A young girl asks her mother if she can have a pet.

The decision to include pets as a part of your family can be fraught with uncertainty. How do you know when the time is right? How do you select the right pet? Choose a proper diet? Avoid common injuries? Provide adequate exercise? Avoid allergies? Share caretaking responsibilities? Not share germs or parasites? Whether you are ready to take the plunge or just beginning to explore the possibility, Can We Have One? is an essential, convenient resource for parents considering pet ownership--or pet owners considering parenthood. Veterinarian Lynn F. Buzhardt and social worker Sue D. Steib combine their expertise and experience with emerging scientific evidence to offer practical and easily implemented recommendations for critical issues related to raising children and pets together. With engaging warmth and humor, they explore bringing a new baby into a pet-owning couple's household, selecting the right companion animal for your family, managing child-pet interaction, coping with the loss of a pet, and more. The authors focus on dogs and cats, the most common pets in American households and the ones with whom children and adults are most likely to form the strongest attachments. Pets require a lot of their caretakers, but they give much more in return. Can We Have One? explains all the adjustments to anticipate and the pitfalls to avoid, helping you provide a happy home for your pet while allowing your children to get the most out of the pet-child relationship.

This major work summarizes the recent research and findings on the interactions of pets and their owners and the social and emotional benefits that may be derived by families who have pets. Social and health scientists explore the pervasiveness of the animal/human bond and the high prevalence of pets in U.S. households, including pets and children, pets and the elderly, pets as factors of stability and instability in family relationships, and pets as therapy for ill, grieving, and disabled family members. With this carefully researched book, researchers and family health professionals can better understand the complexities of family/animal interaction and can pursue further study into this increasingly important subject in contemporary society.

You Have a Pet What?! introduces young learners to unusual pets and uses a fun, factual approach to mastering early reading skills. In this title, readers will discover the duties of owning a pet skunk, bearded dragon, hedgehog, pygmy goat, mini pig, and ferret. With bold keywords and reading extension activities, this title allows students to refer to details in the text and provide a summary. Featuring 192 pages of full-color photographs, easy-to-follow diagrams, and text-based questions, this title encourages readers while helping them build reading comprehension skills

Fun book for children that explores options of different kinds of pets one can get.