Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Musser)

When Sophie turned one year old, all the puppies from her litter gathered to celebrate.

“They wore paper hats and I took pictures,” said owner Janet Moscow. Seven years later, Moscow, who also has another dog,Tessye, still celebrates her dogs’ birthdays.

“We talk about the fact that it’s their birthday all day long, and that it’s a special day,” Moscow said. “We have a birthday cake with candles, but they don’t blow them out, I do."

Sophie and Tessye are two of the more than 23 million pets in the United States whose owners celebrate their birthdays, according to the American Pet Association. Many animals receive a special treat or a new toy as reward on their birthdays, but some pets receive special parties with other pets as guests, eat ice cream or have “Happy Birthday” sung to them, according to the American Pet Association.

“A lot of people will set aside a few hours and get party hats and cake and have little goodie bags that the dogs can take home at the end of the party,” said Zee O’Neal of Loyal Companion Obedience School in Overland Park.

Specialty businesses like the Three Dog Bakery in Kansas City, have found a niche catering to these celebrations. The Three Dog Bakery sells a variety of special occasion cakes, which are available in three different flavors: peanut butter, carob chip and carrot cake. Heidi Stubblefield, site manager at the bakery said the cakes are made primarily with wheat and water, and the frosting contains applesauce, honey, yogurt and flavor powder.

“Everything we make here is human quality but formulated for a dog’s physiological make-up,” said Stubblefield.

In 2005, the store sold 1,172 cakes. Usually people reserve the cakes ahead of time, but Stubblefield says they try to have some available at the bakery for impulse shoppers.

Other businesses also cater to pet birthdays. Home Sweet Home Dog Resort in Lawrence offers free day care for dogs on their birthdays.

An employee said some upper-class dog boutiques have a special party room that owners can rent out for birthday celebrations. Big stores like Target, which offers a line of products and accessories for pet parties, are also starting to see a market for pet birthdays.

But pet celebrations extend beyond birthday parties. How about a dog wedding? Karen Graeber, who breeds white bichon dogs, had a wedding ceremony last year when she bred her top show dog to an imported dog from Finland. The dogs wore a veil and tux and posed for pictures. Pets owners hold funerals for their dogs, too.

Darcy Morey, KU professor of anthropology, has studied and written about dog burials. Morey found approximately 500 pet cemeteries in the United States that operate today, with at least one in every state. There is a developing social relationship between dogs and people, he wrote in his article “Burying Key Evidence: The Social Bond Between Dogs and People.

“We have bonded with the animals, and as a result of that relationship, we often treat dogs in death just as we treat people in death,” Morey said.

Morey suggested that dogs are part of the family. Bonnie Beaver agrees.

“People celebrate birthdays and holidays and since the pet is a part of the family, living indoors and often sleeping on the bed, it follows that they (the owners) would celebrate the same things with the animal,” said Beaver, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Linda Love, receptionist at the Clinton Parkway Animal Hospital said she sees a lot of clients who celebrate their pet’s birthday. She said that one reason why people devote extra attention on their pets is that many pet owners are single.

“Lots of people with pets don’t have children or their children are grown and gone so their pets are their first focus,” Love said.

Indeed, the Oregon Humane Society reported that 65 percent of pet owners do not have children. Dr. Mark Marks, a veterinarian at the Wakarusa Veterinary Hospital, said that owners who do have children are having them later. In the meantime, they have pets as a form of child substitute.

A study done by the American Pet Association in 2003, found more than eight million American dog owners who said they are as attached to their dog as they are to their children, and more than five million owners who said they were as attached to their dog as to their spouse. More than 16 million owners identified their dog as a best friend figure. These statistics suggest that owners feel a special bond with their pets.

Marks said this connection is a form of anthropomorphism, which means the attachment of human thoughts and perspectives to something that is not human. Marks said owners associate human characteristics and behavior with their pets.

Vilmos Csanyi, ethologist and pet psychologist, discussed canine intelligence in his book If Dogs Could Talk.

“Dogs have developed remarkable interspecies-communication skills,” Csanyi wrote. “They easily accept a membership in the family and can predict social events.”

Moscow said her dogs Sophie and Tessye are very humanlike. Graeber, who bred Moscow’s dogs, hosts a reunion barbeque every year for all the dogs she has bred and their owners. She said the dogs realize when they get there that they are at their first home.

In two weeks, Sophie will celebrate her birthday again, only this time she won’t be among the 659,545 dogs who have a party with other dogs. She won’t wear a party hat for the special occasion either. Moscow said mainly immediate family will come to the party now that Sophie is getting older (she is turning 8). However, Sophie will still have a high-class celebration, complete with cake and presents, and an owner who loves her.