According to PET South America, an international trade show for pet suppliers, Brazil is now the world's fifth-largest market for pet accessories, worth about 9 billion dollars in 2011.

CNN: Brazil love motel for pets opens doors

Latest figures show 393 pet owners were fined last year in Wales - up from just 141 in 2002.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | Bigger fines for dog mess

Her research team at Henry Ford Hospital was the first to show that having a pet in the house during your child's first year of life may protect him or her from developing allergies -- a finding that's since been duplicated in other studies.

CNN: Where do allergies come from?

People with a rare genetic form of Alzheimer's, whose specific genetic mutations guarantee that they will develop the disease, tended to show signs of amyloid plaques in PET scans and cerebrospinal fluid 10 to 20 years before the onset of symptoms.

CNN: Alzheimer's: Early detection, risk factors are crucial

Back at her house in Dublin, Ohio, Fifi acts more like a pet than a prize winner with 70 best-in-show ribbons.

WSJ: Best in show: Westminster set to pick the top dog

The show included an opening performance by Be Your Own Pet.

NPR: Sonic Youth's B-Sides Are Worthwhile and Strong

Unless you show them the same Twitter-frequent love they have for their pet brand, your weak ties will not bind them.

FORBES: Why We're All Groupies

Accounts of the deadly attacks last fall in Mumbai, India, the May 2008 earthquake in China and last week's plane crash show what used to be just a virtual gathering place to communicate pet peeves or plans for the weekend has evolved into a go-to spot for eyewitness news -- sometimes even before mainstream media has had time to crack the story.

CNN: Social-networking sites share breaking news

The owners said that Little Mama was part of the Ice Capades, a traveling variety show that performed on ice across the United States, before she was acquired by the pet dealer, Wolf said.

CNN: Meet one of the oldest chimpanzees in captivity