Remember back when we were kids and people got pets for free? Johnny from down the street had a cat which somebody gave him which in turn had kittens of it’s own and were given away to everyone within a five block radius. Puppies weren’t just a commodity back when I was growing. They weren’t sold on Ebay or used to finance new homes. Pets were given away at no cost to ‘someone with a good home’ not negotiated over based on the purity of their breed. Well those times are gone and with all the change that has taken place over the past 20 years comes a new way of picking out just the right pet. A pet that is a perfect fit for your lifestyle, personality, and design choice. Used in over 45 shelters new pets owners are now being given a personality test (dubbed Feline-ality for cats and Canine-ality for dogs) in hopes of matching them up with the pet that best matches their sensibilities.

The test consists of two parts one given to the animal and one for the perspective owner. Animals are given points based on such things items as amount of interaction with toys, the number of times they blink in a minute, and how fast they survey a room. The points are added up and each animal is given a score which relates to a similar one given to their human counterparts which themselves must answer questions regarding their preference for the game “chase my ankles”, how active their lives are, and if they want something sitting in their lap 24 hrs a day or not. The purpose of the test is to not only make a purrr-fect match but to also decrease the number of pets returned to shelters or abandoned all together by owners who no longer want or can keep an animal.