or cat, roughly four times, on average, since bringing the pet home.
Before you file that under “people behaving badly,” look at the number underneath it. Ninety-seven percent of respondents said they consider their pet a member of the family, and 99 percent said it’s important to show that pet love and appreciation every single day. Once a pet has crossed from “animal I own” into “family I’m responsible for,” canceling on a friend to be home with them stops looking like flakiness and starts looking like the same instinct that keeps people home with any family member they’d rather not leave.
“When someone cancels plans to stay home with their dog, we tend to read it as avoidance, but usually it’s the opposite,” says Dr. Nina Kohl. “They’re choosing the relationship that reliably makes them feel calm and needed. Pets deliver that with almost no friction, and people are quietly organizing real parts of their lives around it.”
Why pets win the toss-up
The survey doesn’t have to work hard to explain the appeal, and neither do most owners. Pets don’t judge you for staying in. They don’t talk over your show. You don’t need to arrange transportation or split a check to spend time with them; they’re already home, thrilled you are too. For a stretch of the day that might otherwise cost money, effort, and social energy, a pet offers uncomplicated company. Weighed against a plan you were only half looking forward to, the couch and the dog can be a genuinely rational choice.
There’s a gentler reading here too. A lot of adult friendships run on obligation as much as joy, and a night that was going to be more draining than restorative is a night a tired person is allowed to skip. The pet isn’t really the reason so much as the permission.
The honest caveat
None of this is a prescription to become a hermit with a cat. Consistently dodging every human plan in favor of the pet can be a signal worth noticing in yourself, and pets thrive when their people are steady and fulfilled, not isolated. But an occasional canceled coffee so you can lie on the floor with a purring, contented animal? The survey suggests that’s less a personal quirk than a nearly universal one.
What’s new since this was surveyed
The finding fits a run of similar research pointing the same direction. In follow-up surveys through 2024 and into 2025, Talker Research reported that most pet owners would sooner cut their own spending than sacrifice their pet’s needs, and that a majority planned some kind of pet “health reset” heading into the new year, more evidence that pets aren’t a discretionary line item in most households, but a fixed one. The through-line across all of it is consistent: for a large share of owners, the pet isn’t competing with family for time and money. As far as they’re concerned, the pet already is family.
References
- “Almost Half of Pet Parents Have Canceled Plans Just to Stay Home With Their Pet.” Talker Research, 2024. https://talkerresearch.com/almost-half-of-pet-parents-have-canceled-plans-just-to-stay-home-with-their-pet/
- “Most Pet Owners Would Cut Personal Spending Before Sacrificing Pets’ Needs.” Talker Research, 2024. https://talkerresearch.com/most-pet-owners-would-cut-personal-spending-before-sacrificing-pets-needs/
