Pet Lovers Send Greeting Cards

It could be said that consumerism has gone too far when you start mailing out birthday cards to your sister-in-law’s dog or a message of sympathy to a friend who has just lost a pet, but it’s more lasting and thoughtful than a quick eCard that’s looked at once and deleted. It’s the thought that counts, and if there’s a Christmas card on the tree addressed to the family dog it’s really for the kids and the people who like to include everybody in the good time. Greeting cards are fun for the sender, even though the pet can’t appreciate the artwork and clever messages that the humans enjoy on their behalf.

It makes quite an impression that someone went out of their way to pay homage to your pet by shopping for a novelty item like a congratulatory card for acquiring a new puppy or other family companion from the pet store. Spending a lot of time with animals has been proven to improve a person’s health and longevity; there’s something about caring for another that makes people feel happy and fulfilled. Domestic animals are helpless loving creatures with a childlike innocence and so they provide a relief from the complex and often confusing day-to-day world of human existence.

Playful pets like dogs and cats are the most popular since it’s hard to interact with fish, birds, or hamsters with their short attention spans. Retail stores charge upwards of two thousand dollars for a quality family dog and people are eager and willing to pay once a connection is made at the store. The new owners will license it, feed it, take it for walks clean up after it, and bring it in for medical care. The pet becomes an investment in time, labor, money, and emotion. The pet truly is a family member and once adopted and cared for, the cat or dog is showered with love and attention. It’s been said that some people treat their pets better than humans. Every once a while a newspaper story will tell of an eccentric rich person leaving everything to the cat, which leaves relatives contesting the will and questioning the sanity of the deceased.

The pet sympathy card makes a lot of sense; very often your friend or relative and the children involved will be extremely distraught over the loss of a beloved pet. That’s when the card really is for the human owner’s solace and the message shows that you care and the condolences are truly genuine. People mourn for weeks and having that card nearby assures them that others care about the loss.

Reinforcing friendships and family ties is the role of the greeting card. If you haven’t seen someone in a while and you get a card celebrating the adoption of a new pet, it shows that the word has gotten around about the event. This makes the individual feel like others are thinking about him or her, and there’s a reason to phone and thank them for being so thoughtful.

Even people who are sociable and popular can feel loneliness and isolation in their private moments; this is where a pet can be such a great comfort. The cat doesn’t have to sort through complicated emotions and the effects of the cruel outside world. A warm lap is all they ask and the calm purring relaxes the owner and makes the surroundings much more pleasant.

A digital eCard defeats the purpose of the message. It’s well-known that they can be obtained online for free, so the time and money gesture is missing and the card appears to be more of an afterthought than a genuine emotional effort. The physical card arrives in the mail; it has an envelope and stamp showing that it was important enough to be hand-delivered to your home. It comes as a surprise as you open it and it can be the highlight of the day as you run to the phone to thank the giver.

Like all novelty items, you can order pet greeting cards from websites at low cost compared to cards found in retail stores. Christmas is a time when it’s difficult to come up with new gift ideas, so it’s a good idea to stock up on pet cards for all the pet owners on your gift list. Mixed box sets are available so that you can have cards for all occasions for the pet lovers in your life. After all, the gift is in the giving.

Graphic artist Raj Bharadia specializes in drawing expressive pet cartoons and messages for all types of pet greeting cards, which are the staple of his business Three Way Designs, a web site that offers the cards to online shoppers.