In the United States it is National Pet Day, an unofficial holiday created in 2006 to “celebrate the joy pets can bring to us,” and an unofficial reason for us to talk about philosophers and their pets and philosophy regarding pets, and—why not?—to share photos of our pets.

We ran a similar post a while ago, but it was just about dogs. The discussion unearthed some gems, like a translation of Leibniz’s satirical “Request of the Dogs” (from Justin E.H. Smith) and the following book cover (courtesy of Travis Timmerman):

But National Pet Day isn’t limited to just dogs. Cats can be pets, too, or so I’m told. And let’s not ignore the snakes, gerbils, ferrets, parrots, turtles, rabbits, iguanas, and even wolves (etc.) that some people have as pets.

So tell us about references to pets in philosophical works, to philosophical work about pets, examples and thought experiments featuring pets, and so on. And sure, share a photo of your pet (to do so, click the image icon in the bottom right corner of the comment box). Here’s mine:

Cosmo

One aspect of National Pet Day is to encourage pet adoption. You can find a local organization from which to adopt a pet here.

Happy National Pet Day, philosofriends!